Competition kicked off Wednesday at the Tokyo Paralympics, with 539 events in 22 para sports scheduled to be held through Sept. 5.
Swimmer Miyuki Yamada was the first Japanese athlete to compete and Japan's first medalist, winning silver in the women's 100-meter backstroke S2, a class for those with physical impairments, with a time of 2 minutes 26.18 seconds.
At 14, Yamada is the youngest athlete in the Japanese delegation for the Paralympics. Earlier, she had advanced to the final with the third-fastest preliminary time of 2:34.35.
In men's table tennis singles, Koyo Iwabuchi beat Ashley Facey Thompson of Britain 3-2 in the Class 9 qualifying round for physical impairments. Iwabuchi served as a flag bearer for Japan in the opening ceremony on Tuesday.
Keiko Sugiura finished fifth in the women's 3,000-meter individual pursuit Class 1-3 event for physical impairments, while Miho Fujii was 15th. Both failed to advance to the next stage.
The opening ceremony of the 16th Summer Paralympics was held Tuesday after the coronavirus pandemic had caused the first one-year postponement in Paralympic history.
The Emperor declared the opening of the international sporting event for athletes with disabilities during the ceremony held at the National Stadium in Tokyo.
A total of 4,403 athletes -- including 1,853 women -- representing 161 countries and regions or belonging to the Refugee Paralympic Team are participating, according to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The number of participants is the largest in the Games' history, and the number of participating nations and regions is the second largest.
Japan is hosting its second Summer Paralympics, having previously hosted in 1964. Tokyo is the first city to host the Summer Paralympics twice in the Games' history.
The parade of nations at the opening ceremony was led by the refugee team and concluded with 194 members of the Japanese team. In between, other teams appeared under their respective place names in Japanese phonetic order. New Zealand had withdrawn from the ceremony, citing the spread of infection as the reason.
Japan's captain, wheelchair tennis player Shingo Kunieda, was among those leading the Paralympic oath.
The number of participating countries and regions decreased by 21 from the initial plan. Afghanistan is not participating due to the fraught domestic situation in that nation and North Korea abstained from participating in the Tokyo Games. Nevertheless, the number of participating nations and regions is the second largest after the 2012 London Paralympics, in which 164 nations and regions participated.
Japan's team is the largest ever, with 254 athletes scheduled to compete in all events. It is the largest team among any participating country or region in the Paralympic Games.
Six athletes from four countries are registered to compete on the refugee team, which was formed following the Rio Paralympics. Russian athletes will compete as individually qualified athletes belonging to the Russian Paralympic Committee due to sanctions over Russia's systematic doping.
All 21 venues will be closed to spectators in principle as a measure to prevent the increased spread of the novel coronavirus. However, a field trip program for schoolchildren in which students visit Paralympic venues will be conducted if local governments or school operators wish to participate.
The athletes will be required to observe strict infection control measures, including taking daily PCR tests and avoiding contact with outsiders.
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