Japan opens HPSC ESPORTS LAB: virtual rowing given an important role in the new sports laboratory
At the end of July 2026, Japan opened a new research center dedicated to esports, virtual sports and athlete well-being, with connected indoor rowing given a prominent place in its program. On July 31, the Japan Sport Council announced that HPSC ESPORTS LAB had officially launched as part of the Ajinomoto National Training Center East in Tokyo, within the Japan High Performance Sport Center. The aim of the new facility is not only to develop competitive esports, but also to apply sports medicine, sports science, analytics and advanced digital technologies to forms of competition in which physical activity is transferred into a digital environment. World Rowing is participating as an international research partner, while virtual and connected rowing is one of the disciplines through which the relationship between technology, performance, health and accessibility in sport will be studied. The project therefore connects two worlds that for a long time were viewed separately: traditional physical sport and digital competition.
The opening of the laboratory comes at a time when Japan is intensifying preparations for the 20th Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026, where esports will once again be a medal sport. According to the Japan Sport Council, Japanese national esports representatives are already using the laboratory as part of preparation camps, where programs in sports medicine, nutrition, mental health, sleep and physical conditioning are conducted alongside technical training. At the same time, physiological data is being collected and factors that may influence competitive performance are being analyzed. The Asian Games will take place from September 19 to October 4, 2026, and the Olympic Council of Asia previously confirmed 11 esports titles for the program. This immediately gives the new center in Tokyo a practical role in preparing athletes for one of the world's largest multisport competitions.
Three zones for esports, virtual sport and athlete well-being
HPSC ESPORTS LAB is organized into three separate but interconnected areas. The first is the esports zone, intended for research and professional support for traditional competitive esports disciplines. The second is the virtual sports zone, in which real body movements are transferred through sensors and connected devices into a digital environment, creating opportunities for disciplines such as virtual rowing and cycling. The third zone is dedicated to athlete well-being, specifically the relationship between physical, mental and social health and the ability to maintain a high level of performance. The Japan Sport Council emphasizes that the aim is to avoid viewing results narrowly through wins and losses and instead to investigate the conditions that enable long-term and sustainable performance.
The laboratory has installed eye-tracking systems, heart-rate monitors, electroencephalographic equipment for monitoring brain activity and thermographic devices. According to the official HPSC description, these tools will be used in research connecting sports medicine, performance science and data analysis. In practice, this means it will be possible to monitor, for example, how physiological indicators change during intense digital competition, how quickly an athlete reacts to visual stimuli, what changes accompany fatigue and recovery, and how different forms of strain affect concentration. Although some of the equipment is typical of elite sports laboratories, its application to esports and virtual sport is still a rapidly developing field. For precisely that reason, HPSC wants to create a database and body of knowledge that could be transformed into concrete athlete-support programs.
The Japan Sport Council has announced cooperation with universities, research centers and industry partners, giving the laboratory the role of a broader platform rather than merely a training space for the national team. The use of contactless technologies for monitoring vital signs and immersive systems based on augmented, virtual and mixed reality is also planned. The organization states that the research results will not be limited to esports, but should also be applied in traditional sports and in programs that encourage healthier and more active lifestyles. Such an approach fits into HPSC's concept of "From High Performance to Life Performance", under which knowledge developed for elite athletes is also intended to be transferred to the wider population.
Why rowing is especially important in the virtual sports zone
The role of rowing in the new laboratory is no coincidence. For years, World Rowing has been developing indoor and connected rowing, namely forms of rowing on ergometers connected to digital platforms that enable training, performance comparison and remote competition. The international rowing federation points out that, together with its long-standing partner Concept2, it supported connected rowing long before the term "virtual sport" became widespread in its current meaning. In this system, physical effort remains the central part of the activity: the competitor actually rows on an ergometer, while the result, pace, distance and position in the race are transferred into a digital environment. This makes the discipline a suitable example for studying the boundary between traditional sport and digital competition.
World Rowing now organizes and supports indoor and virtual rowing competitions, including world championships and online formats that allow competitors from different countries to participate without sharing the same physical competition venue. Federation president Jean-Christophe Rolland emphasized on the occasion of the laboratory's opening that rowing has embraced technological innovation for decades whenever it can broaden access to the sport and connect communities. From this perspective, HPSC ESPORTS LAB is not conceived as a replacement for rowing on water, but as a place where the effects of digitally connected formats on motivation, performance, inclusiveness and health can be scientifically examined. For World Rowing, the possibility of reaching people through virtual formats who do not have direct access to water, a boat or a rowing club is also important.
Cooperation between World Rowing and Japan began with a 2023 agreement
The current project builds on cooperation between the Japan Sport Council and World Rowing that began on November 14, 2023, when the two organizations signed a memorandum of understanding in Lausanne for international joint research into virtual sports and indoor rowing. According to the JSC announcement at the time, the cooperation framework covered expert exchanges, joint research, presentation of case studies at international conferences and the publication of professional or scientific papers. The agreement was also presented as part of the broader legacy of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with an emphasis on using Japanese sports infrastructure and international networks for new research projects. This gave virtual rowing a formal place in cooperation between an international sports federation and Japan's national sports institution.
One of the first visible results of that cooperation was the Virtual Sports Forum held in Tokyo in March 2024. World Rowing states that representatives of sports organizations, research institutions and the technology sector gathered at the forum to discuss virtual sports, esports and the development of new digital formats. The cooperation was subsequently expanded through new editions of the forum, and on March 17, 2026, Virtual Sports Forum Plus was held at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. According to World Rowing, representatives of more than 45 organizations and more than 140 participants took part, including representatives of international federations, the sports movement, and the research and technology sectors. The initiative that began with a bilateral agreement thus developed into a broader platform for discussion about the relationship between physical sport, gaming and digital technologies.
Solutions directly related to rowing were also presented at the forum in Lausanne. World Rowing reported that Fujitsu demonstrated its Human Movement Analytics system, which uses artificial intelligence to analyze the athlete and equipment in real time and provide feedback on the rowing stroke on an ergometer. Such an approach shows how research can be expanded from the final result to technique, biomechanics and performance patterns.
Virtual rowing already tested in front of a large audience in Tokyo
The cooperation has not remained limited to conferences and laboratory research. In January 2026, connected rowing was presented at Tokyo eSports Festa 2026 at the Tokyo Big Sight complex, in a program jointly supported by World Rowing, the Japan Sport Council, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japan Rowing Association. Visitors were able to try virtual rowing, while Japanese Olympic and Paralympic rowing representatives participated in demonstrations. World Rowing emphasized at the time that the program was conceived as part of an international research project and as a way of examining how the rowing experience can be transferred beyond traditional rowing locations.
Particularly interesting was the virtual format that digitally reproduced the Sea Forest Waterway, the regatta course used during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In this way, physical rowing on an ergometer was connected with a digital representation of a well-known sports venue. Such an approach demonstrates how virtual sport can simultaneously serve training, competition and the introduction of new users to the discipline. For researchers, it is also important that performance data can be collected in a standardized environment, compared across large numbers of participants and linked to additional measurements. HPSC ESPORTS LAB now gives this type of experimentation a permanent base within Japan's elite sports system.
The 2026 Asian Games accelerate the development of esports science
The immediate competitive context for the laboratory is provided by the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026. The Olympic Council of Asia confirmed 11 esports titles, including League of Legends, PUBG Mobile in the Asian Games version, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Pokémon Unite, Honor of Kings, Gran Turismo 7, eFootball, Naraka: Bladepoint, Identity V, Puyo Puyo Champions and a team fighting-games competition covering the Street Fighter, Tekken and King of Fighters series. Esports was a demonstration sport at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta and Palembang, and in Hangzhou in 2023 it had medal-sport status for the first time. In Japan, the program will be expanded further, increasing pressure on national federations and professional teams to develop approaches to scientific support comparable with those used in established sports.
According to the Japan Sport Council, preparation camps held so far at HPSC ESPORTS LAB already include education on nutrition, sleep, mental health and sports medicine, as well as measurements of body composition and brain activity. This shows that esports athletes are increasingly being viewed through more than just reaction speed or technical knowledge of a game. Prolonged sitting, stress, sleep quality, competition rhythm, recovery, concentration and overall health are becoming part of the same assessment system used in other sports to monitor athlete readiness. HPSC is also developing a manual for physical-conditioning and health support in esports, with the aim of bringing together guidelines from sports medicine, nutrition, mental health, sleep science and neuroscience.
This direction is also consistent with broader changes in Japanese sports policy. In explaining the establishment of the laboratory, the Japan Sport Council states that the fourth Basic Plan for Sport emphasizes the use of advanced digital technologies, including esports, in supporting athletes. During 2026, the Japan Sports Agency also highlighted digital technologies and esports among the areas becoming increasingly integrated into the sports system, alongside a broader emphasis on well-being, accessibility and the social role of sport. HPSC ESPORTS LAB is therefore not an isolated technology project, but part of an attempt to respond institutionally to changes in the way people train, compete and access sport.
The boundary between physical and digital sport is becoming increasingly blurred
The most important experiment in the new laboratory may not be linked to a single game or a single piece of equipment, but to the very definition of the sporting experience. In virtual rowing, cycling and similar disciplines, the result is produced by real physical work, while the competition itself can take place in a completely digital environment. In traditional esports, physical demands have a different profile, but there too the need for medical, psychological and physical-conditioning support is growing. HPSC is attempting to view these areas within the same research ecosystem, without assuming that one model must replace the other.
For rowing, this is particularly interesting because the discipline already has a developed bridge between traditional sport on water, ergometer training and online competition. The data collected in Tokyo could help improve understanding of how connected systems affect technique, workload, motivation and continuity of participation in sport. At the same time, it will be important to distinguish marketing promises from results that have scientific confirmation. For precisely this reason, the Japan Sport Council emphasizes an evidence-based approach and cooperation with research institutions, while World Rowing sees the new center as an opportunity to guide the development of virtual rowing toward scientifically validated, inclusive and sporting values.
If the laboratory fulfills its announced role, Tokyo could become one of the more important locations for systematic study of connected sports. For indoor rowing, this means more than another digital platform or ergometer competition: the discipline is entering an environment in which performance, health, technology and user experience can all be analyzed simultaneously. For Japan, opening the center several weeks before the Asian Games gives the project an immediate test in an elite competitive environment. For international sport, the broader challenge is to determine whether technology can truly reduce barriers to participation and open up new forms of physical activity while maintaining measurable standards of performance, safety and athlete well-being.
Sources:
- Japan Sport Council – official announcement on the opening of HPSC ESPORTS LAB, its zones, equipment, preparations for the Asian Games and research plans (link)
- World Rowing – overview of the role of virtual and connected rowing in the new laboratory and the international research partnership (link)
- Japan Sport Council – announcement on the memorandum with World Rowing from November 2023 and the start of joint research into virtual sport and indoor rowing (link)
- World Rowing – report from Virtual Sports Forum Plus 2026 in Lausanne and information on international cooperation and the demonstration of rowing-motion analytics (link)
- World Rowing – report from Tokyo eSports Festa 2026 and demonstrations of virtual rowing with a digital reproduction of the Sea Forest Waterway (link)
- Olympic Council of Asia – confirmed esports program and 11 medal titles for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 (link)
- Japan Sports Agency – context of digital technologies, esports and well-being in Japan's more recent sports framework (link)