1998 Winter Olympics opening ceremony

The opening ceremony included 'Ode to Joy' being sung.[5]

At the opening ceremony, the Japanese conductor Ozawa Seiji directed the fourth movement of the Beethoven Symphony No. 9[6]. The musicians come from five continents.[7]

China National Symphony Orchestra Chorus

The flag bearers of 72 National Olympic Committees entered the stadium[8] informally in single file, ordered by the English alphabet, and behind them marched the athletes with any distinction or grouping by nationality.

2,302 athletes from 72 countries and regions participated in the competition[9], including 814 female athletes and 1488 male athletes. Both the number of participating delegations and the number of athletes participating in the competition are the most ever. For the first time, Uruguay, Azerbaijan and Macedonia are the biggest events in the history of the Winter Olympics.[10] “Amoral universalism”: mediating and staging global and local in the 1998 Nagano Olympic Winter Games[11]

NAOC President Eishiro Saito delivered a speech in Japanese, welcoming everyone[12]. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch delivered a speech in English and the Emperor of Japan Akihito declared the Games of the XVIII Winter Olympic in Nagano opened in Japanese.[13]

The Olympic Flag was carried around the stadium by eight former Japanese Olympians: Chiharu Igaya, Yukio Kasaya, Akitsugu Konno, Yoshihiro Kitazawa, Hatsue Nagakubo-Takamizawa, Yuko Otaka, Seiko Hashimoto, and Hiromi Yamamoto. During the raising of the Olympic flag, the Olympic Hymn was sung in Japanese by the Nagano Children's Choir.

The Japanese National Anthem, Kimigayo, was played by Gagaku.

The Olympic flame was on a 49-day relay across Japan. The start of the ceremony takes place in Olympia of Greece. At the opening ceremony, Mine activist Chris Moon ran into the stadium surrounded by local schoolchildren dressed in costumes bearing colours of the flags of the winter-games record 72 countries taking part in the Olympics. Moon passes and hand over the Olympic torch to and Masako Chiba, bronze medalist for the Women's 10,000 metres at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics in Athens, and ran into the stadium, next stop Takanori Kono, Masashi Abe, and Reiichi Mikata for the Nordic Combine team, next stop is Hiromi Suzuki winner of the Women's marathon at the 1997 World Championships in Athletics in Athens, she heads straight upstairs to passed the last torchbearer is Midori Ito, Olympic silver medalist of the Ladies' singles at the Figure skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, and champion of the 1989 World Figure Skating Championships, who will the light the cauldron.

Japanese men's Nordic combined skier Kenji Ogiwara took the oath on behalf of all 1998 Olympic athletes in Japanese, while the officials' oath was taken by figure skating referee Junko Hiramatsu in Japanese.

Ozawa Seiji conducts with the Soloists chorus and orchestra Beethoven Symphony No. 9 Fourth Symphony with location Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Sydney Opera House, Sydney UN General Assembly Hall, New York City Forbidden City, Beijing Cape Point, South Africa