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Home , 1972 Winter Olympics, Antwerp, Gold medal, Nagano (city), Olympic Games, Olympic Village

For more detailed information on Japanese government policy and other such matters, see the following home pages. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website http://www.mofa.go.jp/ Web http://web-japan.org/ JAPAN AND THE OLYMPICS ’s first Olympic host

Opening ceremony Introduction History of the 1964 Olympic Some 5,500 from Japan has been an enthusiastic participant Under the urging of Kano Jigoro, a 94 countries competed in in the since the Fifth , the Japanese Olympic Committee 20 at these games. © Kodansha , held in , in 1912. (JOC) was established in 1911. Two athletes Although Tokyo was eagerly promoted were sent to participate at the Fifth Olympiad as the site for the 1940 Games, they were in Stockholm the following year. The first canceled due to II. The hosting two Japanese to participate as members of of the 1964 Olympics (Tokyo) and a Japanese team were Mishima Yahiko, a the () were, sprinter, and Kanaguri Shiro, a long-distance respectively, the first summer and winter runner. games ever held in Asia. The 1998 Though the next games were to be held in Winter Olympics marked the third time that 1916, they were canceled due to . Japan has hosted the games. By the 1920 Games at , Japan fielded a team of 15, and earned its first awards: a pair of in singles and doubles

JAPAN AND THE OLYMPICS 1 . At the 1928 Games in , Japan took its first two medals, in , and . Athlete Hitomi Kinue became the first woman to join a Japanese Olympic contingent. She received a silver in the 800-meter running event, and her success encouraged more women to take up competitive sports. A contingent of 131 members represented Judo Japan at the 1932 Games in , The Tokyo Games and Beyond Judo became an official including 16 women. Japanese athletes earned Olympic event at the a total of 7 gold, 7 silver, and 4 medals In 1952, the postwar military occupation Tokyo Olympics. Shown here is the ceremony in track and field, swimming, equestrian of Japan came to an end, and Japan made at which Inokuma Isao events, and field . a bid to the IOC for Tokyo to host the was awarded the for the judo At the 1936 Games in , Japan Seventeenth Olympiad, to be held in 1960. over-93-kilogram weight fielded one of the largest teams in its history: The bid was won by , but Japan was division. © Kodansha 179 athletes, including 17 women. The not discouraged. In October 1955, the Tokyo events were broadcast live via a Nippon Metropo­litan Legislature approved a decision Hoso Kyokai (NHK; Japan Broadcasting to bid on hosting the Eighteenth Olympiad, to Corporation) radio linkup, and enthusiastic be held in 1964. fans tuned into their radio sets late into the A Japanese delegation visited , night (because of the time difference between , for the fifty-fifth meeting of the Japan and ) to listen to the athletes’ IOC. Japan had set its hopes on winning progress. At Berlin, swimmer Maehata the right to host the games and waged an Hideko became the first Japanese woman to aggressive campaign to wrest votes from take a gold medal in Olympic by rivals Detroit and Vienna. Finally on March winning the 200-meter breast stroke event. 26, 1960, the IOC delegates put the matter to a In February 1936, the International vote. Olympic Committee (IOC) designated Tokyo For Japan, the hosting of the Eighteenth and Sapporo as the venues for the Summer Olympiad in October 1964 was a historical and Winter Games, respectively, to be held landmark event that signified the end in 1940. However, the Tokyo Olympic Games of the postwar reconstruction period were canceled because of World War II; the and underscored Japan’s high economic Olympic Games to be held in 1944 growth. During the five years leading up were also suspended for the same reason, to 1964, preparations for the games literally Japanese team being realized at last in 1948. transformed the face of Tokyo. Roads in The Japanese team shown entering the stadium at Japan was not invited to participate in the the and suburbs were widened. A huge the opening ceremony of 1948 Games in London, but was readmitted to sprang up in Yoyogi, and the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. the International Olympic Committee in 1951, NHK built a new broadcast center nearby © Kodansha and sent a team of 72 athletes to the 1952 to cover the event. Total expenditures in Games in . A team of 100 men and 16 preparation for the event were said to be the women traveled to in 1956, and highest in Olympic history. won a total of 19 medals, including 4 . But perhaps the greatest showpiece In 1960, Japan organized a large team of project associated with the Olympics was the 147 men and 20 women to take part in the bullet train—billed as the world’s Rome Olympics. At the closing ceremonies, fastest—which began service between Tokyo athletes from the 84 participating countries and on October 1, nine days prior to were reminded that in four years’ time, they the start of the Games. would be meeting again in Tokyo. The Tokyo Games attracted over 5,500

JAPAN AND THE OLYMPICS 2 participants from 94 nations. Sixteen national contingents, mainly from developing countries, participated in the Olympics for the first time. The opening ceremony on October 10 recorded an 87.4% television viewer rating. As host nation, Japan sent the largest team it had ever organized: 296 men and 61 women. Urged on by rousing cheers from their compatriots, Japanese athletes took medals in , , , track and field, weightlifting, and shooting. Kitajima Kosuke One of the most emotional events of the with the exception of , in 1948. In 1956, In the 2004 games was in women’s , where the Igaya Chiharu took second place in the Olympic Games, swimmer Kitajima Kosuke won Japanese team won a hard-fought victory slalom event at Cortina d’Ampezzo, . It gold medals in both over the to take the gold medal. was the first medal taken by Japan in Winter the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events. Also at the Tokyo Games, a native Japanese Olympic history. © Yomiyuri Shimbun —judo—was included as an Olympic The city of Sapporo, in , won event (men only) for the first time. Japanese the bid to host the Eleventh Winter Olympic athletes took gold medals in all weight classes Games in February 1972. Those games except the unlimited division, which went to attracted 1,128 athletes from 35 countries. The the . Sapporo Games also marked the first time a The Tokyo Games saw the establishing Japanese earned a gold medal in the Winter of 47 new world records and 111 Olympic Olympics, as Kasaya Yukio took first place in records. The 16 gold, 5 silver, and 8 bronze the 70-meter ski jump event. medals earned by the Japanese team marked its best Olympic performance in history, The Nagano Games placing Japan third in the overall medal standings behind the and the The Nagano Games were held from Soviet Union. February 7 to 22, 1998. The venues, in addition to the prefectural capital of The Winter Olympics Nagano city, included famous resorts, such as Shiga Highlands, , Japan’s first Winter Olympic team took Karuizawa, and Nozawa . part in the Second Games, held at St. Moritz, Coinciding with the Winter Games, , in 1928. The first team to be Nagano also hosted the 107th meeting of the accompanied by a female member was IOC General Assembly. at the 1936 Winter Games in Garmisch- The Nagano Games were the last Winter Partenkirchen, Germany. Japan has since Games held in the . Seventy- participated in every one of the Winter Games two countries and participated, with 2,302 athletes contesting 68 events. The following new official events were included: slalom and half-pipe events, women’s (teams from , the

Tani Ryoko Judo champion Tani Ryoko won her second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the 48-kg class in Athens in 2004. © Yomiyuri Shimbun

JAPAN AND THE OLYMPICS 3 United States, , , , and In the Seventh Winter Japan participated), and . held in One of the stated aims of the Nagano Nagano from March 5 to 14, Games was “coexistence with the beauty immediately following the of nature and its beautiful resources.” Olympic Games, 34 events Consistent with this goal, new land were contested and 580 development was avoided where possible, athletes from 32 countries and various measures were utilized for the and districts participated. recycling of resources.

Arakawa Shizuka At the in Torino, Italy, Arakawa Shizuka won the gold medal in women's . © Yomiuri Shimbun

JAPAN AND THE OLYMPICS 4