# Japan at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Japan competed at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia and Stockholm, Sweden (equestrian events). 110 competitors, 94 men and 16 women, took part in 71 events in 13 sports.
Takashi Ono from gymnastics is the most successful athlete with 1 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze.

## Medalists

| Medal | Name | Sport | Event | Date |
| Gold | Mitsuo Ikeda | Wrestling | Men's freestyle welterweight | 1 December |
| Gold | Shozo Sasahara | Wrestling | Men's freestyle featherweight | 1 December |
| Gold | Masaru Furukawa | Swimming | Men's 200 m breaststroke | 6 December |
| Gold | Takashi Ono | Gymnastics | Men's horizontal bar | 7 December |
| Silver | Takashi Ishimoto | Swimming | Men's 200 m butterfly | 1 December |
| Silver | Shigeru Kasahara | Wrestling | Men's freestyle lightweight | 1 December |
| Silver | Tsuyoshi Yamanaka | Swimming | Men's 400 m freestyle | 4 December |
| Silver | Masahiro Yoshimura | Swimming | Men's 200 m breaststroke | 6 December |
| Silver | Tsuyoshi Yamanaka | Swimming | Men's 1500 m freestyle | 7 December |
| Silver | Takashi Ono Masao Takemoto Masami Kubota Nobuyuki Aihara Akira Kono Shinsaku Tsukawaki | Gymnastics | Men's artistic team all-around | 7 December |
| Silver | Takashi Ono | Gymnastics | Men's individual all-around | 7 December |
| Silver | Takashi Ono | Gymnastics | Men's pommel horse | 7 December |
| Silver | Nobuyuki Aihara | Gymnastics | Men's floor | 7 December |
| Silver | Masumi Kubota | Gymnastics | Men's parallel bars | 7 December |
| Bronze | Takashi Ono | Gymnastics | Men's parallel bars | 7 December |
| Bronze | Masao Takemoto | Gymnastics | Men's parallel bars | 7 December |
| Bronze | Masao Takemoto | Gymnastics | Men's horizontal bar | 7 December |
| Bronze | Masao Takemoto | Gymnastics | Men's rings | 7 December |
| Bronze | Masami Kubota | Gymnastics | Men's rings | 7 December |
Medals by sport :
| Sport | | | | Total |
| Wrestling | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Gymnastics | 1 | 5 | 5 | 11 |
| Swimming | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 4 | 10 | 5 | 19 |

## Athletics

Men's Marathon
* Yoshiaki Kawashima — 2:29:19 (→ 5th place)
* Hideo Hamamura — 2:40:53 (→ 16th place)
* Kurao Hiroshima — 3:04:17 (→ 33rd place)

## Cycling
### Time trial

* Tetsuo Ōsawa — 1:13.3 (→ 12th place)

### Individual road race

* Tetsuo Ōsawa — did not finish (→ no ranking)

## Diving

Men's 10m Platform
* Yutaka Baba
   * Preliminary Round — 70.76
   * Final — 123.69 (→ 11th place)
* Ryō Mabuchi
   * Preliminary Round — 69.76
   * Final — 120.20 (→ 12th place)
Women's 10m Platform
* Kanoko Tsutani
   * Preliminary Round — 48.45
   * Final — 70.95 (→ 10th place)
* Hatsuko Hirose
   * Preliminary Round — 46.15
   * Final — 69.71 (→ 11th place)

## Fencing

One fencer represented Japan in 1956.

### Men's foil

* Masayuki Sano

### Men's épée

* Masayuki Sano

### Men's sabre

* Masayuki Sano

## Rowing

Japan had nine male rowers participate in one out of seven rowing events in 1956.

### Men's eight

* Yozo Iwasaki
* Yasukuni Watanabe
* Sadahiro Sunaga
* Yoshiki Hiki
* Takashi Imamura
* Yasuhiko Takeda
* Masao Hara
* Junichi Kato
* Toshiji Eda (cox)

## Shooting

Six shooters represented Japan in 1956.

### Men

| Athlete | Event | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Score | Rank |
| Choji Hosaka | 50 m pistol | 550 | 4 |
| Choji Hosaka | 25 m rapid fire pistol | 563 | 15 |
| Yukio Inokuma | Men's 50 metre rifle three positions | 1110 | 36 |
| Yukio Inokuma | Men's 50 metre rifle prone | 594 | 24 |
| Tokusaburo Iwata | Trap | 155 | 23 |
| Ujitoshi Konomi | Trap | 140 | 30 |
| Tomokazu Maruyama | Men's 50 metre rifle three positions | 1085 | 40 |
| Tomokazu Maruyama | Men's 50 metre rifle prone | 584 | 43 |
| Yoshihide Ueda | 50 m pistol | 526 | 17 |
| Yoshihide Ueda | 25 m rapid fire pistol | 521 | 31 |