# Japan at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Japan competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany. 184 competitors, 148 men and 36 women, took part in 113 events in 21 sports.

## Medalists

| Medal | Name | Sport | Event | Date |
| Gold | Sawao Kato Akinori Nakayama Eizo Kenmotsu Mitsuo Tsukahara Shigeru Kasamatsu Teruichi Okamura | Gymnastics | Men's team all-around | August 29 |
| Gold | Sawao Kato | Gymnastics | Men's individual all-around | August 30 |
| Gold | Nobutaka Taguchi | Swimming | Men's 100 m breaststroke | August 30 |
| Gold | Kiyomi Kato | Wrestling | Men's freestyle flyweight | August 31 |
| Gold | Hideaki Yanagida | Wrestling | Men's freestyle bantamweight | August 31 |
| Gold | Mayumi Aoki | Swimming | Women's 100 m butterfly | September 1 |
| Gold | Mitsuo Tsukahara | Gymnastics | Men's horizontal bar | September 1 |
| Gold | Sawao Kato | Gymnastics | Men's parallel bars | September 1 |
| Gold | Akinori Nakayama | Gymnastics | Men's rings | September 1 |
| Gold | Shinobu Sekine | Judo | Men's middleweight | September 2 |
| Gold | Toyokazu Nomura | Judo | Men's half middleweight | September 3 |
| Gold | Takao Kawaguchi | Judo | Men's lightweight | September 4 |
| Gold | Yoshihide Fukao Kenji Kimura Masayuki Minami Jungo Morita Yūzo Nakamura Katsutoshi Nekoda Tetsuo Nishimoto Yasuhiro Noguchi Seiji Oko Tetsuo Satō Kenji Shimaoka Tadayoshi Yokota | Volleyball | Men's tournament | September 9 |
| Silver | Eizo Kenmotsu | Gymnastics | Men's individual all-around | August 30 |
| Silver | Kikuo Wada | Wrestling | Men's freestyle lightweight | August 31 |
| Silver | Akinori Nakayama | Gymnastics | Men's floor | September 1 |
| Silver | Sawao Kato | Gymnastics | Men's horizontal bar | September 1 |
| Silver | Shigeru Kasamatsu | Gymnastics | Men's parallel bars | September 1 |
| Silver | Sawao Kato | Gymnastics | Men's pommel horse | September 1 |
| Silver | Katsumi Matsumura Takako Iida Mariko Okamoto Takako Shirai Makiko Furukawa Keiko Hama Toyoko Iwahara Sumie Oinuma Seiko Shimakage Michiko Shiokawa Noriko Yamashita Yaeko Yamazaki | Volleyball | Women's tournament | September 7 |
| Silver | Koichiro Hirayama | Wrestling | Men's Greco-Roman flyweight | September 10 |
| Bronze | Akinori Nakayama | Gymnastics | Men's individual all-around | August 30 |
| Bronze | Motoki Nishimura | Judo | Men's heavyweight | August 31 |
| Bronze | Shigeru Kasamatsu | Gymnastics | Men's floor | September 1 |
| Bronze | Shigeru Kasamatsu | Gymnastics | Men's horizontal bar | September 1 |
| Bronze | Eizo Kenmotsu | Gymnastics | Men's parallel bars | September 1 |
| Bronze | Eizo Kenmotsu | Gymnastics | Men's pommel horse | September 1 |
| Bronze | Mitsuo Tsukahara | Gymnastics | Men's rings | September 1 |
| Bronze | Nobutaka Taguchi | Swimming | Men's 200 m breaststroke | September 2 |
Medals by sport :
| Sport | | | | Total |
| Gymnastics | 5 | 5 | 6 | 16 |
| Judo | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Wrestling | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Swimming | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Volleyball | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Total | 13 | 8 | 8 | 29 |

## Archery

In the first modern archery competition at the Olympics, Japan entered three men and one woman. Their highest placing competitor was Yoshiko Akayama, at 17th place in the women's competition.
Men's Individual Competition:
* Hiroshi Kajikawa — 2381 points (→ 19th place)
* Masashi Hibino — 2344 points (→ 29th place)
* Shinji Nakamoto — 2287 points (→ 38th place)
Women's Individual Competition:
* Yoshiko Akayama — 2301 points (→ 17th place)

## Athletics

Men's 5000 metres
* Keisuke Sawaki
   * Heat — 13:44.8 (→ did not advance)
* Takaharu Koyama
   * Heat — 14:12.6 (→ did not advance)
Men's High Jump
* Hidehiko Tomizawa
   * Qualifying Round — 2.15m
   * Final — 2.05m (→ 19th place)
* Kuniyoshi Sugioka
   * Qualification Round — 2.06m (→ did not advance)

## Boxing

Men's Light Flyweight (– 48 kg)
* Yoshimitsu Aragaki
   * First Round — Lost to Asen Nikolov (BUL), 0:5

## Cycling

Three cyclists represented Japan in 1972.

### Sprint

* Yoshikazu Cho
* Yaichi Numata

### 1000m time trial

* Takafumi Matsuda
   * Final — 1:10.00 (→ 20th place)

### Tandem

* Yaichi Numata and Yoshikazu Cho → 12th place

## Diving

Men's 3m Springboard
* Junji Yuasa — 316.95 points (→ 24th place)
Men's 10m Platform
* Junji Yuasa — 276.00 points (→ 19th place)
Women's 3m Springboard
* Taeko Kubo — 236.25 points (→ 24th place)
Women's 10m Platform
* Keiko Otsubo — 168.24 points (→ 23rd place)

## Fencing

Five fencers, all men, represented Japan in 1972.

### Men's foil

* Hiroshi Nakajima
* Ichiro Serizawa
* Kiyoshi Uehara

### Men's team foil

* Shiro Maruyama, Masaya Fukuda, Hiroshi Nakajima, Kiyoshi Uehara, Ichiro Serizawa

## Handball
### Men's Team Competition

* Preliminary Round
   * Lost to Yugoslavia (14-20)
   * Lost to Hungary (12-20)
   * Defeated United States (20-16)
* Classification Matches
   * 9th/12th place: Lost to Norway (17-19)
   * 11th/12th place: Defeated Iceland (19-18) → 11th place

## Modern pentathlon

Three male pentathletes represented Japan in 1972.
Men's Individual Competition:
* Masaru Sakano — 4627 points (→ 31st place)
* Yuso Makihira — 4583 points (→ 33rd place)
* Akira Kubo — 4371 points (→ 49th place)
Men's Team Competition:
* Sakano, Makihara, and Kubo — 13569 points (13th place)

## Rowing

Men's Single Sculls
* Hideo Okamoto
   * Heat — 8:20.82
   * Repechage — 8:27.36 (→ did not advance)

## Sailing

Men's Finn:
* Kazuoki Matsuyama — 176.0 (→ 27th place)
Men's Flying Dutchman:
* Akira Yamamura and Takashi Yamamura — 128.0 (→ 19th place)

## Shooting

Six male shooters represented Japan in 1972.

### Open

| Athlete | Event | Final | Final |
| Athlete | Event | Points | Rank |
| Minoru Ito | 50 m rifle, three positions | 1124 | 41 |
| Minoru Ito | 50 m rifle, prone | 589 | 59 |
| Takeo Kamachi | 25 m rapid fire pistol | 580 | 33 |
| Kanji Kubo | 25 m rapid fire pistol | 582 | 30 |
| Takeshi Sugita | 50 m rifle, prone | 583 | 82 |
| Shigetoshi Tashiro | 50 m pistol | 546 | 22 |
| Yoshihisa Yoshikawa | 50 m pistol | 545 | 25 |

## Volleyball
### Men's Team Competition

* Preliminary Round (Group B)
   * Defeated Romania (3-1)
   * Defeated Cuba (3-0)
   * Defeated East Germany (3-0)
   * Defeated Brazil (3-0)
   * Defeated West Germany (3-0)
* Semifinals
   * Defeated Bulgaria (3-2)
* Final
   * Defeated East Germany (3-1) → Gold Medal
* Team Roster
   * Kenji Kimura
   * Yoshinide Fukao
   * Junko Morita
   * Seiji Ohko
   * Tadayoshi Yokota
   * Katsutoshi Nekoda
   * Yasuhiro Noguchi
   * Kenji Shimaoka
   * Yūzo Nakamura
   * Tetsuo Nishimoto
   * Massao Minami
   * Tetsuo Satō

## Water polo
### Men's Team Competition

* Preliminary Round (Group C)
   * Lost to Spain (4-6)
   * Lost to Soviet Union (1-11)
   * Lost to Bulgaria (4-7)
   * Lost to Italy (5-12) → Did not advance
* Team Roster
   * Yukiharu Oshita
   * Hirokatsu Kuwayama
   * Toshio Takahashi
   * Shuzo Yajima
   * Hiroshi Hashimoto
   * Koji Nakano
   * Naoto Minegishi
   * Tatsuo Jihira
   * Takashi Kimura
   * Yoshihiro Yasumi
   * Toru Arase

## Badminton (demonstration sports)

Men's Doubles:
* Ippei Kojima and Suresh Goel of India
   * 1st round - Lost to Ng. Boon Bee and Punch Gunalan of Malaysia (8 - 15, 1 - 15)
Women's Singles:
* Noriko Nakayama → Gold Medal
   * 1st round - defeated Ulla Strand of Denmark (11 - 5, 11 - 9)
   * Semi–Final - defeated Gillian Gilks of Great Britain (11 - 3, 8 - 11, 11 - 9)
   * Final - defeated Utami Dewi of Indonesia (11 - 5, 11 - 3)
* Hiroe Yuki → bronze medal
   * 1st round - defeated Joke van Beusekom of Netherlands (11 - 3, 11 - 2)
   * Semi-Final - lost to Utami Dewi of Indonesia (5 - 11, 9 - 11)
Mixed Doubles:
* Kojima and Nakayama
   * 1st round - lost to Talbot and Gilks of Great Britain (9 - 15, 4 - 15)