Japan at the Olympics

**Japan at the Olympics** is a history which includes 41 games in 22 countries and 3,000+ athletes.  Since 1912, athletes of Japan have been part of the "Olympic Movement".

The International Olympic Committee's official abbreviation for Japan is JPN.

## History

The Japanese National Olympic Committee was formed in 1911.  It was recognized by the International Olympic Committee in 1912.   Its first president was Kanō Jigorō.

Japan's team first competed at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. Japan was not invited to the 1948 Games after World War II; and Japan boycotted of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

In support of the team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, each of the 518 athletes were given hand-carved good luck charm made by schoolchildren from tsunami-hit areas in Tōhoku. These special "medals" were made from driftwood. There were messages from the children on the ribbons which were attached.

## Medalists

Japanese tennis players Ichiya Kumagae  and Seiichiro Kashio were the first Japanese athletes to win medals in summer sport.  They won silver medals in the 1920 Summer Olympics.

The first Japanese medal in a winter sport was in 1956 when Chiharu Igaya earned a silver medal for Alpine skiing.

### Summer Games

During the course of 20 summer games, Japanese athletes have won 350+ medals, with the most gold medals won in judo.  In the 1928 games in Amsterdam, Japan's first gold medals in summer sports were won by Mikio Oda in the triple jump and by Yoshiyuki Tsuruta in swimming.

|style="width:4.5em; font-weight:bold;"|Notes|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1912 Stockholm|-|-|-|-||
|1920 Antwerp|-|2|-|2|Tennis|
|1924 Paris|-|-|1|1|Wrestling|
|1928 Amsterdam|2|2|1|5|Swimming, Track and field athletics|
|1932 Los Angeles|7|7|4|18||
|1936 Berlin|6|4|8|18||
|1948 London|_did not participate_|||||
|1952 Helsinki|1|6|2|9||
|1956 Melbourne|4|10|5|19||
|1960 Rome|4|7|7|18||
|1964 Tokyo (Host Nation)|16|5|8|29||
|1968 Mexico City|11|7|7|25||
|1972 Munich|13|8|8|29||
|1976 Montreal|9|6|10|25||
|1980 Moscow|_did not participate_|||||
|1984 Los Angeles|10|8|14|32||
|1988 Seoul|4|3|7|14||
|1992 Barcelona|3|8|11|22||
|1996 Atlanta|3|6|5|14||
|2000 Sydney|5|8|5|18||
|2004 Athens|16|9|12|37||
|2008 Beijing|9|6|11|26||
|2012 London|7|14|17|38||
|2016 Rio de Janeiro||||||
|2020 Summer Olympics||||||

### Winter Games

Japan has won 37 medals at the winter games. In the 1972 games in Sapporo, Japan's first gold medal in a winter sports was won by Yukio Kasaya in ski jumping.
|style="width:4.5em; font-weight:bold;"|Notes|||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1924 Chamonix|_did not participate_|||||
|1928 St. Moritz|-|-|-|-||
|1932 Lake Placid|-|-|-|-||
|1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen|-|-|-|-||
|1948 St. Moritz|_did not participate_|||||
|1952 Oslo|-|-|-|-||
|1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo|-|1|-|1|Alpine skiing|
|1960 Squaw Valley|-|-|-|-||
|1964 Innsbruck|-|-|-|-||
|1968 Grenoble|-|-|-|-||
|1972 Sapporo (Host Nation)|1|1|1|3|Ski jumping|
|1976 Innsbruck|-|-|-|-||
|1980 Lake Placid|-|1|-|1|Ski jumping|
|1984 Sarajevo|-|1|-|1|Speed skating|
|1988 Calgary|-|-|1|1|Speed skating|
|1992 Albertville|1|2|4|7|Figure Skating, Nordic combined, Speed skating|
|1994 Lillehammer|1|2|2|5||
|1998 Nagano (Host Nation)|5|1|4|10||
|2002 Salt Lake City|-|1|1|2||
|2006 Turin|1|-|-|1|Figure skating|
|2010 Vancouver|-|3|2|5||
|2014 Sochi||||||
|2018 Pyeongchang||||||

### Notable Olympians

Japanese Olympic greats include
- Naoko Takahashi, marathon gold medal in 2000
- Tamara Ryoka, judoka gold medals in 2000 and 2004
- Sawao Kato, gymnast gold medals in 1968, 1972 and 1976
- Akinori Nakayama, gymnast gold medals in 1968 and 1972

The youngest Japanese competitor was Etsuko Inada (12 years, 4 days) in the 1936 Winter Olympics.  The oldest Japanese Olympian is Hiroshi Hoketsu (67 years, 139 days) in the 2008 Summer Games.

## Host country

The 1940 Summer Olympics and the 1940 Winter Olympics were planned for Japan, but the organizers withdrew in 1938 because of the Second Sino-Japanese War.  These games were later cancelled because of World War II.

Japan was the host country three times, including
- 1964 Summer Olympics
- 1972 Winter Olympics
- 1998 Winter Olympics

## Related pages

- Sports in Japan
- List of IOC country codes
- Japan national football team
- Japan women's national football team

## Other websites

- Japanese Olympic Committee website
- Japan profile at London2012.com
- Japan at databaseOlympics.com

## Infobox (country at games)

- **noc**: JPN
- **nocname**: Japanese Olympic Committee
- **games**: Olympics
- **website**:  
- **gold**: 156
- **silver**: 158
- **bronze**: 183