Japan at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Japan at the 1972 Summer Olympics
IOC code	JPN
NOC	Japanese Olympic Committee
Website	www.joc.or.jp (Japanese) (English)
in Munich
Competitors	184 (148 men and 36 women) in 21 sports
Flag bearer	Masatoshi Shinomaki
Medals Ranked 5th	Gold Silver Bronze Total 13 8 8 29
Summer Olympics appearances (overview)
1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

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.^[1]

Medalists

Gold

* Takao Kawaguchi — Judo, Men's Lightweight (63 kg)

• Toyokazu Nomura — Judo, Men's Half Middleweight (70 kg)
• Shinobu Sekine — Judo, Men's Middleweight (80 kg)
• Mayumi Aoki — Swimming, Women's 100 metres Butterfly
• Nobutaka Taguchi — Swimming, Men's 100 metres Breaststroke
• Kiyomi Kato — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Flyweight
• Hideaki Yanagida — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Bantamweight
• Sawao Kato — Gymnastics, Men's Parallel Bars
• Sawao Kato — Gymnastics, Men's All-Around Individual
• Mitsuo Tsukahara — Gymnastics, Men's Horizontal Bar
• Akinori Nakayama — Gymnastics, Men's Rings
• Sawao Kato, Akinori Nakayama, Eizo Kenmotsu, Mitsuo Tsukahara, Shigeru Kasamatsu, and Teruichi Okamura — Gymnastics, Men's Team Combined Exercises
• Yoshihide Fukao, Kenji Kimura, Masayuki Minami, Jungo Morita, Yūzo Nakamura, Katsutoshi Nekoda, Tetsuo Nishimoto, Yasuhiro Noguchi, Seiji Oko, Tetsuo Satō, Kenji Shimaoka, and Tadayoshi Yokota — Volleyball, Men's Team Competition

Silver

* Kikuo Wada — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Lightweight

• Koichiro Hirayama — Wrestling, Men's Greco-Roman Flyweight
• Katsumi Matsumura, Takako Iida, Mariko Okamoto, Takako Shirai, Makiko Furukawa, Keiko Hama, Toyoko Iwahara, Sumie Oinuma, Seiko Shimakage, Michiko Shiokawa, Noriko Yamashita, and Yaeko Yamazaki — Volleyball, Women's Team Competition

Bronze

* Motoki Nishimura — Judo, Men's Heavyweight

• Nobutaka Taguchi — Swimming, Men's 200 metres Breaststroke

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)

Basketball

Boxing

Men's Light Flyweight (– 48 kg)

• Yoshimitsu Aragaki

• First Round — Lost to Asen Nikolov (BUL), 0:5

Canoeing

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)

Equestrianism

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

Gymnastics

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

Judo

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.

25 m pistol

• Kanji Kubo
• Takeo Kamachi

50 m pistol

• Shigetoshi Tashiro
• Yoshihisa Yoshikawa

50 m rifle, three positions

• Minoru Ito

50 m rifle, prone

• Minoru Ito
• Takeshi Sugita

Swimming

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

Weightlifting

Wrestling

Badminton (demonstration sports)

Men's Doubles:

• Ippei Kojima and Suresh Goel of India

1. 1st round - Lost to Ng. Boon Bee and Punch Gunalan of Malaysia (8 - 15, 1 - 15)

Women's Singles:

• Noriko Nakayama → Gold Medal

1. 1st round - defeated Ulla Strand of Denmark (11 - 5, 11 - 9)
2. Semi–Final - defeated Gillian Gilks of Great Britain (11 - 3, 8 - 11, 11 - 9)
3. Final - defeated Utami Dewi of Indonesia (11 - 5, 11 - 3)

• Hiroe Yuki → bronze medal

1. 1st round - defeated Joke van Beusekom of Netherlands (11 - 3, 11 - 2)
2. Semi-Final - lost to Utami Dewi of Indonesia (5 - 11, 9 - 11)

Mixed Doubles:

• Kojima and Nakayama

1. 1st round - lost to Talbot and Gilks of Great Britain (9 - 15, 4 - 15)

References