Japan at the 1972 Summer Olympics

Infobox Olympics Japan
games=1972 Summer
competitors=
sports=
flagbearer=
gold=13
silver=8
bronze=8
total=29

Japan competed at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.

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, Yuzo Nakamura, Katsutoshi Nekoda, Tetsuo Nishimoto, Yasuhiro Noguchi, Seiji Oko, Tetsuo Sato, 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

Results by event

=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

=Badminton (demonstration sports)=

Men's Doubles:
* Ippei Kojima and Suresh Goel of India:# 1st round - Lost to Ng. Boon Bee and P. 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)

=Cycling=

Track Competition

Men's 1.000m Time Trial
*Takafumi Matsuda:* Final — 1:10.00 (→ 20th place)

Men's 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)

=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=

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)

=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:*Yuzo Nakamura:*Tetsuo Nishimoto:*Massao Minami:*Tetsuo Sato

=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