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.
* 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
* 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
* Motoki Nishimura — Judo, Men's Heavyweight
Nobutaka Taguchi — Swimming, Men's 200 metres Breaststroke
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)
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)
Men's Light Flyweight (– 48 kg)
Yoshimitsu Aragaki
First Round — Lost to Asen Nikolov (BUL), 0:5
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
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)
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
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)
Men's Single Sculls
Hideo Okamoto
Heat — 8:20.82
Repechage — 8:27.36 (→ did not advance)
Men's Finn:
Kazuoki Matsuyama — 176.0 (→ 27th place)
Men's Flying Dutchman:
Akira Yamamura and Takashi Yamamura — 128.0 (→ 19th place)
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
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
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
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)
