Japan competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 213 competitors, 153 men and 60 women, took part in 119 events in 20 sports.
Mitsuo Tsukahara — Gymnastics, Men's Horizontal Bar
Sawao Kato — Gymnastics, Men's Parallel Bars
Shun Fujimoto, Sawao Kato, Hiroshi Kajiyama, Mitsuo Tsukahara, and Eizo Kenmotsu — Gymnastics, Men's Team Combined Exercises Competition
Isamu Sonoda — Judo, Men's Middleweight (80 kg)
Kazuhiro Ninomiya — Judo, Men's Half-Heavyweight (93 kg)
Haruki Uemura — Judo, Men's Open Class
Yuko Arakida, Takako Iida, Katsuko Kanesaka, Kiyomi Kato, Echiko Maeda, Noriko Matsuda, Mariko Okamoto, Takako Shirai, Shoko Takayanagi, Hiromi Yano, Juri Yokoyama, and Mariko Yoshida — Volleyball, Women's Team Competition
Yuji Takada — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Flyweight
Jiichiro Date — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Welterweight
Hiroshi Michinaga — Archery, Men's Individual Competition
Sawao Kato — Gymnastics, Men's All-Around Individual Competition
Eizo Kenmotsu — Gymnastics, Men's Horizontal Bar
Mitsuo Tsukahara — Gymnastics, Men's Long Horse Vault
Eizo Kenmotsu — Gymnastics, Men's Pommeled Horse
Koji Kuramoto — Judo, Men's Half Middleweight (70 kg)
Mitsuo Tsukahara — Gymnastics, Men's All-Around Individual Competition
Mitsuo Tsukahara — Gymnastics, Men's Parallel Bars
Hiroshi Kajiyama — Gymnastics, Men's Long Horse Vault
Sumio Endo — Judo, Men's Heavyweight
Kenkichi Ando — Weightlifting, Men's Bantamweight
Kazumasa Hirai — Weightlifting, Men's Featherweight
Koichiro Hirayama — Wrestling, Men's Greco-Roman Flyweight
Akira Kudo — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Light Flyweight
Masao Arai — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Bantamweight
Yasaburo Sugawara — Wrestling, Men's Freestyle Lightweight
In their second Olympic archery competition, Japan won a silver medal and placed third on the national leaderboard for the sport. The medal was won by Hiroshi Michinaga. Two men and two women competed for Japan.
Women's Individual Competition:
Minako Sato — 2308 points (→ 14th place)
Kyoko Yamazaki — 2094 points (→ 26th place)
Men's Individual Competition:
Hiroshi Michinaga — 2502 points (→ Silver Medal)
Takanobu Nishi — 2422 points (→ 8th place)
Men's 10.000 metres
Toshiaki Kamata
Heat — 28:36.21 (→ did not advance)
Men's Marathon
Shigeru So — 2:18:26 (→ 20th place)
Noriyasu Mizukami — 2:18:44 (→ 21st place)
Akio Usami — 2:22:29 (→ 32nd place)
Men's High Jump
Katsumi Fukura
Qualification — 2.13m (→ did not advance)
Kazunori Koshikawa
Qualification — 2.13m (→ did not advance)
Men's 20 km Race Walk
Yoshio Morikawa — 1:42:20 (→ 34th place)
Men's Team Competition
Preliminary Round (Group A):
Lost to Canada (76-104)
Lost to Mexico (90-108)
Lost to Cuba (56-97)
Lost to Soviet Union (69-123)
Lost to Australia (79-117)
Classification Match:
9th/11th place: Lost to Puerto Rico (91-111) → 11th place
Team Roster
Shigeaki Abe
Nobuo Chigusa
Satoshi Mori
Shoji Yuki
Yutaka Fujimoto
Hirofumi Numata
Kiyohide Kuwata
Koji Yamamoto
Shigeto Shimizu
Fumio Saito
Norihiko Kitahara
Hideki Hamaguchi
Head Coach: Masahiko Yoshida.
Women's Team Competition
Team Roster
Kimiko Hashimoto
Kazuko Kadoya
Kimi Wakitashiro
Mieko Fukui
Miyako Otsuka
Miho Matsuoka
Kazuyo Hayashida
Teruko Miyamoto
Keiko Namai
Reiko Aonuma
Sachiyo Yamamoto
Misako Satake
Head Coach: Masatoshi Ozaki
Men's Light Flyweight (– 48 kg)
Noboru Uchizama
- First Round — Lost to Brendan Dunne (IRL), RSC-2
Men's Flyweight (– 51 kg)
Toshinori Koga
- First Round — Bye
- Second Round — Defeated Virgilio Palomo (COL), 5:0
- Third Round — Lost to Ramón Duvalón (CUB), 0:5
Five cyclists represented Japan in 1976.
Sprint
Yoshikazu Cho — 5th place
1000m time trial
Yoshikazu Cho — 1:09.664 (→ 17th place)
Individual pursuit
Yoichi Machishima — 15th place
Team pursuit
Yoichi Machishima
Tadashi Ogasawara
Yoshiaki Ogasawara
Tsutomu Okabori
Eight fencers, four men and four women, represented Japan in 1976.
Men's foil
Masanori Kawatsu
Noriyuki Sato
Toshio Jingo
Men's team foil
Masanori Kawatsu, Hideaki Kamei, Toshio Jingo, Noriyuki Sato
Women's foil
Hideko Oka
Yukari Kajihara
Mariko Yoshikawa
Women's team foil
Hideko Oka, Mariko Yoshikawa, Hiroko Kamada, Yukari Kajihara
Three male pentathletes represented Japan in 1976.
Men's Individual Competition:
Shoji Uchida — 4850 points (→ 31st place)
Akira Kubo — 4700 points (→ 37th place)
Hiroyuki Kawazoe — 4591 points (→ 40th place)
Men's Team Competition:
Uchida, Kubo, and Kawazoe — 14234 points (→ 12th place)
Men's Team Competition
Preliminary Round (Group B)
Defeated Italy (3-0)
Defeated Brazil (3-0)
Lost to Soviet Union (0-3)
Semi Finals
Lost to Poland (2-3)
Bronze Medal Match
Lost to Cuba (0-3) → Fourth place
Team Roster
Taka Maruiyama
Katsutoshi Nekoda
Katsumi Oda
Tetsuo Nishimoto
Yassunori Yassuda
Yoshi Fukao
Shoichi Yanagimoto
Mikiyasu Tanaka
Tadayoshi Yokota
Seiji Ohko
Kinji Shimaoka
Tetsuo Satō
Head Coach: Tsutomu Koyama
Women's Team Competition
Preliminary Round (Group A)
Defeated Hungary (3-0)
Defeated Peru (3-0)
Defeated Canada (3-0)
Semi Finals
Defeated South Korea (3-0)
Final
Defeated Soviet Union (3-0) → Gold Medal
Team Roster
Takako Iida
Mariko Okamoto
Echiko Maeda
Noriko Matsuda
Takako Shirai
Kiyomi Kato
Yuko Arakida
Katsuko Kanesaka
Mariko Yoshida
Shoko Takayanagi
Hiromi Yano
Juri Yokoyama
Head Coach: Shigeo Yamada
