Japan competed at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Chiharu Igaya won the nation's first ever medal and the first Asian medalist at the Winter Olympic Games.
Medalists MedalNameSportEventDate Alpine skiing Men's slalom January 31
Alpine skiing
Men
AthleteEventRace 1Race 2TotalTimeRankTimeRankTimeRankChiharu IgayaDownhillDSQ–Susumu Sugiyama3:39.128Susumu SugiyamaGiant Slalom3:40.845Chiharu Igaya3:15.611Susumu SugiyamaSlalom1:51.0382:26.0374:17.033Chiharu Igaya1:30.261:48.523:18.7
Cross-country skiing
Men EventAthleteRaceTimeRank15 kmTatsuo Miyao56:594830 kmTatsuo Miyao1'55:402850 kmTatsuo Miyao3'25:4725
Nordic combined
Events: normal hill ski jumping (Three jumps, best two counted and shown here.) 15 km cross-country skiing
AthleteEventSki JumpingCross-countryTotalDistance 1Distance 2PointsRankTimePointsRankPointsRankHiroshi YoshizawaIndividual69.576.5210.55DNF––DNF–Koichi Sato68.065.5191.5231'08:21193.40035384.90033
Ski jumping
AthleteEventJump 1Jump 2TotalDistancePointsRankDistancePointsRankPointsRankKoichi SatoNormal hill68.091.03666.087.541178.539Hiroshi Yoshizawa80.5106.5974.098.518205.013
Speed skating
Men EventAthleteRaceTimeRank500 mKiyotaka Takabayashi43.630Taketsugu Asazaka43.122Yoshitaki Hori42.817Shinkichi Takemura42.4111500 mYoshiyasu Gomi2:19.239Shinkichi Takemura2:18.336Yoshitaki Hori2:15.923Taketsugu Asazaka2:15.4215000 mYoshitaki Hori8:53.546Taketsugu Asazaka8:23.628Yoshiyasu Gomi8:22.22710,000 mYoshiyasu Gomi17:35.923Taketsugu Asazaka17:35.322
References Official Olympic Reports International Olympic Committee results database Olympic Winter Games 1956, full results by sports-reference.com