Japan, represented by Japanese Olympic Committee, competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. Despite being London's third Olympic Games, Japan marked their London debut at this games. The nation also celebrated its centennial anniversary in the Olympics, having participated at every games since 1912 except for two editions; it was not invited to the 1948 Summer Olympics in London for its role in World War II, and was also part of the US-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Japan sent a total of 295 athletes to the Games, 138 men and 157 women, to compete in 24 sports.
Japan left London with a total of 38 medals (7 gold, 14 silver, and 17 bronze), finishing eleventh in the gold medal rankings and sixth in the overall medal rankings. This was also the nation's most successful Olympics, winning the largest number of medals in non-boycotted games. Eleven of these medals were awarded to the athletes in swimming, seven in judo, six in wrestling, and three in gymnastics. Five Japanese athletes won more than a single Olympic medal in London. With the absence of baseball and softball at the Olympics, Japan's team-based athletes proved successful in London, as women's football and women's volleyball teams won silver and bronze medals, respectively. For the first time since 1968, Japan had won two Olympic medals in men's boxing.
Among the nation's medalists were freestyle wrestlers Kaori Icho and Saori Yoshida, who successfully defended their Olympic titles in their respective events. Two-time Olympic silver medalist and gymnast Kōhei Uchimura won the coveted gold medal in individual all-around, becoming the fourth Japanese man to claim the title after 28 years. Meanwhile, Ryōta Murata became the first Japanese boxer to win an Olympic gold medal since 1960, in the men's middleweight division. Defending swimming champion Kosuke Kitajima, who aimed to win gold in two breaststroke events for third Games in succession, missed out on the medal standings in the finals.
Medalists The following Japanese competitors won medals at the Games. In the by discipline sections below, medalists' names are bolded.
| width=78% align=left valign=top | Medal Name Sport Event Date Kaori Matsumoto Judo Women's 57 kg Kōhei Uchimura Gymnastics Men's artistic individual all-around Hitomi Obara Wrestling Women's freestyle 48 kg Kaori Icho Wrestling Women's freestyle 63 kg Saori Yoshida Wrestling Women's freestyle 55 kg Ryōta Murata Boxing Men's middleweight Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu Wrestling Men's freestyle 66 kg Hiroaki Hiraoka Judo Men's 60 kg Hiromi Miyake Weightlifting Women's 48 kg 28 July Riki Nakaya Judo Men's 73 kg 30 July Ryohei KatoKazuhito TanakaYusuke TanakaKōhei UchimuraKoji Yamamuro Gymnastics Men's artistic team all-around Satomi Suzuki Swimming Women's 200 m breaststroke Ryosuke Irie Swimming Men's 200 m backstroke Takaharu Furukawa Archery Men's individual Mika Sugimoto Judo Women's +78 kg Ryosuke IrieKosuke KitajimaTakeshi MatsudaTakuro Fujii Swimming Men's 4 × 100 m medley relay Mizuki FujiiReika Kakiiwa Badminton Women's doubles Kōhei Uchimura Gymnastics Men's floor Suguru AwajiKenta ChidaRyo MiyakeYuki Ota Fencing Men's team foil Kasumi IshikawaAi FukuharaSayaka Hirano Table tennis Women's team Miho FukumotoAyumi KaihoriYukari KingaAzusa IwashimizuSaki KumagaiAya SameshimaKyoko YanoMizuho SakaguchiAya Miyama (c)Nahomi KawasumiHomare SawaAsuna TanakaKozue AndoShinobu OhnoKarina MaruyamaMegumi TakaseMana IwabuchiYūki Ōgimi Football Women's tournament Kosuke HaginoSwimming Men's 400 m individual medley Masashi Ebinuma Judo Men's 66 kg Kaori KawanakaRen HayakawaMiki Kanie Archery Women's team Aya Terakawa Swimming Women's 100 m backstroke Ryosuke Irie Swimming Men's 100 m backstroke Satomi Suzuki Swimming Women's 100 m breaststroke Yoshie Ueno Judo Women's 63 kg Takeshi Matsuda Swimming Men's 200 m butterfly Masashi Nishiyama Judo Men's 90 kg Ryo Tateishi Swimming Men's 200 m breaststroke Natsumi Hoshi Swimming Women's 200 m butterfly Aya TerakawaSatomi SuzukiYuka KatoHaruka Ueda Swimming Women's 4 × 100 m medley relay Koji Murofushi Athletics Men's hammer throw Ryūtarō Matsumoto Wrestling Men's Greco-Roman 60 kg Satoshi Shimizu Boxing Men's bantamweight Shinichi Yumoto Wrestling Men's freestyle 55 kg Hitomi NakamichiYoshie TakeshitaMai YamaguchiErika Araki (c)Kaori InoueMaiko KanoYuko SanoAi OtomoRisa ShinnabeSaori SakodaYukiko EbataSaori Kimura Volleyball Women's tournament
| width=22% align=left valign=top | Medals by sportSport TotalWrestling4026Judo1337Gymnastics1203Boxing1012Swimming03811Archery0112Badminton0101Weightlifting0101Fencing0101Table tennis0101Football0101Athletics0011Volleyball0011Total7141738
Medals by genderGender TotalFemale46717Male381021Total7141738
Delegation Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) selected a team of 295 athletes, 138 men and 157 women, to compete in all sports except basketball, and handball; it was the nation's fifth-largest team sent to the Olympics, but the smallest since the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. For the second time in its Olympic history, Japan was represented by more female than male athletes. There was only a single competitor in diving and in equestrian dressage.
The Japanese team included several past Olympic champions, three of them defending (freestyle wrestlers Kaori Icho and Saori Yoshida, and breaststroke swimmer Kosuke Kitajima). Yoshida, who won two consecutive gold medals in the Olympics before, became Japan's third female flag bearer at the opening ceremony since 2004, and the sixth in Olympic history. Javelin thrower and one-time world and Asian champion Yukifumi Murakami, on the other hand, served as the nation's team captain.
Dressage rider Hiroshi Hoketsu repeated his record from Beijing, as the oldest athlete to compete in these Olympic Games, at age 71. Single sculls rower Daisaku Takeda and show jumper Taizo Sugitani made their fifth appearance, having participated at every Olympic Games since 1996. Hammer thrower and former Olympic gold medalist Koji Murofushi, along with swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, was among the Japanese athletes who competed at their fourth Olympics. Meanwhile, breaststroke swimmer Kanako Watanabe, at age 15, was the youngest athlete of the team.
Other Japanese athletes featured gymnast and two-time Olympic silver medalist Kōhei Uchimura, javelin thrower and world junior champion Genki Dean, who embraced his British roots to represent the nation, table tennis player Ai Fukuhara, who became highly popular in China and Japan because of her nickname "China-dolls", and swimmers Ryosuke Irie and Takeshi Matsuda, who previously won the bronze medal in Beijing.
| width=78% align=left valign=top | The following is the list of number of competitors participating in the Games. Note that reserves for fencing, field hockey, football, and handball are not counted as athletes: SportMenWomenTotalArchery 3 3 6Athletics 28 18 46Badminton 6 5 11Boxing 4 0 4Canoeing 5 3 8Cycling 6 3 9Diving 0 1 1Equestrian 7 1 8Fencing 3 5 8Field hockey 0 16 16Football 18 18 36Gymnastics 7 12 19Judo 7 7 14Modern pentathlon 1 2 3Rowing 2 3 5Sailing 5 4 9Shooting 2 2 4Swimming 14 15 29Synchronized swimming 0 9 9Table tennis 3 3 6Taekwondo 0 2 2Tennis 3 0 3Triathlon 2 3 5Volleyball 2 14 16Weightlifting 1 4 5Wrestling 9 4 13 Total 138 157 295
Archery
Japan has qualified one archer for the men's individual event and one archer for the women's individual event
Men AthleteEventRanking roundRound of 64Round of 32Round of 16QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal / ScoreSeedOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankTakaharu FurukawaIndividual6795 (60)W 6–4 (28)W 6–4 (21) W 6–2 (20) W 6–2 (16) W 6–5 (3) L 1–7Yu Ishizu67115 (50)L 1–7did not advanceHideki Kikuchi65944 (21)L 5–6did not advanceTakaharu FurukawaYu IshizuHideki KikuchiTeam20095colspan=2 (12) W 214 (29)–214 (27) (4) L 219–220did not advance
Women AthleteEventRanking roundRound of 64Round of 32Round of 16QuarterfinalsSemifinalsFinal / ScoreSeedOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankRen HayakawaIndividual65416 (49)W 6–4 (17)W 7–3 (1)L 0–6did not advanceMiki Kanie6656 (59)W 7–1 (27)W 6–0 (11)L 3–7did not advanceKaori Kawanaka64628 (37)L 2–6did not advanceRen HayakawaMiki KanieKaori KawanakaTeam19655colspan=2 (12)W 207–192 (4)W 219–209 (1)L 206–221 (6)W 209–207
Athletics
Japanese athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event at the 'A' Standard, and 1 at the 'B' Standard):
Men Track & road events . Japan Association of Athletics Federations (2012-06-11). Retrieved 19 June 2012. AthleteEventHeatQuarterfinalSemifinalFinalResultRankResultRankResultRankResultRankMasashi Eriguchi100 mcolspan=2 10.306Did not advanceIsamu Fujisawa20 km walkcolspan=6 1:21:4818Arata FujiwaraMarathoncolspan=6 2:19:1145Shota Iizuka200 m20.815colspan=2 Did not advanceYuzo Kanemaru400 m46.014colspan=2 Did not advanceTakayuki Kishimoto400 m hurdlescolspan=2 Did not advanceKoichiro Morioka50 km walkcolspan=6 3:43:1410Kentaro NakamotoMarathoncolspan=6 2:11:166Akihiko Nakamura400 m hurdlescolspan=2 Did not advanceTakumi Saito20 km walkcolspan=6 1:22:4325Yuki Sato5000 m13:38.2211colspan=4 Did not advance10,000 mcolspan=6 28:44.0622Yusuke Suzuki20 km walkcolspan=6 1:23:5336Shinji Takahira200 m20.573 Qcolspan=2 20.776Did not advanceKei Takase20.722 Qcolspan=2 20.708Did not advanceTakayuki Tanii50 km walkcolspan=6 Tetsuya Tateno400 m hurdles49.954colspan=2 Did not advance Ryota Yamagata100 mcolspan=2 10.072 Q10.106did not advanceRyo YamamotoMarathoncolspan=6 2:18:3440Yuki Yamazaki50 km walkcolspan=6 Masato YokotaJapan announces Olympic team as national champs conclude800 m1:48.484colspan=2 Did not advanceMasashi EriguchiShota IizukaTakumi KukiShinji TakahiraRyota Yamagata4 × 100 m relay38.072 Qcolspan=4 38.355Yoshihiro AzumaYuzo KanemaruHiroyuki NakanoKei Takase4 × 400 m relay3:03.866colspan=4 Did not advance
Field events AthleteEventQualificationFinalDistancePositionDistancePositionGenki DeanJavelin throw82.077 Q79.9510Yukifumi Murakami77.8024Did not advanceKoji MurofushiHammer throw78.482 Q78.71Seito YamamotoPole vault—Did not advance
Combined events – Decathlon AthleteEvent 100 m 400 m 1500 mFinalRankKeisuke UshiroResult11.326.8613.591.9950.7815.4746.664.9066.384:39.33784220Points791781703794779794801880834685
Women Track & road events AthleteEventHeatQuarterfinalSemifinalFinalResultRankResultRankResultRankResultRankMasumi Fuchise20 km walkcolspan=6 1:28:4111Kayoko Fukushi10000 mcolspan=6 31:10.3510Chisato Fukushima100 mcolspan=2 11.415Did not advance200 m24.147colspan=2 Did not advanceMayumi Kawasaki20 km walkcolspan=6 1:30:2018Ayako Kimura100 m hurdles13.757colspan=2 Did not advanceRyoko KizakiMarathoncolspan=6 2:27:1616Satomi Kubokura400 m hurdles55.855 qcolspan=2 56.258Did not advanceHitomi Niiya10,000 mcolspan=6 30:59.199Kumi Otoshi20 km walkcolspan=6 1:33:5037Yoshimi OzakiMarathoncolspan=6 2:27:4319Risa Shigetomocolspan=6 2:40:0679Mika Yoshikawa5000 m15:16.7713colspan=4 Did not advance10000 mcolspan=6 31:47.6716Anna DoiChisato FukushimaKana IchikawaYumeka SanoMomoko Takahashi4 × 100 m relay44.258colspan=4 Did not advance
Field events AthleteEventQualificationFinalDistancePositionDistancePositionTomomi AbikoPole vault4.25=19Did not advanceYuki EbiharaJavelin throw59.2516Did not advance
Badminton
Men AthleteEventGroup stageEliminationQuarterfinalSemifinalFinal / OppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreOppositionScoreRankSho SasakiSinglesW 21–12, 21–7colspan=2 1 QW 23–21, 21–10L 12–21, 21–16, 16–21Did not advanceKenichi TagoL 18–21, 16–21colspan=2 2Did not advanceNaoki KawamaeShoji SatoDoublesL 12–21, 14–21L 21–16, 21–15W 21–15, 21–153Did not advance
Women