For the Summer Games, athletes representing Japan first competed at the Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm 1912, participating there in the sport of athletics. At the Games of the VII Olympiad Antwerp 1920, Ichiya Kumagae became the first athlete representing Japan to win an Olympic medal of any colour, capturing silver in the men’s tennis singles event. At the Games of the IX Olympiad Amsterdam 1928, Mikio Oda became the first athlete representing Japan to win an Olympic gold medal, competing in the men’s athletics triple jump event. For the Winter Games, athletes representing Japan first competed at the II Olympic Winter Games St. Moritz 1928, taking part there in the disciplines of cross country skiing, Nordic combined and ski jumping. At the VII Olympic Winter Games Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956, Chiharu Igaya became the first athlete representing Japan to win an Olympic Winter Games medal of any colour, capturing silver in the men’s alpine skiing slalom event. At the XI Olympic Winter Games Sapporo 1972, Yukio Kasaya became the first athlete representing Japan to win an Olympic Winter Games gold medal, competing in the men’s ski jumping normal hill individual event.

At Beijing 2022, Japan won more total medals than at any previous Winter Games. The NOC won a total of 18 medals, with three of them golds. The first was won by ski jumper Ryoyu Kobayashi, who triumphed in the men's individual normal hill event to win Japan's first ski jumping gold since the 1998 Games. Kobayashi also took silver in the men's individual large hill. Snowboarder Ayumu Hirano then made history by winning the men's halfpipe event in Beijing to claim Japan's first ever Olympic snowboard gold medal. It was third time lucky for Hirano, who took silver in the same event at both PyeongChang 2018 and Sochi 2014. Hirano's medals made him the second athlete, after Canada's Mark McMorris, to win a snowboarding medal at three consecutive editions of the Games. Finally, speed skater Miho Takagi was victorious in the women's 1000m event in Beijing. Takagi also took silver in the women's 500m, 1500m and team pursuit events, taking her overall Winter Games medal tally to seven, which is the most for any athlete representing Japan. Also in Beijing, Japan improved on its 2018 women's curling bronze medal by progressing to the gold medal match, but had to settle for silver after losing the final to Great Britain. Japan's youngest medallist in Beijing was snowboarder Kokomo Murase, who took bronze in women's big air at age 17 years and 100 days, making her the second-youngest Japanese athlete to win a Winter Games medal.

Website:

https://www.joc.or.jp

Medals won at previous Olympic Winter Games by discipline

Medals won at previous Olympic Winter Games

Data provided by Sports Data Warehouse