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. Medalists | width=78% align=left valign=top | | width=22% align=left valign=top | Archery 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) Athletics 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) Basketball Boxing Men's Light Flyweight (– 48 kg) Yoshimitsu Aragaki First Round — Lost to Asen Nikolov (BUL), 0:5 Canoeing Cycling 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 Diving 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) Equestrian Fencing 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 Gymnastics 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 Judo Modern pentathlon 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) Rowing Men's Single Sculls Hideo Okamoto Heat — 8:20.82 Repechage — 8:27.36 (→ did not advance) Sailing Men's Finn: Kazuoki Matsuyama — 176.0 (→ 27th place) Men's Flying Dutchman: Akira Yamamura and Takashi Yamamura —