Tokyo 1964: competition, city and broadcasting

The unrealised 1940 Games

Tokyo had been selected to host the 1940 Games, but Japan relinquished them in July 1938 as the war in China expanded and resource controls obstructed preparations. Helsinki was chosen instead, before the wider war prevented those Games from taking place. After the war, a renewed bid brought Tokyo the 1964 Games: the host decision was announced on 26 May 1959.

Returning to international sport after the war

Japan was excluded from the 1948 Olympics and returned in 1952. Tokyo first sought the 1960 Games, then pursued 1964 after that bid failed. Hosting the 1958 Asian Games and an IOC session provided opportunities to demonstrate its venues and organisational capacity. The successful bid followed years of rebuilding international sporting connections.

Sports and venues

The programme comprised twenty sports and 163 events in JOC’s classification, including judo and volleyball. Venues were spread across Tokyo and sites in Saitama, Kanagawa, Chiba and Nagano, rather than concentrated in one park.

The women’s volleyball victory

The women’s volleyball tournament was a six-team round robin. Japan won all five matches, concluding with a 3–0 victory over the Soviet Union on 23 October that decided the gold medal. The team drew heavily on the Nichibo Kaizuka company side and had already beaten the Soviet Union for the 1962 world championship. Its Olympic success thus also points to the company teams behind elite competition.

The Paralympics that followed

The Tokyo Paralympics opened on 8 November after the Olympics. Its international programme was for wheelchair users with spinal injuries, alongside a domestic competition including other impairment groups. Work by Yutaka Nakamura and others connected these events to sports rehabilitation and greater social independence.

Postwar growth, transport pressures and metropolitan planning preceded the host decision, while Olympic preparations added deadlines for particular projects. The 1956 Metropolitan Region Development Act had already extended coordinated planning beyond Tokyo itself. The Tokaido Shinkansen opened between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka on 1 October 1964, shortly before the Games. Design also involved several teams: architecture, posters, signs and publications had different contributors. Kamekura designed the official posters, with athlete photographs by Osamu Hayasaki in posters two to four.

Broadcasting combined slow-motion videotape, moving relay vehicles, helicopter signal relays and satellite transmission. Marathon pictures travelled from a moving vehicle through helicopter relays to receiving points. Signals crossed the Pacific live to the United States; European distribution also involved recordings flown onwards by air. These arrangements let viewers follow a race along its route as well as watch events inside stadiums.