Japan competed at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 213 competitors, 153 men and 60 women, took part in 119 events in 20 sports.^[1]

In their second Olympic archery competition, Japan won a silver medal and placed third on the national leaderboard for the sport. The medal was won by Hiroshi Michinaga. Two men and two women competed for Japan.

Women's Individual Competition:

• Minako Sato — 2308 points (→ 14th place)
• Kyoko Yamazaki — 2094 points (→ 26th place)

Men's Individual Competition:

• Hiroshi Michinaga — 2502 points (→ Silver Medal)
• Takanobu Nishi — 2422 points (→ 8th place)

Men's 10.000 metres

• Toshiaki Kamata

• Heat — 28:36.21 (→ did not advance)

Men's Marathon

• Shigeru So — 2:18:26 (→ 20th place)
• Noriyasu Mizukami — 2:18:44 (→ 21st place)
• Akio Usami — 2:22:29 (→ 32nd place)

Men's High Jump

• Katsumi Fukura

• Qualification — 2.13m (→ did not advance)

• Kazunori Koshikawa

• Qualification — 2.13m (→ did not advance)

Men's 20 km Race Walk

• Yoshio Morikawa — 1:42:20 (→ 34th place)

Men's team competition

• Preliminary round (group A):

• Lost to Canada (76-104)
• Lost to Mexico (90-108)
• Lost to Cuba (56-97)
• Lost to Soviet Union (69-123)
• Lost to Australia (79-117)

• Classification Match:

• 9th/11th place: Lost to Puerto Rico (91-111) → 11th place

• Team roster

• Shigeaki Abe
• Nobuo Chigusa
• Satoshi Mori
• Shoji Yuki
• Yutaka Fujimoto
• Hirofumi Numata
• Kiyohide Kuwata
• Koji Yamamoto
• Shigeto Shimizu
• Fumio Saito
• Norihiko Kitahara
• Hideki Hamaguchi

• Head coach: Masahiko Yoshida.

Women's team competition

• Team roster

• Kimiko Hashimoto
• Kazuko Kadoya
• Kimi Wakitashiro
• Mieko Fukui
• Miyako Otsuka
• Miho Matsuoka
• Kazuyo Hayashida
• Teruko Miyamoto
• Keiko Namai
• Reiko Aonuma
• Sachiyo Yamamoto
• Misako Satake

• Head coach: Masatoshi Ozaki

Men's Light Flyweight (– 48 kg)

• Noboru Uchizama
  1. First Round — Lost to Brendan Dunne (IRL), RSC-2

Men's Flyweight (– 51 kg)

• Toshinori Koga
  1. First Round — Bye
  2. Second Round — Defeated Virgilio Palomo (COL), 5:0
  3. Third Round — Lost to Ramón Duvalón (CUB), 0:5

Five cyclists represented Japan in 1976.

Sprint

• Yoshikazu Cho — 5th place

1000m time trial

• Yoshikazu Cho — 1:09.664 (→ 17th place)

Individual pursuit

• Yoichi Machishima — 15th place

Team pursuit

• Yoichi Machishima
• Tadashi Ogasawara
• Yoshiaki Ogasawara
• Tsutomu Okabori

Eight fencers, four men and four women, represented Japan in 1976.

Men's foil

• Masanori Kawatsu
• Noriyuki Sato
• Toshio Jingo

Men's team foil

• Masanori Kawatsu, Hideaki Kamei, Toshio Jingo, Noriyuki Sato

Women's foil

• Hideko Oka
• Yukari Kajihara
• Mariko Yoshikawa

Women's team foil

• Hideko Oka, Mariko Yoshikawa, Hiroko Kamada, Yukari Kajihara

Three male pentathletes represented Japan in 1976.

Men's Individual Competition:

• Shoji Uchida — 4850 points (→ 31st place)
• Akira Kubo — 4700 points (→ 37th place)
• Hiroyuki Kawazoe — 4591 points (→ 40th place)

Men's Team Competition:

• Uchida, Kubo, and Kawazoe — 14234 points (→ 12th place)

Open

Men's team competition

• Preliminary round (group B)

• Defeated Italy (3-0)
• Defeated Brazil (3-0)
• Lost to Soviet Union (0-3)

• Semi Finals

• Lost to Poland (2-3)

• Bronze Medal Match

• Lost to Cuba (0-3) → Fourth place

• Team roster

• Taka Maruiyama
• Katsutoshi Nekoda
• Katsumi Oda
• Tetsuo Nishimoto
• Yassunori Yassuda
• Yoshi Fukao
• Shoichi Yanagimoto
• Mikiyasu Tanaka
• Tadayoshi Yokota
• Seiji Ohko
• Kinji Shimaoka
• Tetsuo Satō

• Head coach: Tsutomu Koyama

Women's team competition

• Preliminary round (group A)

• Defeated Hungary (3-0)
• Defeated Peru (3-0)
• Defeated Canada (3-0)

• Semi Finals

• Defeated South Korea (3-0)

• Final

• Defeated Soviet Union (3-0) → Gold Medal

• Team roster

• Takako Iida
• Mariko Okamoto
• Echiko Maeda
• Noriko Matsuda
• Takako Shirai
• Kiyomi Kato
• Yuko Arakida
• Katsuko Kanesaka
• Mariko Yoshida
• Shoko Takayanagi
• Hiromi Yano
• Juri Yokoyama

• Head coach: Shigeo Yamada