Tokyo Olympics

The first Summer Olympics held in Asia. The Shinkansen bullet train opened just before the games.

Held from 10 to 24 October 1964, the Tokyo Olympics were the first Olympic Games in Asia. Japan used them to show the world it had recovered from defeat and achieved rapid economic growth. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Shin-Ōsaka opened on 1 October, just before the games, and new expressways and stadiums were built. In the same year Japan joined the OECD.

The final torchbearer was Yoshinori Sakai, a young man born in Hiroshima Prefecture on the day the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima. For the first time the games were broadcast live across the Pacific via communications satellite. South Korea won three medals, including silvers for Jang Chang-sun in wrestling and Jeong Shin-jo in boxing.