Japan Tokyo
XVIII Summer International Olympic Games

The 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia. 5152 athletes (including 678 female ones) of 93 nations competed at the Games.
For the first time, the Olympic community welcomed athletes of Algeria, Ivory Cost, Dominican Republic, Cameroon, Congo (Brazzaville), Malagasy Republic, Malaysia (including Malaya, Northern Borneo and Singapore that earlier were represented at the Olympics by individual delegations), Mali, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, Senegal, Tanganyika and Zanzibar.
South Africa was barred from taking part in the Games due to its apartheid system.
The USSR delegation included 319 athletes who competed in all scheduled sport events but for football and field hockey.
Totally 163 sets of medals had been played for in 23 sports at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Tokyo Olympics featured a higher profile of competition in the majority of sport events. While at the preceding Games the number of athletes of the higher class was relatively insignificant, at the Tokyo Games this number was radically higher.
The Athlete’s Oath was voiced by famous Japanese male gymnast, Olympic Champion Takashi Ono. The Olympic Torch was brought to the Stadium by 19-year old Japanese male student Yoshinori Sakai. Yoshinori Sakai was born in Hiroshima on that August day of 1945, when the American A-bomb demolished this city. Yoshinori Sakai became the symbol of life that defeats death.
The Games of the XVIII Olympiad were officially opened by Japanese Emperor Hirohito.

WINNER MEDALS
The design of the obverse and reverse sides of the medal is almost a replica of that of the preceding Games. The difference is the legend reading the host city and date of the XVIII Summer Olympics plus the sport concerned indicated below the legend on the medal obverse. These modifications in the design were expected as far back as the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne but in fact they have been implemented at the Tokyo Olympics.
As distinct from the Rome Olympics, the new medal was configured with a new element, a removable frame with a lug to suspend the medal from a silk ribbon with five stripes of Olympic colors.
OBVERSE: a figure of the Greek Goddess of Victory, holding a laurel wreath in her right hand, hand raised, and a palm leaf in her left hand. On the left of the goddess, there is a Panathenaean amphora standing on a shelf rock, with depicted competing athletes. A view of an amphitheatre looking like the Roman Coliseum appears on the right of the goddess. A four-line inscription in English reading “XVIII – Olympiad – Tokyo – 1964” is engraved in the right upper segment. The fifth line in this particular case reads “GYMNASTICS”.
REVERSE: a scene of an Olympic champion with a palm leaf in his left hand carried in triumph by other athletes; his right hand is raised to hail. The designer’s initials “G.C.” (Giuseppe Cassioli) are engraved at the right edge of the medal next to an athlete figure.

COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL
OBVERSE: a scene of stylized athletes running rightward and reaching the finish line, and swimmer or gymnast on the right, with an olive branch in the middle. The name of the designer in English “Okamoto Таro” is engraved around the left rim.
REVERSE: a composition of the Olympic rings and two-line inscription in English ”XVIII - Olympiad” over the rings, with the same two-line text in Japanese underneath. A two-line English inscription below the rings reads “Tokyo – 1964”

GOLD WINNER MEDAL (FIRST PRIZE)

Metal	silver-gilt
Diameter	63 mm
Thickness	5 mm
Weight	102,6 g
Designer	Ciuseppe Cassioli/ Toshikaka Koshiba
Mint	Japanese Mint (Tokyo, Japan)

SILVER WINNER MEDAL (SECOND PRIZE) 

Metal	silver
Diameter	63 mm
Thickness	3,6 mm
Weight	102 g
Designer	Ciuseppe Cassioli/ Toshikaka Koshiba
Mint	Japanese Mint (Tokyo, Japan)

BRONZE WINNER MEDAL (THIRD PRIZE) 

Metal	bronze
Diameter	63 mm
Thickness	3,6 mm
Weight	102 g
Designer	Ciuseppe Cassioli/ Toshikaka Koshiba
Mint	Japanese Mint (Tokyo, Japan)

COMMEMORATIVE MEDAL