Features of the Tokyo 1964 Summer Olympics records held in the National Archives of Japan

Abstract

The Games of the 18th Olympiad (hereafter, the " Tokyo Olympic Games " ), held in Tokyo in 1964, were not only organized and run by the host city of Tokyo. An Olympic organizing committee chaired by the Prime Minister was established after the Olympic bid, involving relevant ministers and permanent vice ministers. After Tokyo won the bid, each of the ministries and agencies—including the Justice, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Health and Welfare,Agriculture and Forestry, Trade and Industry, Transportation, Postal Services and Telecommunications, Construction, Home Affairs, and Defense Ministries—carried out collaborative projects in order to host the event. These projects were largely run with the Ministry of Education, which was in charge of sports administration. The Tokyo Olympic Games was a major event and the product of a truly nationwide effort. Documents created for Olympics-related projects exist across government agencies. In order to thoroughly understand these cross-agency documents, this paper summarizes the projects carried out by the national government, its ministries and other organs, reviewing the documents on a project basis. This provides a complete picture of Olympic-related documents held in the National Archives of Japan, and reveals that the existence of documents varied depending on the project.