Olympic expectations for Japan Judo team are extremely high

The Japanese team is under pressure of its own expectations. Again the Olympic Games will take place in Tokyo in the famous Budokan. Never the world wide eyes were so bog on Japan’s performances. 57 years ago the Tokyo Games were the start of world wide Judo recognition. Japan nominated a strong team of 14 athletes and any athlete can take a medal.

Naohisa Takato will compete in the men's 60kg category on the first day of the Olympics. “I had enough of the humiliating experience of ending up with a bronze medal in Rio," Takato said. "In the Tokyo Olympics, I’ll definitely seize the gold. With whatever kind of judo, however unrefined that could be, I’ll get a gold medal and play ‘Kimigayo’ (Japan’s national anthem) in the awarding ceremony.”

As if this eight-day tournament wasn’t already significant enough, the players will compete at the Nippon Budokan, the hallowed arena built for the first Olympic judo events. Japan won three of the four available gold medals in 1964 at the Budokan, now considered the spiritual home of martial arts.

“It’s such a lucky opportunity to attend the Olympics in Japan where judo was born," Japanese 100kg Olympian Aaron Wolf said. “I want to win on this stage. My goal is a gold medal.”

That's true for every player on Japan's loaded team, which is expected to add to its historical haul of 39 gold medals and 84 total medals in judo, both more than in any other sport in its long Olympic history.

Just how stacked is this Japanese lineup? The All Japan Judo Federation sent none of its Olympic team members to the World Judo Championships in Budapest this summer, yet Japan's backups still came home with six golds, four silvers, two bronzes — far more medals than any other nation — and a perfect performance to win the mixed team competition.

That led to interesting post-match scenes such as in the men's 66kg division, where Japan's Joshiro Maruyama won gold by beating Olympic-bound Manuel Lombardo. The Italian is ranked No. 1 in the world, but Lombardo said he had been discouraged from competing in Budapest because a loss to a Japanese second-stringer might affect him negatively heading to Tokyo.

Maruyama missed out on the Olympics last December after an epic, winner-take-all match — the first of its kind in Olympic team history — at the Kodokan against Hifumi Abe, who won 20 minutes into golden score. Millions of fans watched on Japanese TV, and millions more caught it online around the world.

Maruyama and Lombardo still embraced after their bout, sharing the camaraderie and sportsmanship for which their sport is justly famed.

“Since Lombardo is fighting in the Games and I didn't qualify, I wanted to give a big cheer for him,” Maruyama said through a translator.

All of Japan’s stars will be tested, and not all are gold medal favorites. The rest of the world has dynamic champions, and 2.05m heavyweight Teddy Riner, who won two Olympic gold medals and went undefeated in 154 consecutive matches for a full decade from 2010 to 2020 until he lost twice last year, including a surprise defeat handed out by Japan's Kageura Kokoro.

Kokoro won’t be in the Olympics, however: Hisayoshi Harasawa, who lost to Riner in the Olympic final in Rio de Janeiro five years ago, was picked for another shot at the games.

Riner will attempt to win a medal in his fourth straight Olympics. Three consecutive gold medals would equal Tadahiro Nomura's Olympic judo record.