Japan at the 1928 Summer Olympics Japan at the 1928 Summer Olympics The Empire of Japan competed at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Japan Amateur Athletic Federation ("Nihon Rikujo Kyogi Renmei"), founded in 1925, officially took over sponsorship of the Japanese Olympic team from the Japan Amateur Athletic Association in 1928. Japanese government sponsorship of the Olympic effort continued, both financially, and through expansion of the annual Meiji Shrine Games to include a wider variety of sports, including archery, basketball, field hockey, rowing, table tennis, volleyball and equestrian sports. The games became the qualifying event for the Japanese Olympic team, which now for
Summer Olympic Games the time. Numbers declined for the 1904 Games in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, due in part to the lengthy transatlantic boat trip required of the European competitors, and the integration with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair, which again spread the event out over an extended period. In contrast with Paris 1900, the word "Olympic" was used for practically every contest, including those exclusively for school boys or for Irish-Americans. A series of smaller games were held in Athens in 1906. The IOC does not currently recognise these games as being official Olympic Games, although many historians do. The