In 1964, the Olympic Games were held in the Japanese capital, Tokyo. These were the first Games in Asia in the modern history of the Olympics. Their implementation in the "island empire", relatively recently defeated in World War II, was a very important step for Japan on the path of reintegration into modern civilization.
Voting at the venue of the XVIII Summer Olympic Games took place in Munich at the 55th session of the International Olympic Committee. This happened in 1959, besides Tokyo, two European capitals - Austrian Vienna and Belgian Brussels - were contenders, and American Detroit was also nominated. Tokyo's advantage turned out to be absolute - already in the first round, 34 votes were cast for it, while all other candidates gained only 24 votes in total. Therefore, subsequent rounds of voting were not needed and the capital of Japan got the opportunity to host the Olympics for the second time. The previous attempt to host the Olympic Games in Japan was in the XII Summer Games of 1940, which were first moved to Finland due to the Japanese attack on China, and then canceled altogether due to the outbreak of World War II.
Tokyo is a multi-million dollar city on the largest of the Japanese islands (Honshu). The capital of Japan was already one of the largest cities in the world in the 18th century. Although the settlements on the territory of today's Tokyo date back to the Stone Age, its official history begins with a fort built in the 12th century at the entrance to the bay on the Pacific coast. Then this settlement was called Edo, and the city became the capital in 1869, when it received its modern name.
By the time preparations for the Olympics began in the country, an economic upturn began, and the holding of such a major international forum became a catalyst in many areas of the capital's development. By the start of the games, the city infrastructure and communications were significantly improved - a high-speed tram was launched, the airport was modernized, and the laying of a communication cable in the United States was completed. For the first time, it became possible to broadcast the Olympics via a communications satellite. Six new sports facilities were built in the city and dozens of existing ones were modernized - in total, 33 of them were involved in the XVIII Summer Games.
Emperor Hirohito officially opened the Olympics on October 10, 1964, and the closing ceremony took place on October 24. In two weeks, more than 5100 athletes from 93 countries competed for 163 sets of awards. The largest number of them (96) could be won by the Olympians from the Soviet national team, and the US athletes were only 6 medals behind, but by the same amount they were ahead of their rivals from the USSR in the number of gold awards.
