Six of the 8 quarterfinalists from the 2016 Games returned: silver medalist Jean-Charles Valladont of France, bronze medalist Brady Ellison of the United States, fourth-place finisher Sjef van den Berg of the Netherlands, and quarterfinalists Mauro Nespoli of Italy, Taylor Worth of Australia, and Takaharu Furukawa of Japan.

The 12 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) that qualify for the men's team event (including the host, Japan) enter the 3 team members in the individual event as well.

Competition begins with a ranking round, in which each archer shoots 72 arrows.

The scores from the ranking round are used to seed the archers into a single-elimination bracket.

If the match is tied 5–5 after 5 sets, a single tie-breaker arrow is to be used with the closest to center winning.