Isamu Sonoda (園田 勇, Sonoda Isamu, born 4 November 1946) is a Japanese retired Olympic champion judoka who competed in the middleweight division (–80 kg) at the 1976 Summer Olympics.
Sonoda had competed in the All-Japan Judo Championships 10 times from age 19, but Shozo Fujii had won the competition for three consecutive years prior to 1976, when the championship served as the qualifier for the 1976 Summer Olympics, and was seen as a lock for Japan's Olympic judo team.
However, Sonoda defeated Fujii by a very close decision, gained his first appearance at the Olympics at age 29.
[3] He defeated Valeriy Dvoinikov of the Soviet Union by koka from an Osoto Gari in the finals to capture the gold medal.
[4] He worked as a judo instructor for the Fukuoka prefectural police, and one of his pupils, Kie Kusakabe, appeared in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics.