Japan competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, United States.

In the nation's sixth Olympic archery competition, three of Japan's five archers won their first matches.

They got off to a rough start, losing three of their first four games to Australia, Cuba, and the United States.

Since Japan had beaten Nicaragua in head-to-head competition, they won the tie-breaker and faced the United States in the semifinals rather than the Cubans, which had not lost any of their 16 games in the 1992 and 1996 Olympiads.

Japan defeated the United States to advance to the final, where they became the Cubans' 18th victim (Nicaragua's loss in the semifinals being the 17th win for Cuba).