As the result of the World War II, Germany, Japan and Bulgaria, under Allied military occupations, were not allowed to send athletes to London.

[3] The team made its debut at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 1954 and immediately achieved success, winning silver in Group All-around, their first world-level medal in the discipline.

While securing their position as 2nd best team in the world, winning silver in Group All-around, they also achieved first Olympic gold medal, with Takashi Ono being the champion in Horizontal Bar.

Ono was also tied with Viktor Chukarin as the most decorated male gymnasts at the Games, winning silvers in All-around and Pommel Horse, and a bronze in Parallel Bars.

Notable names could be mentioned are Sawao Kato, who's holding the record of most Olympics gold medals, Akinori Nakayama, most Olympic and World victories until being surpassed by Kohei Uchimura in 2016, Eizo Kenmotsu, 24 medals including 10 gold, Mitsuo Tsukahara, 15 medals with 9 gold, Yukio Endo, 8 victories and 17 times being on the podium, Takashi Ono, whose glory continued until 1964 Summer Olympics, Shigeru Kasamatsu, Haruhiro Yamashita, Shuji Tsurumi, Nobuyuki Aihara, Takashi Mitsukuri,... Japan defeated the USSR in Team All-around for the first time, ending a decade of Soviet domination in the discipline.

Nobuyuki Aihara also won the floor, and other 2 medals were achieved by Masao Takemoto, with a silver in horizontal bar, and Shuji Tsurumi, the pommel horse bronze medalist.

Another 2 medal of the Japanese team were a silver from the later Olympic and world vault champion, Haruhiro Yamashita and a bronze in pommel horse by Takashi Mitsukuri.

in vault, the defending world runner-up Haruhiro Yamashita became the Olympic champion, and Takuji Hayata bought Japan the first victory in rings.

Akinori Nakayama was the biggest star with 3 championship titles in team, floor, parallel bars, as well as a silver in rings and 2 bronzes in all-around and vault.