National Olympic Stadium

The National Olympic Stadium (sometimes known as the National Kasumigaoka Stadium) is located in Shinjuku and was the main stadium of the 1964 Olympic Games which was the first time the Olympics had been held in Asia.

The Winter Olympics were to be held in Sapporo in 1940, but were moved to St Moritz Switzerland due to the Sino-Japanese War with China and then later cancelled all together. Sapporo got its chance in 1972 and 1998 they were held in Nagano. The have been several bids from other Japanese cities but Tokyo’s 64 Games remains the countries only summer games.

The main Olympic stadium holds just over 60,000 people and the biggest games of the year is the Emperors’ Cup which is held on New Years Day and the J League Cup held in November. The arena is used for soccer and athletics all year round and was actually built for the 1958 Asian games and upgraded for the 64’ Olympics.

The stadium has a very interesting museum which takes up two levels. The first floor is a small transitional exhibition while the upper level has much more to offer with a very good story of the Olympic Games in Japan including scale models of ancient Olympia and memorabilia from the Tokyo Games including the Olympic Torch, uniforms, medals photographs and medals. A tour of the museum also includes a tour of the stadium. The centre is open most days between buisness hours but closed every second Tuesday.

Rail is the easist way to get to the stadium is from Sendagaya or Shinanomachi stations along the JR Chuo-Sobu Line; from Kokuritsu Kyogijo Station on the Toei Oedo Line; and from Gaien-mae Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line.