Olympic Rings Day

What Is Olympic Rings Day?

Every June 14th is "Olympic Rings Day" (五輪旗制定記念日, Gorin-ki Seitei Kinenbi) in Japan. On June 14, 1914, at a ceremony in Paris marking the 20th anniversary of the founding of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), IOC President Pierre de Coubertin unveiled the Olympic flag — five interlocked rings in blue, yellow, black, green, and red on a white background. This design, created by Coubertin himself, has become one of the most recognized symbols in the world, representing the Olympic movement's vision of international sporting cooperation across all nations.

The Olympic Rings

Pierre de Coubertin designed the five interlocked rings to represent the five continents of the world united by the Olympic movement. The six colors of the flag — the five ring colors plus white — were chosen because "every national flag in the world includes at least one of these colors." The rings have appeared on every Olympic flag since the 1920 Antwerp Games and are protected as one of the world's most valuable intellectual properties, owned by the IOC.

Japan and the Olympics

Japan has a deep and distinctive relationship with the Olympic movement. Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964 — a transformative moment in Japan's postwar history and the occasion that drove the construction of the Shinkansen and the modernization of Tokyo's infrastructure. Sapporo hosted the Winter Olympics in 1972, and Nagano in 1998. Tokyo hosted the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in 2021, in the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan has produced numerous Olympic champions across swimming, gymnastics, wrestling, judo, and athletics.

Judo at the Olympics

Japan's most distinctive Olympic contribution is judo — the martial art developed by Jigorō Kanō that became an Olympic sport at the 1964 Tokyo Games (chosen to honor the host nation). Japan has dominated Olympic judo competition, winning more total medals than any other nation in the sport's Olympic history, and judo is the sport most closely associated with Japan in the global Olympic imagination.

Fun Facts

• 1964 legacy: The 1964 Tokyo Olympics are credited with the construction of the Shinkansen, expressway network, and much of Tokyo's modern infrastructure — establishing a pattern of using Olympic hosting as a driver of national infrastructure investment that Japan followed again in the 2021 Games.
• Olympic truce: The ancient Greek tradition of the "Olympic truce" (Ekecheiria) — suspending warfare during the Games — has been revived as a modern UN resolution, with Japan consistently supporting the truce resolution in recognition of the Olympic movement's peace-promotion role.