Table tennis player Ai Fukuhara carried the Japanese flag and led fellow Olympians into the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games on Friday night.

Japan sent 339 athletes to Beijing, its largest ever team to join a global competition outside the island country.

The 19-year-old Fukuhara, judoka Keiji Suzuki and swimmer Kosuke Kitajima are the best known among the Japanese team. The eldest athlete is 67-year-old equestrian Hiroshi Hoketsu, and 15-year-old Koko Tsurumi of women's artistic gymnastics is the youngest.

Japan made its debut in the Olympics in 1912 and had 19 summer appearances since then. Tennis players Ichiya Kumagae and Seiichiro Kashio won Japan's first Olympic medals in Antwerp in 1920. The pair won silver in men's doubles, while Kumagae also won silver in the men's singles.

Japan hosted Asia's first summer Olympics in Tokyo in 1964 and the continent's first Winter Games in Sapporo in 1972. Nagano held the Winter Olympics in 1998.

Judo was introduced into the 1964 Olympic Games, in which Japanese won three of the four judo golds on offer.

Japan won 16 golds in the 2004 Athens Olympics, finishing the fifth overall. The last time they won that many was in 1964.

Judokas seized half of Japan's golden haul in Athens. Tadahiro Monura is looking forward to his fourth consecutive Olympic gold in the men's 60kg class and Ryoko Tani is going for her third straight title in the women's under-48kg division.

Among other medal hopefuls are women wrestlers. The "Fantastic Four" of Chiharu Icho, Saori Yoshida, Kaori Icho and Kyoko Hamaguchi won two golds, one silver and one bronze in the sport's Olympic debut in Athens. Among them there are 17 world championships golds.

Double swimming champion Kosuke Kitajima and Mizuki Noguchi of women's marathon will also be Japan's gold hopes.

"We are targeting at least 10 golds and more than 30 medals," said Tomiaki Fukuda, Japanese chef-de-mission.

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2008)