said Wednesday it will send 109 athletes and as many officials to next month's Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, cutting back on an earlier plan to send a 224-member delegation.
Though still the largest Japanese delegation for a Winter Olympics outside Japan, the number was reduced by six after the Ski Association of Japan decided last Friday to forgo sending athletes in three Alpine skiing events because of poor performances.
The size of the delegation is less than the 313 athletes and officials who took part for Japan at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, but doubles the 110-strong delegation dispatched to the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
Masahiko Harada, a member of the gold medal-winning ski jumping team in Nagano, has been officially named captain of the Japanese team bound for Salt Lake City in his fourth straight Olympic appearance.
Speedskater Eriko Sammiya will serve as flag bearer at the Feb. 8 opening ceremony, but figure skater Yoshie Onda will stand in for Sammiya when the JOC formally launches the delegation at a ceremony in Tokyo on Feb. 2.
The team will be comprised of 61 male and 48 female athletes in skiing, skating, bobsled, luge, skeleton and curling.