Judo at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games was contested from 1 to 3 November, with the weight categories spread across the three days.
Dakar 2026 is the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games and the first Olympic sports event to be held on African soil. The Games run from 31 October to 13 November.
Japan have entered one athlete: Arai Naito, a second-year student at Saitama Sakae High School, in the men’s 100 kg. Kurose Ryo of the Metropolitan Police Department travels as coach, making a delegation of two.
The weight categories were spread across the three days: 1 November covered the men’s -55 kg and -66 kg and the women’s -44 kg; 2 November the men’s -81 kg and the women’s -52 kg and -63 kg; and 3 November the men’s -100 kg and the women’s -78 kg.
Arai is the only Japanese judoka listed for the Games on the All Japan Judo Federation’s delegation page.
In the men’s -100 kg on 3 November, ARAI Naito took bronze. Tajus Babaicenko of Lithuania won gold, Jurabek Eshpulatov of Uzbekistan took silver, and Don De Dieu Igiraneza of Burundi shared bronze.
