The first Olympic Winter Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France, 28 years after the staging of the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896. At the Chamonix Games, approximately 250 athletes from 16 countries took part in four sports and 14 events.

No Games were held in 1940 and 1944 because of World War II, but the Winter Games were revived in 1948, when the fifth Games were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Japan hosted its first Olympic Games in 1964--a summer event in Tokyo. This was a symbolic undertaking that showed how the nation had bounced back after World War II. Shinkansen ("bullet train") service was launched between Tokyo and Osaka, and a network of inner-city expressways was built in Tokyo, transforming the city into a modern metropolis.

Ownership of TV sets was just beginning to grow at around this time, but color sets were still quite rare. Japanese people were glued to broadcast images of the Games on their black-and-white sets.

In 1972 Japan hosted its second Olympic contest, the Winter Games of Sapporo. So the Nagano Games will be the country's third Olympics. This time around, 34 years after the Tokyo Games, many people will be following the action on high-definition TV sets with clearer, more dynamic images than ordinary color sets.