Matsuzo Nagai

Matsuzo Nagai studied at the Tokyo Imperial University, later becoming a career diplomat. He was a part of the Japanese delegation to the League of Nations in 1920, and later served as Japanese Ambassador to Sweden and Finland from 1925-30, for which he was awarded the Grand Cross Royal Swedish Order of the Polar Star in 1928, and Germany in 1933-34. Nagai was Minister of Transportation in Japan in 1936 and supported Naval expansion plans.

Nagai was Secretary-General of the 1940 Tokyo Organizing Committee. After World War II he helped with the return of Japan to the Olympic Movement. Nagai was co-opted onto the IOC in June 1939, and served until May 1950, when he resigned under unusual circumstances. Ryotaro Azuma was asked in 1950 by IOC President Sigfrid Edström to attend the IOC Session in København to present himself as a future IOC Member. However, on his arrival it was noted that there were already two Japanese IOC Members and there was no place for Azuma. A cable was sent to Nagai, who was then 73-years-old and in ill health and he solved the problem by offering to resign from the IOC in favor of Azuma.