Water Polo at the 1964 Summer Olympics

The 1964 aquatics events were held at the Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo (Yoyogi National Gymnasium) in the Shibuya section of Tokyo. The arena also hosted swimming, diving, and swimming section of the modern pentathlon. Seating over 13,000 people, the facility had been built between 1961-64 specifically for the Tokyo Olympics. It was the first indoor pool for Olympic water polo, although this would become somewhat standard.

The 1964 water polo format consisted of four preliminary groups with two teams from each group advancing to two semi-final groups. From there the top two in each semi-final group moved into the medal round, with the other four teams contesting a round-robin consolation pool for places 5-8. In the semi-finals pools, match scores from the preliminary rounds were carried over, and in the final pool, match scores from the semi-final pools were carried over.