The 60-year-old had served as vice-president and will replace the outgoing Shoji Muneoka following a vote by Board members.

Yamashita will now lead the Federation in the build-up to the 2020 Olympic Games on home soil in Tokyo.

"We'll aim for judo that puts emphasis on manner and one with dignity," said Yamashita, according to The Japan Times.

"I'll dedicate all my strength to create a world of judo that children yearn for, one where they can proudly say they do judo.

"The whole judo community will make thorough efforts to hone the potential the youngsters have.

"I'm excited thinking about what sorts of judoka will come through, and how they'd perform against overseas opponents.

"I'm sure they will meet the expectations of the public."

In his only appearance at the Olympics at Los Angeles in 1984, Yamashita tore a right calf muscle in his preliminary round match but still managed to reach the final in the open division against Mohamed Ali Rashwan of Egypt.

Yamashita sensationally won the gold medal after Rashwan refused to aim for his opponent's injured leg throughout the contest.

Rashwan was given an award from the International Fair Play Committee as a result.

As well as his Olympic title, Yamashita also won four World Championship gold medals for Japan, the country where judo was created by Jigoro Kano.

He won the over-95 kilograms title in Paris in 1979, in Maastricht in 1981 and in Moscow in 1983. 

He also won the open category in Maastricht.

Yamashita was inducted into the International Judo Federation Hall of Fame in 2015.

Muneoka took office in August 2013 after he replaced Haruki Uemura.

Uemura, an Olympic gold medallist at Montreal 1976, stepped down having come under considerable pressure amid revelations of violence being used against female judoka at athletes' training camps in the run up to the 2012 Olympics in London.