1972 in Japan

Events in the year 1972 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 47 (昭和47年) in the Japanese calendar.

← 1971 1970 1969 1972 in Japan → 1973 1974 1975
Decades:	1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
See also:	Other events of 1972 History of Japan Timeline Years

Incumbents

• Emperor: Hirohito^[1]
• Prime minister: Eisaku Satō (Liberal Democratic) until July 7, Kakuei Tanaka (Liberal Democratic)
• Chief Cabinet Secretary: Noboru Takeshita until July 7, Susumu Nikaido
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Kazuto Ishida
• President of the House of Representatives: Naka Funada until November 13, Umekichi Nakamura from December 22
• President of the House of Councillors: Kenzō Kōno

Governors

• Aichi Prefecture: Mikine Kuwahara
• Akita Prefecture: Yūjirō Obata
• Aomori Prefecture: Shunkichi Takeuchi
• Chiba Prefecture: Taketo Tomonō
• Ehime Prefecture: Haruki Shiraishi
• Fukui Prefecture: Heidayū Nakagawa
• Fukuoka Prefecture: Hikaru Kamei
• Fukushima Prefecture: Morie Kimura
• Gifu Prefecture: Saburō Hirano
• Gunma Prefecture: Konroku Kanda
• Hiroshima Prefecture: Iduo Nagano
• Hokkaido: Naohiro Dōgakinai
• Hyogo Prefecture: Tokitada Sakai
• Ibaraki Prefecture: Nirō Iwakami
• Ishikawa Prefecture: Yōichi Nakanishi
• Iwate Prefecture: Tadashi Chida
• Kagawa Prefecture: Masanori Kaneko
• Kagoshima Prefecture: Saburō Kanemaru
• Kanagawa Prefecture: Bunwa Tsuda
• Kochi Prefecture: Masumi Mizobuchi
• Kumamoto Prefecture: Issei Sawada
• Kyoto Prefecture: Torazō Ninagawa
• Mie Prefecture: Satoru Tanaka (until 7 November); Ryōzō Tagawa (starting 24 December)
• Miyagi Prefecture: Sōichirō Yamamoto
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Hiroshi Kuroki
• Nagano Prefecture: Gon'ichirō Nishizawa
• Nagasaki Prefecture: Kan'ichi Kubo
• Nara Prefecture: Ryozo Okuda
• Niigata Prefecture: Shiro Watari
• Oita Prefecture: Masaru Taki
• Okayama Prefecture: Takenori Kato (until 11 November); Shiro Nagano (starting 12 November)
• Okinawa Prefecture: Chōbyō Yara (starting 15 May)
• Osaka Prefecture: Ryōichi Kuroda
• Saga Prefecture: Sunao Ikeda
• Saitama Prefecture: Hiroshi Kurihara (until 12 July); Yawara Hata (starting 13 July)
• Shiga Prefecture: Kinichiro Nozaki
• Shiname Prefecture: Seiji Tsunematsu
• Shizuoka Prefecture: Yūtarō Takeyama
• Tochigi Prefecture: Nobuo Yokokawa
• Tokushima Prefecture: Yasunobu Takeichi
• Tokyo: Ryōkichi Minobe
• Tottori Prefecture: Jirō Ishiba
• Toyama Prefecture: Kokichi Nakada
• Wakayama Prefecture: Masao Ohashi
• Yamagata Prefecture: Tōkichi Abiko
• Yamaguchi Prefecture: Masayuki Hashimoto
• Yamanashi Prefecture: Kunio Tanabe

Events

• January 24 - Two hunters discover Yokoi Shōichi, a former lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army who lived in a cave in Guam for 28 years after the end of World War II. Upon his return to Japan on February 2, he proclaimed, "it is with much shame that I return."
• February 3–13 - The 1972 Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
• February 19-28 – Asama-Sanso incident occurs in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture.^{[citation needed]}
• May 12 – Industrial robot brand, Fanuc was founded in Yamanashi Prefecture.^{[citation needed]}
• May 13 - A fire at the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka kills 118, injures 78.
• May 15 - Okinawa returned to Japan after being occupied by the United States military for 27 years.
• July 3 to 13 - A heavy torrential rain with debris flow hit Kyushu and Shikoku area, according to Fire and Disaster Management official confirmed report, 447 people were killed, while another 1056 person were injured.^[2]
• July 5 - Kakuei Tanaka replaces Eisaku Satō as Prime Minister.
• July 21 – MOS Burger was founded.^{[citation needed]}
• November 6 - An express passenger train caught fire in Hokuriku Rail Tunnel in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, according to Japan Transport Ministry official confirmed report, 31 people died, and 714 people were injured.^[3]
• December 10 - General election of 1972 - Liberal Democratic Party win 271 out of 491 seats.

Births

Junko Takeuchi

Yūko Miyamura

• January 7 – Tamakasuga Ryōji, sumo wrestler
• January 8 – Ryō Tamura, comedian
• January 10 – Shuntaro Furukawa, businessman
• January 13
  • Yukiko Iwai, voice actress
  • Akinori Otsuka, baseball pitcher
• January 17 – Ken Hirai, singer-songwriter
• January 22 - Romi Park, voice actress
• January 24 – Junko Kubo, announcer and presenter
• January 28 – Tsuyoshi Shinjo, baseball player
• January 29 – Masaru Hamaguchi, comedian
• February 2 – Hisashi Tonomura, musician
• February 5 – Koriki Chōshū, comedian
• February 7 – Akiko Suwanai, violinist
• February 8 – Hiroshi Tsuchida, actor and voice actor
• February 17 - Yuki Isoya, singer
• March 10 - Takashi Fujii (Matthew Minami), television performer
• March 29 - Junichi Suwabe, voice actor
• April 5 - Junko Takeuchi, voice actress
• April 30 - Takako Tokiwa, voice actress
• May 6 - Naoko Takahashi, long-distance runner
• May 16 - Hideki Naganuma, DJ and composer^[4]
• May 21 - Kaoru Fujino, voice actress
• May 30 - Sōichirō Hoshi, voice actor
• July 1 – Tetsu Inada, voice actor
• July 5 - Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Zainichi-Korean wrestler
• July 8 - Shōsuke Tanihara, actor
• July 14 - Masami Suzuki, voice actress
• July 19 – Naohito Fujiki, actor and singer
• July 27
  • Takako Fuji, actress
  • Takashi Shimizu, director
• August 3 - Atsunori Inaba, baseball coach and former player
• August 14 - Takako Honda, voice actress
• August 20 - Anna Umemiya, model
• September 8 - Tomokazu Seki, voice actor
• September 10 - Rio Tahara, snowboarder
• September 20 – Sawa Suzuki, actress
• September 29 – Taizo Son, entrepreneur and investor
• October 9 - Kōki Miyata, voice actor
• October 19 - Sayaka Aoki, voice actress
• October 21 - Masakazu Morita, voice actor
• October 29 - Takafumi Horie, entrepreneur
• November 1 - Naoki Yanagi, voice actor
• November 9 - Naomi Shindou, voice actor
• November 13 - Takuya Kimura, member of SMAP and actor
• December 3 - Saki Takaoka, actress
• December 4 - Yūko Miyamura, voice actress and singer
• December 12 - Arihito Muramatsu, baseball player
• December 13 - Jun Itoda, comedian
• December 14 - Kiriko Nananan, manga artist
• December 18 - Shinji Takeda, actor
• December 19 - Hideki Niwa, politician
• December 20 - Takeshi Rikio, professional wrestler
• December 22 - Takayuki Yokoyama, football player
• December 28 - Shinobu Terajima, actress

Deaths

• February 17 – Taiko Hirabayashi, writer (b. 1905)
• April 16 - Yasunari Kawabata, writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• August 24 – Jinichi Kusaka, admiral (b. 1888)
• August 26 - Goroku Amemiya, photographer (b. 1886)
• October 4 - Tarō Shōji, popular song singer (b. 1898)

See also

• 1972 in Japanese television
• List of Japanese films of 1972