1942 in Japan
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{{Year in Japan|1942}}
Events in the year 1942 in Japan.
Incumbents
=Governors=
- Aichi Prefecture: Yukisawa Chiyoji
- Akita Prefecture: Fumi
- Aomori Prefecture: Seiichi Ueda (until 9 June); Shunsuke Yamada (starting 9 June)
- Ehime Prefecture: Masatomi Hatakeda (until 7 July); Ryuichi Fukumoto (starting 7 July)
- Fukui Prefecture:
- until 9 January: Kubota
- 9 January-15 June: Shigeo Miyoshi
- starting 15 June: Nagano Wakamatsu
- Fukushima Prefecture: Sumio Hisakawa (until 7 July); Yoshio Araki (starting 7 July)
- Gifu Prefecture: Tetsushin Sudo (until 23 May); Miyoshi Shigeo (starting 23 May)
- Gunma Prefecture: Goro Murata
- Hiroshima Prefecture: Tokiji Yoshinaga (until 15 June); Saiichiro Miyamura (starting 15 June)
- Ibaraki Prefecture: Kanichi Naito (until 7 October); Tsujiyama (starting 7 October)
- Iwate Prefecture: Yoshifumi Yamauchi (until 15 June); Osamuzo Suzuki (starting 15 June)
- Kagawa Prefecture: Osamu Eianhyaku (until 9 January); Yoshiji Kosuga (starting 9 January)
- Kanagawa Prefecture: Mitsuma Matsumura (until month unknown)
- Kochi Prefecture: Naoaki Hattori (until 7 July); Satoru Okino (starting 7 July)
- Kumamoto Prefecture: Chioji Yukisawa (until 10 June); Hikari Akira (starting 10 June)
- Kyoto Prefecture: Ando Kyoushirou
- Mie Prefecture: Yoshiro Nakano (until 7 October); Koji Soga (starting 7 October)
- Miyagi Prefecture: Nobuo Hayashin (until 7 October); Otomaru Kato (starting 7 October)
- Miyazaki Prefecture: Osafume Katsumi
- Nagano Prefecture: Noburo Suzuki (until 9 January); Nagoya Osamu (starting 9 January)
- Niigata Prefecture: Doi Shohei
- Oita Prefecture: Ito Hisamatsu (starting 6 May)
- Okinawa Prefecture: Hajime Hayakawa
- Saga Prefecture: {{ill|Yue Yue (civil servant)|lt=Yue Yue|ja|生悦住求馬}} (until 23 May); Shogo Tanaka (starting 23 May)
- Saitama Prefecture: Miyano Shozo (until 9 January); Toshio Otsu (starting 9 January)
- Shiname Prefecture: Yasuo Otsubo (until 9 January); Goro Koizumi (starting 9 January)
- Tochigi Prefecture: Saburo Yamagata (until 9 January); Sakurai Yasuemon (starting 9 January)
- Tokyo: Jitsuzo Kawanishi (until 9 January); Matsumura Miro (starting 9 January)
- Toyama Prefecture: Kingo Machimura
- Yamagata Prefecture: Hee Yamauchi (until 7 July); Akira Saito (starting 7 July)
Events
Below, events of World War II have the "WWII" preface
- 11 January – Japanese paratroopers land on Sulawesi.
- 12 January – Japan declares war on the Dutch.
- 22 January – Hideki Tōjō warns Australia that "if you continue resistance, we Japanese will destroy you."
- 4 February – Japan demands the surrender of Singapore.
- 17 February – Singapore is renamed Shōnan ("Light of the South").
- 20 March – The navy minister, Admiral Shigetarō Shimada says that in view of the Allies' "Retaliation and hatred", Japan would no longer follow recognized rules of sea warfare.
- 18 April – Doolittle Raid, the first bombing raid on the Japanese home islands
- 25 May – Four ships leave Hokkaido to stage a diversionary raid on the Aleutian Islands.
- 4–7 June – Battle of Midway
- 21 August – Battle of the Tenaru
- 11–12 October – Battle of Cape Esperance
- 12–15 November – Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
Births
File:Junichiro Koizumi 20010426.jpg]]
- January 8 – Junichiro Koizumi, 56th Prime Minister of Japan
- January 27 – Tasuku Honjo, immunologist
- February 1 – Masa Saito, professional wrestler (d. 2018)
- March 17 – Yoko Yamamoto, actress (d. 2024){{cite web|url=http://talent.yahoo.co.jp/pf/detail/pp1029|title=山本陽子|work=Nihon Tarento Meikan|language=ja|publisher=Yahoo! Japan|access-date=16 March 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160323070004/http://talent.yahoo.co.jp/pf/detail/pp1029 |archive-date=23 March 2016}}
- March 29 – Kenichi Ogata, actor
- April 2 – Hiroyuki Sakai, chef
- April 25 – Katsuji Adachi, professional wrestler (d. 2010)
- May 24 – Ichirō Ozawa, politician
- July 3 – Mitsuhiro Kitta, golfer
- July 5 – Motoaki Inukai, footballer
- July 22 – Toyohiro Akiyama, astronaut
- August 31 – Isao Aoki, golfer
- September 16 – Tadamasa Goto, yakuza boss
- September 19 – Nobuo Sekine, sculptor (d. 2019)
Deaths
- May 11 – Sakutarō Hagiwara, writer, poet and critic (b. 1886)
- May 29 – Akiko Yosano, author and poet (b. 1878)
- June 4
- Jisaku Okada, Naval officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1897)
- Tamon Yamaguchi, admiral (b. 1892)
- June 5 – Ryusaku Yanagimoto, captain (b. 1894)
- August 21 – Kiyonao IchikiChen, Peter. "Ichiki Kiyonao". WW2 Database (b. 1892)
- August 26 – Junichi Sasai, aviator (b. 1918)
- September 5 – Toshinari Maeda, general (b. 1885)
- October 12 – Aritomo Gotō, admiral (b. 1888)
- October 21 – Toshio Ōta, aviator (b. 1919)
- October 26 – Yumio Nasu, major general (b. 1892)
- November 5 – Kiyoura Keigo, politician and Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1850)
- November 23 – Tomitarō Horii, lieutenant general (b. 1890)
- December 4 – Atsushi Nakajima, author (b. 1909)