1972 in Japan
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Events in the year 1972 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 47 (昭和47年) in the Japanese calendar.
Incumbents
- Emperor: Hirohito{{cite web |title=Hirohito {{!}} Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hirohito |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=27 March 2019 |language=en}}
- 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|date=July 2020}}
- May 12 – Industrial robot brand, Fanuc was founded in Yamanashi Prefecture.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}
- 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.:ja:昭和47年7月豪雨 (Japanese language) Retrieved date on March 14, 2017.
- July 5 - Kakuei Tanaka replaces Eisaku Satō as Prime Minister.
- July 21 – MOS Burger was founded.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
- 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.:ja:北陸トンネル列車火災事故 (Japanese language ) Retrieved date on March 14, 2017.
- December 10 - General election of 1972 - Liberal Democratic Party win 271 out of 491 seats.
Births
File:Junko Takeuchi - Dimanche - Japan Expo 2013 - P1670498.jpg]]
File:Yuko Miyamura by Gage Skidmore.jpg]]
- 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{{Cite web |title=長沼英樹 (Hideki Naganuma) |url=https://genius.com/artists/Hideki-naganuma |access-date=2024-09-05 |website=Genius |language=en}}
- 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)