Events in the year 1972 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 47 (昭和47年) in the Japanese calendar.
Incumbents Emperor: Hirohito 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. May 12 – Industrial robot brand, Fanuc was founded in Yamanashi Prefecture. 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. 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
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 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 7 – Masanari Mochida, slalom canoeist 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 (d. 2024) December 18 - Shinji Takeda, actor December 20 Hideki Niwa, politician 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 1972 in Japanese music
References