# 1972 in Japan

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.
* 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.
* 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 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)