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 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 26 - Goroku Amemiya, photographer (b. 1886)