1972 in Japan

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1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s

See also:

Other events of 1972
List of years in Japan

Events in the year 1972 in Japan.

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

Events

February 3 - 13 - The 1972 Winter Olympics are held in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
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.
December 10 - General election of 1972 - Liberal Democratic Party win 271 out of 491 seats.

Births

January 17 - Ken Hirai, singer-songwriter
January 22 - Romi Park, voice actress
February 2 - Hisashi Tonomura, musician
February 5 - Koriki Chōshū, comedian
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
July 14 - Masami Suzuki, voice actress
July 27
- Takako Fuji, actress
- Takashi Shimizu, director
August 14 - Takako Honda, voice actress
September 8 - Tomokazu Seki, voice actor
September 10 - Rio Tahara, snowboarder
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 4 - Yūko Miyamura, voice actress and singer

Deaths

April 16 - Yasunari Kawabata, writer, Nobel Prize laureate
August 26 - Goroku Amemiya, photographer

Years in Japan (1868–present)

Meiji period (1868–1912)

1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912

Taishō period (1912–1926)

1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

Shōwa period (1926–1989)

1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Heisei period (1989–present)

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

1972 in Asia

Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan

Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau