Events in the year 1927 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 2 (昭和2年) in the Japanese calendar.

• Emperor: Hirohito^[1]
• Prime Minister:
  • Wakatsuki Reijirō (until April 20)
  • Tanaka Giichi (From April 20)

• January – Shōwa financial crisis: In the ensuing bank run, 37 banks throughout Japan (including the Bank of Taiwan), and the second-tier zaibatsu Suzuki Shoten, went under. Prime Minister Wakatsuki attempted to have an emergency decree issued to allow the Bank of Japan to extend emergency loans to save these banks, but his request was denied by the Privy Council
• January 23 – Okuro Oikawa discovers a new asteroid 1266 Tone at the Tokyo Observatory.
• February 8 – Emperor Taishō is buried in the Musashi Imperial Graveyard in Hachiōji, Tokyo. The funeral was held at night and consisted of a 4-mile-long procession in which 20,000 mourners followed a herd of sacred bulls and an ox-drawn cart containing the imperial coffin. The funeral route was lit with wood fires in iron lanterns. The emperor's coffin was then transported to his mausoleum in the western suburbs of Tokyo.^[2]
• March 7 – Kita Tango earthquake: with a moment magnitude of 7.0. Up to 2,956 people were killed 7,806 were injured. Almost all the houses in Mineyama (now part of Kyōtango) were destroyed as a result. The earthquake was felt as far away as Tokyo and Kagoshima.^[3]
• April 20 – Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō is forced to resign during the Shōwa financial crisis and is succeeded by Tanaka Giichi who manages to control the situation with a three-week bank holiday and the issuance of emergency loans.
• July 24 – Writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa commits suicide in the early morning hours at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.^[4]
• August 24 – Mihonoseki Incident: The light cruiser Jintsuu and the Momi-class destroyer Warabi, both ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, collided at the mouth of Miho Bay. There were 92 naval personnel who were killed when the Warabi sunk, and 28 were killed aboard the Jintsuu. Captain Keiji Mizushiro (1883–1927) was questioned, but committed suicide before the beginning of the trial.
• September 13 – JVC (Victor Corporation of Japan), as predecessor of JVCKenwood was founded.^{[page needed]}
• December 30 – Japan's first subway line started running between Asakusa station and Ueno station, Tokyo. The line was called Ginza Line in 1953 (Showa 28, 昭和28年).

• January 28 – Hiroshi Teshigahara, film maker (d. 2001)
• January 30 – Keizo Yamada, long-distance runner (d. 2020)
• February 14 – Seizō Katō, voice actor (d. 2014)
• March 14 – Yoichi Nishimaru, physician (d. 2020)
• March 15 – Junzo Sekine, professional baseball player (d. 2020)
• March 21 – Mariko Miyagi, actress, singer, and advocate (d. 2020)
• April 2 – Hisashi Katsuta, actor and voice actor (d. 2020)
• June 16 – Yoshiro Hayashi, politician (d. 2017)
• July 7 – Kōji Nanbara, actor (d. 2001)
• August 1 – Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, politician (d. 2004)
• August 15 – Akio Sato, politician (d. 2007)
• August 24 – Tatsumi Kumashiro, film director (d. 1995)
• September 10 – Sachiko, Princess Hisa, second child of Emperor Shōwa (d. 1928)
• September 16 – Sadako Ogata, academic, diplomat and author (d. 2019)
• November 7
  • Mayumi Moriyama, politician and cabinet minister (d. 2021)
  • Hiroshi Yamauchi, businessman (d. 2013)
• December 16 – Akihiko Hirata, film actor (d. 1984)

• February 6 – Kamio Mitsuomi, admiral (b. 1856)
• February 23 – Noda Utarō, entrepreneur, politician (b. 1853)
• March 20 – Kusunose Yukihiko, general (b. 1858)
• May 1 – Tetsugorō Yorozu, painter (b. 1885)
• May 2 – Fukuda Hideko, author, educator and feminist (b. 1865)
• July 24 – Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, short story writer, drug-related suicide (b. 1892)
• September 5 – Katō Sadakichi, admiral (b. 1861)
• September 18 – Kenjirō Tokutomi, philosopher and writer (b. 1868)
• September 24 – Yamagata Isaburō, politician (b. 1858)
• October 26 – Jūkichi Yagi, poet (b. 1898)
• November 15 – Murakami Kakuichi, admiral (b. 1862)

• List of Japanese films of the 1920s