Events in the year 1962 in Japan.

• Emperor: Hirohito^[1]
• Prime minister: Hayato Ikeda (Liberal Democratic)
• Chief Cabinet Secretary: Masayoshi Ōhira until July 18, Yasumi Kurogane
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Kisaburo Yokota
• President of the House of Representatives: Ichirō Kiyose
• President of the House of Councillors: Tsuruhei Matsuno until August 6, Yūzō Shigemune

• May 3 - Mikawashima train crash - A freight train and two passenger trains collide near Mikawashima Station in Arakawa, Tokyo, resulting in 160 deaths.
• May 17 - Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma halts the sale of the drug Thalidomide.
• May 29 – Tobu Department Store in Tokyo-Ikebukuro was open.^{[citation needed]}
• November 9 - An All Nippon Airways Vickers Viscount plane crashes in Aichi Prefecture while en route to Nagoya Airport, killing all 4 occupants of the aircraft.
• November 18 - Two tankers, the smaller Munakata Maru 1 owned by Idemitsu Kosan and the larger Thrard Brovig, collide in the Keihin canal in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, causing the deaths of 40 crew members from both ships.
• Unknown Date – Kotobuki Foods, as predecessor of Skylark (すかいらーく) Restaurant founded in Nishitokyo, Tokyo.^{[page needed]}

• January 20
  • IKKO, make-up artist
  • Sakiko Tamagawa, voice actress
• February 1 – Takashi Murakami, pop artist
• February 25 – Junko Ogata, serial killer
• March 10 – Seiko Matsuda, pop singer/songwriter
• March 13 – Shoko Sawada, singer-songwriter
• March 18 – Kazuhiro Mizoguchi, javelin thrower
• March 30 – Yōko Ogawa, writer
• April 12 – Nobuhiko Takada, mixed martial arts fighter and professional wrestler
• April 30 – Seiji Maehara, politician
• May 5 – Kaoru Wada, composer
• May 31 – Noriko Hidaka, voice actress
• June 10 – Akie Abe, radio DJ
• June 11 – Toshihiko Seki, voice actor
• June 18 – Mitsuharu Misawa, professional wrestler
• July 19 – Aya Kitō, writer (d. 1988)
• August 8 – Yūji Machi, voice actor
• August 21 – Tsutomu Miyazaki, serial killer (d. 2008)
• September 4 – Shinya Yamanaka, physician and researcher
• September 13 – Hisao Egawa, voice actor
• October 12 – Ko Matsushita, conductor
• October 15 – Yasutoshi Nishimura, politician
• October 21 – Miki Itō, voice actress
• October 27 – Jun'ichi Kanemaru, voice actor
• November 14 – Atsuko Tanaka, voice actress
• November 27 – Marumi Shiraishi, actress
• December 1 – Shozo Hayashiya IX, rakugoka, tarento and voice actor
• December 23 – Keiji Mutoh, professional wrestler

• January 20 – Shizue Tatsuta, film actor (b. 1903).^[2]
• September 7 – Eiji Yoshikawa, writer and novelist (b. 1892)
• October 21 – Kinnosuke Ogura, mathematician, historian of mathematics (b. 1885)

• List of Japanese films of 1962