Events in the year 1972 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 47 (昭和47年) in the Japanese calendar.

• Emperor: Hirohito^[1]
• 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

• 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.^{[citation needed]}
• May 12 – Industrial robot brand, Fanuc was founded in Yamanashi Prefecture.^{[citation needed]}
• 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.^[2]
• July 5 - Kakuei Tanaka replaces Eisaku Satō as Prime Minister.
• July 21 – MOS Burger was founded.^{[citation needed]}
• 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 lives were lost, and 714 people were injured.^[3]
• December 10 - General election of 1972 - Liberal Democratic Party win 271 out of 491 seats.

• 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

• February 17 – Taiko Hirabayashi, writer (b. 1905)
• April 16 - Yasunari Kawabata, writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
• August 26 - Goroku Amemiya, photographer (b. 1886)

• 1972 in Japanese television
• List of Japanese films of 1972