1940 in Japan

← 1939 1938 1937 1940 in Japan → 1941 1942 1943
Decades:	1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s
See also:	Other events of 1940 History of Japan  • Timeline  • Years

Events in the year 1940 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 15 (昭和15年) in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

Founding Ceremony of the Hakko-Ichiu Monument on April 3, 1940. It had Prince Chichibu's calligraphy of Hakkō ichiu, carved on its front side.

• Emperor: Hirohito
• Prime Minister:
  • Nobuyuki Abe, until January 16,
  • Mitsumasa Yonai, until July 22,
  • Fumimaro Konoe, from July 22

Films

• Kaze no Matasaburo
• Totsugu hi made

Events

• Throughout the entire year - Celebration of year 2600 in Japanese imperial year
• January 15 – A large fire destroys much of hizuoka city center.
• March 16–April 3 – Battle of Wuyuan
• May 1-June 18 – Battle of Zaoyang-Yichang
• September 22–26 – Japanese invasion of French Indochina
• November 25–30 – Central Hubei Operation

Births

• January 2 – Masahiko Tsugawa, actor (d. 2018)
• February 11 – Kinryuu Arimoto, voice actor (d. 2019)
• May 13 – Kōkichi Tsuburaya, marathoner (d. 1968)
• May 25 – Nobuyoshi Araki, photographer and artist
• June 3 – Koichi Kishi, politician (d. 2017)
• July 2 – Ruriko Asaoka, actress
• July 19 – Hanako, Princess Hitachi, wife of Masahito, Prince Hitachi
• August 20 – Gisaburō Sugii, anime director and Nihonga artist
• September 20 – Tarō Asō, 59th Prime Minister of Japan
• October 30 – Hidetoshi Nagasawa, sculptor and architect (d. 2018)
• December 4 – Fumio Kyūma, politician

Deaths

• January 1 – Fusajiro Yamauchi, entrepreneur (b. 1859)
• March 8 – Princess Masako Takeda, sixth daughter of Emperor Meiji (b. 1888)
• May 11 – Chujiro Hayashi, Reiki practitioner (b. 1880)
• June 5 – Tokugawa Iesato, politician (b. 1863)
• September 4 – Prince Nagahisa Kitashirakawa, career army officer (b. 1910)
• October 6 – Michitarō Komatsubara, general (b. 1885)
• November 20 – Hideo Oguma, poet (b. 1901)
• November 24 – Saionji Kinmochi, politician, statesman and Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1849)

See also

• List of Japanese films of the 1940s

Further reading

• Bloch, Leon Bryce and Lamar Middleton, ed. The World Over in 1940 (1941) detailed coverage of world events online free; 914pp