1940 in Japan

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

← 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

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

Governors

• Aichi Prefecture: Kotaro Tanaka (until 9 April); Kodama Kyuichi (starting 9 April)
• Akita Prefecture: Yukio Tomeoka (until 24 July); Fumi (starting 24 July)
• Aomori Prefecture: Noburo Suzuki (until 24 July); Seiichi Ueda (starting 24 July)
• Ehime Prefecture: Yoshio Mochinaga (until 24 July); Susumu Nakamura Noriyuki (starting 24 July)
• Fukui Prefecture: Kiyoshi Kimura (until 14 April); Kubota (starting 14 April)
• Fukuoka Prefecture: Kyuichi Kodama
• Fukushima Prefecture: Seikichi Hashimoto (until 24 December); Sumio Hisakawa (starting 24 December)
• Gifu Prefecture: Miyano Shozo
• Gunma Prefecture: Kumano Ei (until 20 October); Susukida Yoshitomo (starting 20 October)
• Hiroshima Prefecture: Katsuroku Aikawa
• Ibaraki Prefecture: Tokitsugi Yoshinaga
• Ishikawa Prefecture: Narita Ichiro (until month unknown)
• Iwate Prefecture: Chiyoji Yukizawa (until 10 April); Yoshifumi Yamauchi (starting 10 April)
• Kagawa Prefecture: Nagatoshi Fujioka (until 9 April); Osamu Eianhyaku (starting 9 April)
• Kanagawa Prefecture: Ichisho Inuma then Mitsuma Matsumura
• Kumamoto Prefecture: Tomoichi Koyama
• Kochi Prefecture: Kondo Shunsuke (until 9 April); Chioji Yukisawa (starting 9 April)
• Kyoto Prefecture: Tota Akamatsuko (until April); Jitsuzo Kawanishi (starting April)
• Mie Prefecture: Masatoshi Sato (until 4 April); Yoshiro Nakano (starting 4 April)
• Miyagi Prefecture: Ryosaku Shimizu (until 4 April); Nobuo Hayashin (starting 4 April)
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Jitsuzo Kawanishi (until month unknown)
• Nagano Prefecture: Tomita Kenji (until 22 July); Nagoya Osamu (starting 22 July)
• Nagasaki Prefecture: Jitsuzo Kawanishi
• Niigata Prefecture: Seikichi Kimishima (until 9 April); Yasui Seiichiro (starting 9 April)
• Okinawa Prefecture: Fusataro Fuchigami
• Saga Prefecture: Kato (until 9 April); Masaki (starting 9 April)
• Saitama Prefecture: Toki Ginjiro
• Shiname Prefecture: Kiyoo Ebe (until 23 December); Yasuo Otsubo (starting 23 December)
• Tochigi Prefecture: Adachi Shuuritsu (until 8 April); Saburo Yamagata (starting 8 April)
• Tokyo: Okada Shuzo
• Toyama Prefecture: Kenzo Yano
• Yamagata Prefecture: Ishiguro Takeshige (until 24 August); Hee Yamauchi (starting 24 August)

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 Shizuoka city center.
• January 29 – According to Japanese government official confirmed report, a three-passenger locomotive commuter train derail and caught fire nearby Ajikawaguchi Station, Osaka, resulting to 189 person (181 were instantly, 8 were hospital) were death and 69 persons injures.
• 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 1 – Ippei Kuri, manga artist and entrepreneur (d. 2023)
• January 2 – Masahiko Tsugawa, actor (d. 2018)
• February 7 – Toshihide Maskawa, Nobel Prize-winning physicist (d. 2021)
• 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 and the sister-in-law of Emperor Emeritus Akihito
• 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