Events in the year 1938 in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It corresponds to Shōwa 13 (昭和13年) in the

Japanese calendar Japanese calendar types have included a range of official and unofficial systems. At present, Japan uses the Gregorian calendar together with year designations stating the year of the reign of the current Emperor. The written form starts with t ...

Incumbents

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

: Fumimaro Konoe

Governors

Aichi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefectur ...

: Kotaro Tanaka *Akita Prefecture: Kiyoshi Honma (until 24 June); Kaoru Sasaki (starting 24 June) *Aomori Prefecture: Masanori Ogawa (until 1 March); Shizuo Furukawa (starting 1 March) *Ehime Prefecture: Shizuo Furukawa (until 15 July); Yoshio Mochinaga (starting 15 July) *Fukui Prefecture: Nakano Yoshiro (until 17 April);

Kiyoshi Kimura Kiyoshi Kimura's life-sized statue in front of his restaurant Sushi Zanmai, this one in Osaka's Dotonbori">Osaka.html" ;"title="Sushi Zanmai, this one in Osaka">Sushi Zanmai, this one in Osaka's Dotonbori is known as the "Tuna King" of Japan. K ...

(starting 17 April) *Fukuoka Prefecture: Kyuichi Komada (starting 1939) *Fukushima Prefecture:

Seikichi Kimishima Seikichi (written: 清吉 or 政吉) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: * Seikichi Odo (1926–2002), Japanese karateka * (1917–1998), Japanese karateka Fictional characters: * character in the stage play ...

(until 5 September); Seikichi Hashimoto (starting 5 September) *Gifu Prefecture:

Miyano Shozo was Governor of Gifu Prefecture (1937–1941) and Saitama Prefecture (1941–1942). {{DEFAULTSORT:Miyano, Shozo 1896 births 1972 deaths Governors of Gifu Prefecture Governors of Saitama Prefecture Japanese Police Bureau government ...

*Gunma Prefecture: Shozo Tsuchiya *

Hiroshima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Hiroshima Prefecture has a population of 2,811,410 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 8,479 km² (3,274 sq mi). Hiroshima Prefecture borders Okayama ...

Aijiro Tomita was a Japanese politician who served as governor of Hiroshima Prefecture from January 1937 to November 1938. He was governor of Mie Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a populatio ...

(until 9 November);

Ichisho Inuma Ichisho Inuma (February 15, 1892 – November 14, 1982) was a Japanese politician who served as governor of Hiroshima Prefecture from November 1938 to September 1939. He was a graduate of the University of Tokyo. He was also the governor of Sai ...

(starting 9 November) *

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

Nobuo Hayashi Nobuo (written: , , , , , in hiragana or in katakana) is a masculine, Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese basketball player * Nobuo Fujita (1911–1997), Warrant Flying Officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy *, ...

(until 11 January);

Shigeru Hamaza Shigeru (written: , , , in hiragana or in katakana) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, a Japanese architect *, a Japanese voice actor *, Japanese karateka *, Japanese sport wrestler *, Japanese socialist ...

(starting 11 January) *

Ishikawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu island. Ishikawa Prefecture has a population of 1,140,573 (31 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,186 km2 (1,616 sq mi). Ishikawa Prefecture borders Toyama Prefecture to ...

: Masasuke Kodama (until 1938);

Shunsuke Kondo Kondo Shunsuke

was the penultimate Governor of the South Seas Mandate ( ...

(starting 1938) *Iwate Prefecture: Chiyoji Yukizawa *Kagawa Prefecture: Nagatoshi Fujioka *

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture to ...

: Fujioka Nagawa *Kochi Prefecture: Kobayashi Mitsumasa * Kyoto Prefecture:

Keiichi Suzuki is a Japanese musician, singer, and record producer who co-founded the Moonriders, a group that became one of Japan's most innovative rock bands. He is known to audiences outside Japan for his musical contributions to the video games ''Mother'' ...

*Mie Prefecture: Masatoshi Sato *

Miyagi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,305,596 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefecture to the nort ...

: Yoshio Kikuyama *Miyazaki Prefecture: Katsuroku Aikawa *Nagasaki Prefecture: Jitsuzo Kawanishi *

Nagano Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Nagano Prefecture has a population of 2,052,493 () and has a geographic area of . Nagano Prefecture borders Niigata Prefecture to the north, Gunma Prefecture to the ...

: ** until 11 January: Shinsuke Kondo ** 11 January-23 December: Seiichi Omora ** starting 23 December: Tomita Kenji *

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

: Sekiya Nobuyuki (until 24 June); Yasujiro Nakamura (starting 24 June) *

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,906,464 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefectur ...

Hisashi Kurashige Hisashi is a masculine Japanese given name. Its meaning differs depending on the kanji used to write it. Kanji Single kanji used to write the name Hisashi include: *: "long time" *: "eternal" *: "still" *: "standard" *: "complete" *: "long" *: "li ...

(until 24 June); Fusataro Fuchigami (starting 24 June) *

Okinawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city o ...

(until 24 June); Fusataro Fuchigami (starting 24 June) *

Saga Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. Saga Prefecture has a population of 809,248 (1 August 2020) and has a geographic area of 2,440 km2 (942 sq mi). Saga Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northeast and Nagasak ...

: Tomoichi Koyama *

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

: Jitsuzo Kawanishi (until 22 April);

Toki Ginjiro Toki Ginjiro ( ja, 土岐銀次郎) (1894 – April 1, 1976) was Governor of Toyama Prefecture (1935–1938) and Saitama Prefecture (1938–1941). He was the deputy editor of the ''Tokyo Shimbun'', a newspaper published by the Chunichi Shimbun new ...

(starting 22 April) *Shiname Prefecture: ... *Tochigi Prefecture:

Adachi Shuuritsu Adachi may refer to: People * Adachi (surname) * Adachi clan, a family of samurai * Adachi Ginkō, 19th-century Japanese artist * Tohru Adachi, a fictional character and one of the antagonists of ''Persona 4'' Places * Adachi, Tokyo, a specia ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

: Tetsuji Kan (until 24 June);

Okada Shuzo Okada (written: 岡田 literally "hill rice-paddy") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the name include: * , Japanese painter * Doris Okada Matsui, American politician of the Democratic Party * , Japanese painter in the Edo period * , Japa ...

(starting 24 June) *Toyama Prefecture: Ginjiro Toki (until 18 April);

Kenzo Yano is a common masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Kenzō can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *賢三, "wise, three" *健三, "healthy, three" *謙三, "humble, three" *健想, "healthy, concept" *建造, "bu ...

(starting 18 April) *Yamagata Prefecture: Takei Yoshitsugu

Events

*January - Taihoku Air Strike *January–June - Battle of Northern and Eastern Henan *January 1 ** According to Japanese government official report, a roof building suddenly collapsed due snow in Kugaiza Cinema House, Tokamachi,

, killing 69 people and injuring 92. **

Pioneer Corporation commonly referred to as Pioneer, is a Japanese multinational corporation based in Tokyo, that specializes in digital entertainment products. The company was founded by Nozomu Matsumoto in January 1, 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair s ...

was founded, as predecessor name was Fukuin Electronics Manufacturing. *January 6 –

Construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

brand,

Kumagai Gumi is a Japanese construction company founded in Fukui, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The company still has registered headquarters in Fukui, but the actual head office is located in Shinjuku, Tokyo. History Santaro Kumagai, the company's founder, beg ...

(熊谷組) has founded in

Fukui City is the capital city of Fukui Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 264,217, and a population density of 69.2 persons per km2, in 102,935 households. Its total area is . Most of the population lives in a small central area; ...

. *March 24 -

National Mobilization Law was legislated in the Diet of Japan by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on 24 March 1938 to put the national economy of the Empire of Japan on war-time footing after the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The National Mobilization Law had fifty c ...

*March 24-April 7 - Battle of Taierzhuang *March 24-May 1 -

Battle of Xuzhou The Battle of Xuzhou was a military conflict between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China (1912–49), Republic of China forces in May 1938 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. History In 1937 the North China Area Army had chased Song ...

*May -

Battle of Lanfeng The Battle of Lanfeng (), in the Second Sino-Japanese War, was part of the larger campaign for Northern and Eastern Henan (February 7 – June 10, 1938) and took place at the same time as the Battle of Xuzhou (Late December – Early June 1938) ...

*May 10–12 -

Amoy Operation The Amoy Operation, also known as the Battle of Xiamen () was part of a campaign by Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blockade China to prevent it from communicating with the outside world and importing needed arms and materials. Con ...

*May 21 -

Tsuyama massacre The was a revenge spree killing that occurred on 21 May 1938 in the rural village of Kamo close to Tsuyama in Okayama, Empire of Japan. , a 21-year-old man, killed 30 people, including his grandmother, with a Browning shotgun, katana, and ...

*June 8 – Tokyo Film Production, as predecessor of Toei was founded. *June 11-October 27 -

Battle of Wuhan The Battle of Wuhan (武漢之戰), popularly known to the Chinese as the Defense of Wuhan, and to the Japanese as the Capture of Wuhan, was a large-scale battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Engagements took place across vast areas of Anhui ...

*July 1 - Battle of Xinfeng *July 5 – A heavy

torrential rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water fo ...

with

debris flow Debris flows are geological phenomena in which water-laden masses of soil and fragmented rock rush down mountainsides, funnel into stream channels, entrain objects in their paths, and form thick, muddy deposits on valley floors. They generally ...

hit around

Mount Rokko Mount is often used as part of the name of specific mountains, e.g. Mount Everest. Mount or Mounts may also refer to: Places * Mount, Cornwall, a village in Warleggan parish, England * Mount, Perranzabuloe, a hamlet in Perranzabuloe parish, C ...

area, Hyogo Prefecture, official death number toll was 715 persons, according to

Japanese government The Government of Japan consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and is based on popular sovereignty. The Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, c ...

confirmed report. *July 29-August 11 -

Battle of Lake Khasan The Battle of Lake Khasan (29 July – 11 August 1938), also known as the Changkufeng Incident (russian: Хасанские бои, Chinese and Japanese: ; Chinese pinyin: ; Japanese romaji: ) in China and Japan, was an attempted military incu ...

*August 24 – According to Japanese government official confirmed report, two plane collided, following to crash and caught fire on factory in Omori region (now Ota, Tokyo), official death toll was 70, with 60 persons were wounded. *October 1–11 - Battle of Wanjialing *October–December -

Canton Operation The Canton Operation (; pinyin: Guǎngzhōu Zhànyì) was part of a campaign by Empire of Japan, Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blockade Republic of China (1912-1949), China to prevent it from communicating with the outside world ...

*December 27 – 1938 Unazuki avalanche, 84 persons were fatalities in

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

, according to Japanese government official confirmed report.

Births

*January 13 –

Nachi Nozawa was a Japanese actor, voice actor, narrator and theatre director from Tokyo. He was affiliated with Office PAC at the time of his death. His real name was . Nozawa was the official dub-over artist of Al Pacino and Alain Delon. Also he was known ...

, Japanese voice actor (d.

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

) *January 14 –

Morihiro Hosokawa is a Japanese politician and Nobility, noble who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994, leading a coalition government which was the first non-Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government of Japan since 1955 ...

, politician and 50th Prime Minister of Japan *January 23 –

Giant Baba , best known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota ...

, professional wrestler (d. 1999) *January 25 –

Shotaro Ishinomori was a Japanese manga artist who became an influential figure in manga, anime, and , creating several immensely popular long-running series such as '' Cyborg 009,'' the ''Super Sentai'' series (later adapted into the ''Power Rangers'' series), ...

, author, manga artist, Father of "Henshin heroes" (d. 1998) *February 4 –

Isao Inokuma was a Japanese judoka. He won a 1964 Summer Olympics medal table, gold medal in the heavyweight division (above 80 kg) at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and a world title in 1965.judoka is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

(d.

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

) *March 11 –

Tatsuo Umemiya was a Japanese actor, ''tarento'', and businessman. He was represented by the agency Pickles. His daughter is model and ''tarento'' Anna Umemiya. The son of a doctor, Umemiya gave up a medical career to debut as a Toei New Face at the Toei Stu ...

, actor, tarento, and businessman (d.

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

) *March 30 – Chiyoko Shimakura,

enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...

singer (d.

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

) *March 31 –

Michiko Nomura is a Japanese actress and voice actress. Career Nomura was previously affiliated with Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society, then Aoni Production and now she is affiliated with Ken Production, an agency founded by the late Kenji Utsumi. ...

, actress and voice actress *April 22 –

Issey Miyake was a Japanese fashion designer. He was known for his technology-driven clothing designs, exhibitions and fragrances, such as '' L'eau d'Issey'', which became his best-known product. Life and career Miyake was born on 22 April 1938 in Hirosh ...

, fashion designer *June 28 – Yōko Sano, writer and illustrator (d.

) *July 9 –

Tura Satana Tura Satana (July 10, 1938Some sources give her birth year as 1935, i.e. Dave Itzkoff"Tura Satana, Cult Actress, Is Dead" ''New York Times'', February 5, 2011; accessed January 8, 2014. – February 4, 2011) was a Japanese American actress, v ...

, Japanese-born American actress (d.

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

) *September 3 –

Ryōji Noyori is a Japanese chemist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001, Noyori shared a half of the prize with William S. Knowles for the study of chirally catalyzed hydrogenations; the second half of the prize went to K. Barry Sharpless for his st ...

, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate *September 8 –

Kenichi Horie is a Japanese solo yachtsman. In 1962 he became the first person to sail solo and non-stop across the Pacific Ocean. He has made other significant solo voyages, usually involving boats exhibiting some sort of environmentally friendly theme, includ ...

, adventurer *November 22 –

Niro Shimada was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan. Born in Tokyo, he attended the University of Tokyo, graduating with an LL.B. and passing the bar examination in 1962. He was appointed as an assistant judge in 1964 and rotated through the crimi ...

, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan *October 31 – Kei Tomiyama, actor, voice actor and narrator (d.

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

) *November 30 –

Makio Inoue Makio may refer to: * Makio, grind used in Aggressive Inline Skating * ''MakiO'', the yearbook of Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, ...

, actor and voice actor (d.

) *December 16 –

Liv Ullmann Liv Johanne Ullmann (born 16 December 1938) is a Norwegian actress and film director. Recognised as one of the greatest European actresses of all time, Ullmann is known as the muse and frequent partner of filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. She acted in m ...

, Norwegian actress

Deaths

*February 2 –

Momosuke Fukuzawa Momosuke Fukuzawa (福澤桃介 ''Fukuzawa Momosuke'', June 25, 1868 – February 2, 1938) was a Japanese businessman nicknamed "The Wizard of the Money Markets" for his financial success and "The King of Electrical Power" for being the first J ...

, businessman (b.

1868 Events January–March * January 2 – British Expedition to Abyssinia: Robert Napier leads an expedition to free captive British officials and missionaries. * January 3 – The 15-year-old Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji of Jap ...

) *May 4 –

Kanō Jigorō was a Japanese educator, athlete, and the founder of Judo. Along with Ju-Jutsu, Judo was one of the first Japanese martial arts to gain widespread international recognition, and the first to become an official Olympic sport. Pedagogical inno ...

, educator and founder of

Judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

(b. 1860) *July 25 –

Kōsaku Hamada , also known as Seiryō Hamada, was a Japanese academic, archaeologist, author and President of Kyoto University.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hamada Kōsaku''" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, ''see' ...

, academic, archaeologist, author and President of

Kyoto University , mottoeng = Freedom of academic culture , established = , type = National university, Public (National) , endowment = ¥ 316 billion (2.4 1000000000 (number), billion USD) , faculty = 3,480 (Teaching Staff) , administrative_staff ...

(b. 1881) *September 17 –

Sadao Yamanaka was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who directed 26 films between 1932 and 1938. He was a contemporary of Yasujirō Ozu, Mikio Naruse and Kenji Mizoguchi and one of the primary figures in the development of the ''jidaigeki'', or historic ...

, film director and screenwriter (b.

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * Januar ...

) *October 5 – Chieko Takamura, artist (b. 1886) *October 19 –

Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi was the eldest son of Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu, and heir-apparent due to inherit the position of 24th head of the Fushimi-no-miya shinnōke (collateral branch of the Imperial Family of Japan), and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy. ...

(b. 1897) *November 20 – Enzo Matsunaga, author (b. 1895 in Japan, 1895)

References