1937 in Japan
overview of Japan-related events during the year of 1937
Events in the year 1937 in Japan.
Incumbents
Emperor: Hirohito
Prime Minister:
Kōki Hirota: until February 2
Senjūrō Hayashi: from February 2 until June 4
Fumimaro Konoe: from June 4
Governors
Aichi Prefecture: Eitaro Shinohara (until 10 February); Kotaro Tanaka (starting 10 February)
Akita Prefecture: Kiyoshi Honma (until 24 June); Kaoru Sasaki (starting 24 June)
Aomori Prefecture: Masanori Ogawa
Ehime Prefecture: Shizuo Furukawa
Fukui Prefecture: Masanori Hanyu (until 4 November); Nakano Yoshiro (starting 4 November)
Fukushima Prefecture: Ito Takehiko (until 7 July); Seikichi Kimishima (starting 7 July)
Gifu Prefecture: Chiaki Saka (until 20 February); Miyano Shozo (starting 20 February)
Gunma Prefecture: Seikichi Kimishima (until 7 July); Shozo Tsuchiya (starting 7 July)
Hiroshima Prefecture: Saburo Hayakawa (until 8 January); Aijiro Tomita (starting 8 January)
Ibaraki Prefecture: Ando Kyoushirou (until 8 January); Nobuo Hayashi (starting 8 January)
Ishikawa Prefecture: Masasuke Kodama (until 1938); Shunsuke Kondo (starting 1938)
Iwate Prefecture: Hidehiko Ishiguro (until 5 June); Chiyoji Yukizawa (starting 5 June)
Kagawa Prefecture: Nagatoshi Fujioka (until 24 December); Shojiro Tamada (starting 24 December)
Kumamoto Prefecture: Fujioka Nagawa
Kochi Prefecture: Kobayashi Mitsumasa
Kyoto Prefecture: Keiichi Suzuki
Mie Prefecture:
until 8 January: Aijiro Tomita
8 January-4 November: Ando Kyoushirou
4 November-24 December: Hanyu Masaki
starting 24 December: Masatoshi Sato
Miyagi Prefecture: Yoshio Kikuyama
Miyazaki Prefecture: Seiya Mishima (until 7 July); Katsuroku Aikawa (starting 7 July)
Nagano Prefecture: Shinsuke Kondo
Niigata Prefecture: Sekiya Nobuyuki
Okayama Prefecture: Hisashi Kurashige
Okinawa Prefecture: Hisashi Kurashige
Saga Prefecture: Shizuo Furukawa (until 7 July); Tomoichi Koyama (starting 7 July)
Saitama Prefecture: Jitsuzo Kawanishi
Shiname Prefecture: Kyuichi Kodama
Tochigi Prefecture: Hachimintsu Matsumura (until 1 October); Adachi Shuuritsu (starting 1 October)
Tokyo: Tetsuji Kan
Toyama Prefecture: Ginjiro Toki
Yamagata Prefecture: Takei Yoshitsugu
Events
January 4 - Two plates containing 58 scales are stolen off of the kinshachi (a kind of dolphin fish) affixed to the top of the castle tower of Nagoya Castle. The culprit was apprehended 23 days later.
February 11 – Hasegawa Builder Corporation, as predecessor of Haseko Corporation founded in Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture.
March 15-May 31 - Nagoya Pan-Pacific Peace Exposition (1937)
March 30 – Marui founded as installndnt credit store in Nakano, Tokyo.
March 31 - 1937 Japanese general election
May – Mitsubishi Real Estate was founded.
July 6 – According to Japanese government official confirmed report, a caught fire in Handa Mental Rescue Hospital in Hiroshima City, kills 23 persons.
July 7–9 - Marco Polo Bridge Incident
early July-early August - Battle of Beiping-Tianjin
July 26 - Langfang Incident
July 29 - Tungchow Mutiny
August - Operation Chahar
August–November - Tianjin–Pukou Railway Operation
August–December - Beiping-Hankou Railway Operation
August 13-November 26 - Battle of Shanghai
September 1-November 9 - Battle of Taiyuan
September 13-November 11 - Battle of Xinkou
September 24–25 - Battle of Pingxingguan
October 26-November 1 - Defense of Sihang Warehouse
December 12 - USS Panay incident
December 20 – According to former Japan Education Ministry official confirmed report, a caught fire in South Tonda Primary School, Wakayama Prefecture, kills 81 persons, mostly school children.
Births
February 12 – Keisuke Sagawa, actor (d. 2017)
March 25 – Hidekatsu Shibata, actor, voice actor and narrator
March 29 – Shigeaki Mori, historian (d.
The public source identifies “1937 in Japan” as overview of Japan-related events during the year of 1937. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Japan, overview and Japan-related.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17027310. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1937, 1938 and 2017.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “1937 in Japan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.