1964 in Japan
overview of Japan-related events during the year of 1964
Events in the year 1964 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 39 (昭和39年) in the Japanese calendar.
1964 is considered a seminal year in modern Japanese history. The Tokyo Summer Olympic Games and the first run of bullet train reflected a society-wide sense that post-war reconstruction was over and that Japan had rejoined the international family of nations. Diplomatic negotiations underway this year between South Korea and Japan resulted in a formal normalization of relations the following year.
Incumbents
Emperor: Hirohito
Prime Minister: Hayato Ikeda (L–Hiroshima, 3rd term) until November 9, Eisaku Satō (L–Yamaguchi)
Chief Cabinet Secretary: Yasumi Kurogane (L–Yamagata) until July 18, Zenkō Suzuki (L–Iwate) until November 9, Tomisaburō Hashimoto (L–Ibaraki)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Kisaburō Yokota
President of the House of Representatives: Naka Funada (L–Tochigi)
President of the House of Councillors: Yūzō Shigemune (L–national)
Diet sessions: 46th (regular session opened in December 1963, to June 26), 47th (extraordinary, November 9 to December 18), 48th (regular, December 21 to 1965, June 1)
Governors
Aichi Prefecture: Mikine Kuwahara
Akita Prefecture: Yūjirō Obata
Aomori Prefecture: Shunkichi Takeuchi
Chiba Prefecture: Taketo Tomonō
Ehime Prefecture: Sadatake Hisamatsu
Fukui Prefecture: Eizō Kita
Fukuoka Prefecture: Taichi Uzaki
Fukushima Prefecture: Zenichiro Satō (until 23 March); Morie Kimura (starting 16 May)
Gifu Prefecture: Yukiyasu Matsuno
Gunma Prefecture: Konroku Kanda
Hiroshima Prefecture: Iduo Nagano
Hokkaido: Kingo Machimura
Hyogo Prefecture: Motohiko Kanai
Ibaraki Prefecture: Nirō Iwakami
Ishikawa Prefecture: Yōichi Nakanishi
Iwate Prefecture: Tadashi Chida
Kagawa Prefecture: Masanori Kaneko
Kagoshima Prefecture: Katsushi Terazono
Kanagawa Prefecture: Iwataro Uchiyama
Kochi Prefecture: Masumi Mizobuchi
Kumamoto Prefecture: Kōsaku Teramoto
Kyoto Prefecture: Torazō Ninagawa
Mie Prefecture: Satoru Tanaka
Miyagi Prefecture: Yoshio Miura
Miyazaki Prefecture: Hiroshi Kuroki
Nagano Prefecture: Gon'ichirō Nishizawa
Nagasaki Prefecture: Katsuya Sato
Nara Prefecture: Ryozo Okuda
Niigata Prefecture: Juichiro Tsukada
Oita Prefecture: Kaoru Kinoshita
Okayama Prefecture: Yukiharu Miki (until 21 September); Takenori Kato (starting 15 November)
Osaka Prefecture: Gisen Satō
Saga Prefecture: Sunao Ikeda
Saitama Prefecture: Hiroshi Kurihara
Shiga Prefecture: Kyujiro Taniguchi
Shiname Prefecture: Choemon Tanabe
Shizuoka Prefecture: Toshio Saitō
Tochigi Prefecture: Nobuo Yokokawa
Tokushima Prefecture: Kikutaro Hara
Tokyo: Ryōtarō Azuma
Tottori Prefecture: Jirō Ishiba
Toyama Prefecture: Minoru Yoshida
Wakayama Prefecture: Shinji Ono
Yamagata Prefecture: Tōkichi Abiko
Yamaguchi Prefecture: Masayuki Hashimoto
Yamanashi Prefecture: Hisashi Amano
Events
March 18: Hayakawa Electric (the predecessor of today's Sharp) and Sony announce that they have completed a prototype electronic calculator using Japanese-manufactured diodes and transistors.
March 24: U.S. ambassador Edwin Reischauer is stabbed by a Japanese youth.
April 1: Japanese citizens are permitted to freely travel overseas.
April 12: Channel 12, the predecessor of TV Tokyo, begins operations.
April 17 – Orient Lease, as predecessor of Orix Group founded in Osaka.
The public source identifies “1964 in Japan” as overview of Japan-related events during the year of 1964. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Japan, overview and Japan-related.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “1964 in Japan”, the useful work is to connect “overview of Japan-related events during the year of 1964” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
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 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4571694. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1963 and 1965.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. 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.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “1964 in Japan”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 1964 in Japan primary sources, 1964 in Japan archive and Japan research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1964 in Japan”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “1964 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.