1928 in Japan

Events in the year 1928 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 3 in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

Governors

Aichi Prefecture: Toyoji Obata
Akita Prefecture: Yuichiro Chikaraishi ; Iwao Koinuma
Aomori Prefecture: Tetsuzo Yoshimura
Ehime Prefecture: Yujiro Ozaki ; Keizo Ichimura
Fukui Prefecture: Keizo Ichimura ; Joko Obama
Fukuoka Prefecture: Saito Morikuni
Fukushima Prefecture: Ito Kihachiro ; Aid Kiyoo
Gifu Prefecture: Rokuichiro Ono ; Masao Kanazawa
Gunma Prefecture: Agata Shinobu ; Omori Keiichi
Hiroshima Prefecture: Sukenari Yokoyama ; Masao Kishimoto
Ibaraki Prefecture: Jiro Morioka
Ishikawa Prefecture: vacant
Iwate Prefecture:
* until 11 January: Kakichi Tokuno
* 11 January-26 December: Fujihira Marumo
* starting 26 December: Tojiro Io
Kagawa Prefecture: Toshio Motoda
Kanagawa Prefecture: Ikeda Hiroshi
Kochi Prefecture: Aidkame Kiyoo ; Ichiro Oshima
Kumamoto Prefecture: Saito Munenori
List of governors of [Kyoto Prefecture|Kyoto Prefecture]: Shigeyoshi Omihara
Mie Prefecture: Endo Ryusaku ; Iori Hanada
Miyagi Prefecture: Katorataro Ushizu
Miyazaki Prefecture: Akira Kouda ; Kunitoshi Yamaoka
Nagano Prefecture: Ryo Chiba
Niigata Prefecture:
* until 28 February: Shohei Fujinoma
* 28 February-28 May: Yuichiro Chikaraishi
* starting 25 May: Ozaki Yujiro
Okayama Prefecture: Masao Kishimoto
Okinawa Prefecture: Tōjirō Iio ; Chōhei Hosokawa
Osaka Prefecture: Harumichi Tanabe ; Yūichirō Chikaraishi
Saitama Prefecture: Chohei Hosokawa
Shiname Prefecture: Rinsaku Yagi
Tochigi Prefecture: Takeichi Fujiyama
Tokyo: Hiroshi Hiratsuka
Toyama Prefecture: Shirane Takesuke
Yamagata Prefecture: Shinohara Eitaro

Events

February 11-19 - Japan competes in the 1928 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, the first true Winter Olympics held on its own and not in conjunction with a Summer Olympics.
February 20 - 1928 Japanese general election: The first general election after the introduction of universal male suffrage was passed in 1925. The ruling Rikken Seiyūkai led by Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi won one more seat than the opposition Rikken Minseitō led by Hamaguchi Osachi, although Rikken Minseitō had received slightly more votes. The hung parliament led to the Tanaka government continuing in office.
March 15 - March 15 incident: Alarmed by gains made by socialists and communists in the 1928 general election, the conservative government of Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka ordered the mass arrest of known communists and socialists and suspected communist and socialist sympathizers. The arrests occurred throughout Japan, and a total of 1652 people were apprehended.
May 3 - Jinan Incident: an armed conflict between the Japanese Imperial Army allied with Northern Chinese warlords against the Kuomintang's southern army, occurs in Jinan, eastern China.
June 4 - Huanggutun Incident: Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin is killed by low-ranking officer in the Japanese Kwantung Army when a bomb his personal train is travelling over explodes. Emperor Hirohito harshly criticized the event and eventually dismissed Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi for his inability to arrest and prosecute the plotters of the incident.
July 28-August 12 - Japan competes in the ninth Summer Olympics held in Amsterdam, Netherlands. For the 1928 Olympics, Japan won 2 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze.
September 28 - Prince Chichibu marries Matsudaira Setsuko.
November 10 - Enthronement of Hirohito as Emperor of Japan in the Imperial Palace in Kyoto.
December 21 - Fujikoshi Steel Industry, later Nachi-Fujikoshi founded in Toyama City.
Unknown date - A food processing Ito Meat Packer was founded, as predecessor of Itoham-Yonekyu in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture.

Births

January–March

January 1
* Kazuo Kato, actor and voice actor
* Masatoshi Yoshino, geographer, climatologist
January 2
* Daisaku Ikeda, religious leader
* Tamio Oki, voice actor
January 3
* Hiroshi Hasegawa, actor
* Toshiko Okanoue, artist
January 14 - Shôki Fukae, actor
January 22 - Yoshihiko Amino, historian
January 29 - Akira Miyawaki, botanist
February 1 - Susumu Ohno, Japanese-American geneticist and evolutionary biologist, and seminal researcher
February 4 - Yugo Sako, director, producer, and screenwriter
February 20 - Mitsuyo Asaka, actress
February 22 - Tatsuo Miyao, cross-country skier
March 5 - Katsuaki Matsumoto, professional track racing cyclist
March 9 - Tatsumi Hijikata, choreographer,
March 10 - Kiyoshi Atsumi, actor
March 11 - Nakamura Shikan VII, kabuki performer
March 16 - Wakanohana Kanji I, sumo wrestler
March 27
* Ryuji Saikachi, actor and voice actor
* Seiko Tanabe, author
March 31 - Morihiro Saito, martial art of aikido teacher

April–June

April 1 - Yoshihide Kozai, astronomer
April 13 - Toshiyuki Tanaka, artist
April 18 - Mikio Sato, mathematician
April 22 - Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, artist
May 6 - Shizuka Narahara, former table tennis player
May 8 - Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, writer, art critic, and translator
May 16 - Hiroshi Nakajima, physician and former director-general of World Health Organization
May 22 - Kimiko Nishimoto, Brazilian-born Japanese photographer
June 5 - Setsuko Tsumura, writer
June 14 - Yōko Abe, mother of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
June 23 - Hayao Kawai, psychologist
June 26 - Yoshiro Nakamatsu, inventor

July–September

July 10 - Kiyotaka Takabayashi, former speed skater
July 11 - Harue Kitamura, politician, lawyer, and feminist
July 12 - Shimako Murai, playwright and Hiroshima bombing survivor
July 21 - Hirofumi Uzawa, economist
July 30 - Chû Arai, actor and comedian
August 2 - Yoko Tani, French-born Japanese actress
August 15 - Suzushi Hanayagi, dancer and choreographer
August 16 - Shōji Yasui, actor
August 27 - Osamu Shimomura, Nobel Prize-winning chemist and marine biologist
August 31 - Takahiro Tamura, film actor
September 6 - Fumihiko Maki, architect
September 12 - Mizuki Yamada, Olympic sailor
September 16 - Hironoshin Furuhashi, former swimmer and chairman of Japan Olympic Committee
September 20 - Shiro Hashizume, Olympic swimmer
September 30 - Takeshi Inoue, footballer

October–December

October 1 - Kôhei Tsuzaki, actor and director
October 10
* Hidetaka Nishiyama, karateka
* Susumu Hani, film director
October 28 - Yōko Sugi, actress
November 3
* Goseki Kojima, manga artist
* Osamu Tezuka, manga artist, cartoonist, animator, director, and producer
November 23 - Hikaru Matsunaga, politician
November 27 - Bernard Ryosuke Inagaki, philosopher
November 30 - Takako Doi, politician
December 4 - Renji Suzuki, politician and former Governor of Aichi Prefecture
December 7 - Hiroshi Fujita, mathematician
December 8 - Kiyozō Kazama, professor of comparative linguistics
December 11 - Noriaki Tsuchimoto, documentary film director
December 27 - Kōji Taki, critic, photographer and philosopher

Deaths

February 17 - Ōtsuki Fumihiko, lexicographer, linguist, and historian
March 8 - Sachiko, Princess Hisa, second child of Emperor Shōwa
April 5 - Okura Kihachiro, entrepreneur
May 4 - Jinzō Matsumura, botanist
May 21 - Hideyo Noguchi, bacteriologist
July 23 - Zenzō Kasai, novelist
October 25 - Hirotsu Ryurō, novelist
November 3 - Uryū Shigeko, educator
December 25 - Kaoru Osanai, theater director, playwright, and actor