← 1965 1964 1963 1966 in Japan → 1967 1968 1969
Decades:	1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
See also:	Other events of 1966 History of Japan Timeline Years

Events from the year 1966 in Japan. Under the Japanese calendar, this year is known as Shōwa 41.

Incumbents

• Emperor: Hirohito^[1]
• Prime Minister: Eisaku Satō (Liberal Democratic)
• Chief Cabinet Secretary: Tomisaburo Hashimoto until August 1, Kiichi Aichi until December 3, Kenji Fukunaga
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Kisaburo Yokota until August 5, Masatoshi Yokota from August 6
• President of the House of Representatives: Kikuchirō Yamaguchi until December 3, Kentarō Ayabe until December 26
• President of the House of Councillors: Yūzō Shigemune

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: Morie Kimura
• Gifu Prefecture: Yukiyasu Matsuno (until 16 October); Saburō Hirano (starting 17 October)
• 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: Shintaro Takahashi
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Hiroshi Kuroki
• Nagano Prefecture: Gon'ichirō Nishizawa
• Nagasaki Prefecture: Katsuya Sato
• Nara Prefecture: Ryozo Okuda
• Niigata Prefecture: Juichiro Tsukada (until 28 March); Shiro Watari (starting 8 May)
• Oita Prefecture: Kaoru Kinoshita
• Okayama Prefecture: Takenori Kato
• Osaka Prefecture: Gisen Satō
• Saga Prefecture: Sunao Ikeda
• Saitama Prefecture: Hiroshi Kurihara
• Shiga Prefecture: Kyujiro Taniguchi (until 6 December); Kinichiro Nozaki (starting 7 December)
• Shiname Prefecture: Choemon Tanabe
• Shizuoka Prefecture: Toshio Saitō
• Tochigi Prefecture: Nobuo Yokokawa
• Tokushima Prefecture: Yasunobu Takeichi
• 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

• January 9 - The Kanai Building fire in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture leaves 12 dead, 14 injured.
• February 4 -All Nippon Airways Flight 60 crashes into Tokyo Bay, killing all 133 people on board.
• March 4 - Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 crashes while landing at night with poor visibility at Tokyo International Airport, with 64 out of 72 on board killed.
• March 5 - BOAC Flight 911 crashes while encountering severe Clear-air turbulence over Mount Fuji shortly after taking off from Tokyo International Airport, killing all 124 on board.
• March 11 – A spa hotel caught fire in Minakami, Gunma Prefecture, causing 30 deaths, 29 injuries, according to Japan Fire and Disaster Management Agency official confirmed report.^[2]
• March 25 – Hachinohe Rinkai Line was opened.
• April 1 - Japan switches to the Metric system.
• April 26 - Japan's biggest postwar public transportation strike.
• August 22 – Frontier Tea Product Manufacturing, as predecessor of Ito En founded in Shizuoka City.^{[page needed]}
• September 25 – Two typhoons Helen and Ida landed in Japan on same days, according to Japanese government official confirmed report, total 317 persons were human fatalities with 824 persons were hurt.^[3]
• November 11 - All Nippon Airways Flight 533 crashes into the Seto Inland Sea, killing all 50 on board.
• Undated
  • Yamanashi Women's Junior College is founded.
  • Japanese birth rates plummeted due to the superstition that girls born in the year of the Fire Horse will grow up to kill their husbands.

Births

• January 5 - Yuri Amano, voice actress
• January 17 - Jyoji Morikawa, author and illustrator
• January 17 - Hiroko Mita, actress
• January 28 - Seiji Mizushima, anime director
• January 31 - Nobuyuki Hoshino, former professional baseball pitcher
• February 4 - Kyōko Koizumi, actress and singer
• February 5 - Maiko Kawakami, actress
• March 7 - Atsushi Sakurai, singer (Buck-Tick) (died 2023)
• April 3 - Mina Tominaga, voice actress
• April 19 - El Samurai, professional wrestler
• April 27 - Yoshihiro Togashi, author and illustrator^[4]
• June 26 - Yūko Minaguchi, voice actress
• July 11 - Kentaro Miura, manga artist (died 2021)^[5]
• July 15 - Masatoshi Nagase, actress
• July 25 - Wataru Takagi, voice actor
• July 28 - Shikao Suga, singer
• August 4 - Kensuke Sasaki, professional wrestler
• August 14 - Honami Suzuki, actress^[6]
• August 30 - Mikako Kotani, former synchronised swimming athlete
• September 2 - Yu Hayami, singer and actress
• September 11 - Kiko, Crown Princess of Japan, wife of Fumihito, Crown Prince of Japan
• October 8 - Toshiro Yufune, former professional baseball pitcher
• October 27 - Masanobu Takashima, actor
• October 31 - Koji Kanemoto, professional wrestler
• November 2 - Yoshinari Ogawa, professional wrestler
• November 6 - Kae Araki, voice actress
• November 13 - Mieharu, actor
• November 28 - Narumi Yasuda, actress
• December 12 - Último Dragón, professional wrestler
• December 17 - Yuko Arimori, former marathon runner
• December 22 - Sayuri Kokusho, actress
• December 27 - Masahiro Fukuda, former footballer

Deaths

• January 10 - Nishizō Tsukahara, admiral (b. 1887)
• March 6 - Michitaro Totsuka, admiral (b. 1890)^[7]
• April 23 - George Ohsawa, dietist, founder of Macrobiotics (b. 1893)^[8]
• June 7 - Yoshishige Abe, philosopher and politician (b. 1883)
• June 15 – Sankichi Takahashi, admiral (b. 1882)
• July 12 - D.T. Suzuki, philosopher (b. 1870)
• September 12 - Aketo Nakamura, general (b. 1889)
• September 13 - Tomoshige Samejima, admiral (b. 1889)
• November 9 - Jisaburō Ozawa, admiral (b. 1886)
• November 14 - Zengo Yoshida, admiral (b. 1885)