1946 in Japan

Events in the year 1946 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 21 (昭和21年) in the Japanese calendar.

Demographically, Showa Baby Boom Generation is a post-Japanese war demographic cohort, which approximately born between 1946 and 1953. It was fueled by returning soldiers, economic recovery, and post-war psychological shift towards rebuilding nation and starting families' and friends' new living together after the Constitution of Japan (1947) and the Treaty of San Francisco (1952). First Japanese Baby Boom Generation (1947-1949) is the core of this cohort, which saw births exceed 2.6 million annually, peaking with nearly 2.7 million births, for a total of about 8 million children born in just three years. They grew up during post-war recovery and Japanese economic miracle, and they experienced both hardships of immediate post-war food shortages and later economic boom. As they came of age during post-war period, Japanese economy and society changed to accommodate them. Major life events for this old Showa baby boom cohort, such as entering education system, workforce, and retirement, have created unique social and economic pressures, and as well as 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games and university campus protests. Many individuals, who went to university or college were involved in a student radicalism and campus protests of late 1960s. They entered the workforce during a period of hyper-employment and labor shortages, contributing significantly to Japan's high economic growth. They were largely corporate employees, often identifying strongly with their work and believing in the concept of lifetime employment. Japanese Showa baby boom was much shorter and more "peaked" than global baby boom, making the demographic shift to an aging population more sudden in Japan. By this definition, as of 2013, there were about 15 million Japanese Showa baby boomers, which accounted for 11.7% of total population, out of 128 million people in Japan.