| Unit Name: | Japanese Seventeenth Army |
| Dates: | May 18, 1942 – August 15, 1945 |
| Country: | Empire of Japan |
| Branch: | Imperial Japanese Army |
| Type: | Infantry |
| Role: | Corps |
| Garrison: | Rabaul |
| Battles: | Solomon Islands campaign |
The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
The army was formed on May 18, 1942 under the Japanese Eighth Area Army of the Southern Expeditionary Army Group for the specific task of opposing landings by Allied forces in Japanese-occupied Solomon Islands. It was initially headquartered on Rabaul and participated in the Guadalcanal and New Guinea campaigns of the South West Pacific theatre of World War II.[1]
After General Hitoshi Imamura took over command of the Japanese Eighth Area Army the 17th Army was responsible primarily for the defense of Bougainville.[2] It was trapped and cut off from reinforcements and re-supply during the Bougainville campaign (1943–45), and was forced to live off the land, hiding in jungle caves for most of the rest of the war.[3]
| Name | From | To | |
| 1 | 18 May 1942 | 1 April 1945 | |
| 2 | 1 April 1945 | 15 August 1945 | |
| Name | From | To | |
| 1 | 5 May 1942 | 1 October 1942 | |
| 2 | 1 October 1942 | 11 May 1943 | |
| 3 | 11 May 1943 | 11 September 1943 | |
| 4 | 11 September 1943 | 1 April 1945 | |
| 5 | 1 April 1945 | 1 September 1945 | |
. Richard B. Frank . 1990 . Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle . Random House . New York . 0-394-58875-4 . registration .