The 1982 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 33rd season of operation for the league. This was the last season of the first-half/second-half playoff system for the Pacific League, which changed their system for 1983 that would see the first-place team play the second-place team in a playoff only if they finished within five games of each other (in contrast, the ten-season tenure of matching the champion of the halves saw two occasions where one team won both halves). As it never ended up being used until its dissolution in 1985, the next season in which either league had a playoff system until 2004. The Chunichi Dragons narrowly won the Central pennant by defeating the fifth-place Taiyo Whales, who they played three times to end the season and needed to beat twice.
The Pacific League teams with the best first and second-half records met in a best-of-five playoff series to determine the league representative in the Japan Series. Terry Whitfield hit two home runs in the deciding Game 4 to send the Lions to the Japan Series.
Seibu Lions won the series 3âÂÂ1.
Seibu Lions won the series 4âÂÂ2.