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Hamilton overtook teammate Valtteri Bottas to set the fastest time of the session, with a lead of 1m28.691, seven tenths ahead of Red Bull and a full second ahead of Ferrari.
Daniel Ricciardo finished third in the FP1. Kimi Raikkonen beat Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel in fourth.
Ricciardo was the pioneer of the session with his teammate Max Verstappen, who ran quickly with soft tires in the first half-hour.
In 1m29.842, Bottas gave the advantage to Mercedes before the mid-race of the soft.
Bottas was one tenth behind Sebastian Vettel at the time, but the Ferrari used ultra-soft tires and was just ahead of Hamilton, who was only in midfielder.
When Bottas switched to new medium tires, it rose to 1m29.137; Hamilton easily overshadowed his first lap in soft tires by nearly a half-second.
The Ferraris were not big despite a second series of super supersofts, which allowed Suzuka to have an aggressive tire allowance.
Ricciardo clocked a time of 1m29.373 to be three tenths ahead of Ferrari, although Raikkonen was able to overtake his teammate, as Vettel lost time in the last corner behind Pierre Gasly.
Toro Rosso's pilot, Gasly, who also had a tour of Turn 2's grass during the morning, had already been involved in a previous, more dramatic incident with Hamilton.
Gasly slowed down in the chicane before the start of the lap but, despite checking his mirrors, he stayed on the line and Hamilton, approaching on a fast lap, had to turn back aggressively to avoid.
Hamilton, who is approaching a fifth F1 title, has locked himself up and fled before showing his dissatisfaction to Gasly.
The incident will be the subject of an investigation after the session.
Behind the three big teams, Esteban Ocon has won the best of the rest.
The Indian Point Racing Force India rider scored 1.9 points behind, but impressively surpassed his midfield rivals with soft tires. They all had great performances.
Romain Grosjean set the fastest time in eight innings, just over two tenths behind Ocon, while Sauber completed the top 10 with Charles Leclerc ten times faster than Marcus Ericsson.
Gasly failed to rank in the top 10 despite Ericsson's best time in the 1,000th.
Suzuka's classic circuit surprised some drivers. Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso had the greatest moments.
Perez turned around at the last corner after dropping a wheel on the ground at the entrance to the chicane.
Alonso made the same mistake at Degner's first corner, which pushed his McLaren to skate on the gravel and ended the Spaniard's encounter.
He managed to join the track and finally score the 18th fastest time, 3.3 seconds against the pace and supported by the 2019 McLaren driver, Lando Norris, 20th.
Norris was the slowest of all, at 3.9 seconds of the pace, as he replaced Stoffel Vandoorne for his last outing of the season in FP1.
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