# 1998 in Japan

Events in the year 1998 in Japan. It corresponds to the year Heisei 10 (平成10年) in the Japanese calendar.

## Incumbents

* Emperor: Akihito
* Prime Minister: Ryutaro Hashimoto (L–Okayama) until July 30, Keizo Obuchi (L–Gunma)
* Chief Cabinet Secretary: Kanezō Muraoka (L–Akita) until July 30, Hiromu Nonaka (L–Kyōto)
* Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Shigeru Yamaguchi
* President of the House of Representatives: Sōichirō Itō (L–Miyagi)
* President of the House of Councillors: Jūrō Saitō (L–Mie) until July 25 and again from August 4
* Diet sessions: 142nd (regular, January 12 to June 18), 143rd (extraordinary, August 7 to October 16), 144th (extraordinary, November 27 to December 14)

### Governors

* Aichi Prefecture: Reiji Suzuki
* Akita Prefecture: Sukeshiro Terata
* Aomori Prefecture: Morio Kimura
* Chiba Prefecture: Takeshi Numata
* Ehime Prefecture: Sadayuki Iga
* Fukui Prefecture: Yukio Kurita
* Fukuoka Prefecture: Wataru Asō
* Fukushima Prefecture: Eisaku Satō
* Gifu Prefecture: Taku Kajiwara
* Gunma Prefecture: Hiroyuki Kodera
* Hiroshima Prefecture: Yūzan Fujita
* Hokkaido: Tatsuya Hori
* Hyogo Prefecture: Toshitami Kaihara
* Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
* Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
* Iwate Prefecture: Hiroya Masuda
* Kagawa Prefecture: Jōichi Hirai (until 4 September); Takeki Manabe (starting 5 September)
* Kagoshima Prefecture: Tatsurō Suga
* Kanagawa Prefecture: Hiroshi Okazaki
* Kochi Prefecture: Daijiro Hashimoto
* Kumamoto Prefecture: Joji Fukushima
* Kyoto Prefecture: Teiichi Aramaki
* Mie Prefecture: Masayasu Kitagawa
* Miyagi Prefecture: Shirō Asano
* Miyazaki Prefecture: Suketaka Matsukata
* Nagano Prefecture: Gorō Yoshimura
* Nagasaki Prefecture: Isamu Takada (until 1 March); Genjirō Kaneko (starting 2 March)
* Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto
* Niigata Prefecture: Ikuo Hirayama
* Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
* Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
* Okinawa Prefecture: Masahide Ōta (until 10 December); Keiichi Inamine (starting 10 December)
* Osaka Prefecture: Knock Yokoyama
* Saga Prefecture: Isamu Imoto
* Saitama Prefecture: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya
* Shiga Prefecture: Minoru Inaba (until 20 July); Yoshitsugu Kunimatsu (starting 20 July)
* Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita
* Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
* Tochigi Prefecture: Fumio Watanabe
* Tokushima Prefecture: Toshio Endo
* Tokyo: Yukio Aoshima
* Tottori Prefecture: Yuji Nishio
* Toyama Prefecture: Yutaka Nakaoki
* Wakayama Prefecture: Isamu Nishiguchi
* Yamagata Prefecture: Kazuo Takahashi
* Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
* Yamanashi Prefecture: Ken Amano

## Events

* February 7 – February 22: The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano.
* March 5 – March 14: The 1998 Winter Paralympics are held in Nagano.
* April 1: Toyota City, Fukuyama City, Kōchi City and Miyazaki City become core cities.
* April 5: The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about ¥ 500 billion (US$3.8 billion), opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
* May 26: Takashi Imai is inaugurated as the 9th head of the Keidanren.
* June 22: Financial Services Agency established.
* July 5: Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
* July 12: Election for the House of Councillors held.
* July 25: Masumi Hayashi poisons a curry pot at a festival in Wakayama, causing the death of two adults and two children.
* September 3: Metal Gear Solid is first released for the PS1 in Japan.
* September 7: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 10 : LOVE is released in Japan.
* September 22 – 23: Typhoon Vivki causes damage to several cultural heritage sites in Wakayama, Nara, Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture and causing 19 deaths.
* October 8: Japan-South Korea Joint Declaration of 1998.
* November 13: Free solo climber Alain Robert scales the Shinjuku Center Building and is arrested on its roof.
* November 26: Japan-China Joint Declaration On Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development.
* December 18: Mario Party is released in Japan.

## Births

* January 5 - Marie Iitoyo, model and actress
* January 23 - Yuto Adachi, singer and member of South Korean boy band Pentagon
* February 8 - Rui Hachimura, basketball player
* March 19 - Sakura Miyawaki, singer and member of South Korean girl group Le Sserafim
* March 26 - Satoko Miyahara, figure skater
* April 6 - Rina Katsuta, singer
* April 10 - Airi Kinoshita, murder victim (d. 2005)
* April 28 - Manamo Miyata, singer and member of Hinatazaka46
* May 13 - Karen Iwata, singer and voice actress
* May 28 - Riho Sayashi, J-pop singer
* May 31 - Ryang Hyon-ju, North Korean, footballer
* June 14 - Taishi Nakagawa, actor and model
* June 19 - Suzu Hirose, model and actress
* July 9 - Tiger Onitsuka, jazz drummer
* July 16 - Rina Matsuno, singer (d. 2017)
* July 17 - Shione Sawada, actress
* July 26 - Maya Sakura, singer
* July 27 - Risa Watanabe, idol and model
* August 5 - Kanon Suzuki, singer
* August 17 - Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professional baseball player
* August 28 - Haruka Fukuhara, actress, model and singer
* October 30 - Meimi Tamura, singer and actress
* November 12 - Yuna Taira, actress
* November 29 - Ayumu Hirano, snowboarder
* December 24 - Keito Tsuna, actor
* December 30 - Akari Uemura, pop singer

## Deaths

* January 9 – Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
* January 21 – Yoshifumi Kondō, animator (b. 1950)
* January 26 – Shinichi Suzuki, violinist (b. 1898)
* January 27 – Tamio Kageyama, novelist (b. 1947)
* January 28 – Shotaro Ishinomori, Manga artist, "Father of Henshin heroes." (b. 1938)
* February 5 – Takahashi Chikuzan, Tsugaru-jamisen performer and composer (b. 1910)
* March 10 – Kenkō Satoshi, Sumo wrestler (b. 1967)
* March 13 – Kosho Uchiyama, Sōtō priest (b. 1912)
* April 20 – Yoshio Inaba, actor (b. 1920)
* May 2 – Matsumoto Hideto (hide), Japanese musician (b. 1964)
* May 10 – Nekojiru, manga artist (b. 1967)
* May 19 – Sōsuke Uno, Prime Minister (b. 1922)
* August 3 – Reizo Koike, breaststroke swimmer (b. 1915)
* August 28 – Hirokazu Kobayashi, aikidoka (b. 1929)
* September 6 – Akira Kurosawa, screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1910)
* September 27 – Narita Bryan, racehorse (b. 1991)
* October 12 – Ineko Sata, communist and feminist author of proletarian literature (b. 1904)
* November 1 – Silence Suzuka, racehorse (b. 1994)
* November 5 – Momoko Kōchi, actress (b. 1932)
* December 1 – Shōji Nakayama, actor (b. 1928)
* December 2 – Mikio Oda, athlete (b. 1905)
* December 30 – Keisuke Kinoshita, film director (b. 1912)