# 2007 in Japan

Events in the year 2007 in Japan.

## Incumbents

* Emperor – Akihito
* Prime Minister – Shinzō Abe (Liberal Democratic Party–Yamaguchi) until September 26, Yasuo Fukuda (Liberal Democratic Party–Gunma)
* Chief Cabinet Secretary: Yasuhisa Shiozaki (L–Ehime) to August 27, Kaoru Yosano (L–Tokyo) to September 26, Nobutaka Machimura (L–Hokkaidō)
* Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Nirō Shimada
* President of the House of Representatives: Yōhei Kōno (L–Kanagawa)
* President of the House of Councillors: Chikage Ōgi (L–proportional) until July 28, Satsuki Eda (D–Okayama)
* Diet sessions: 166th (regular, January 25 to July 5), 167th (extraordinary, August 7 to August 10), 168th (extraordinary, September 10 to 2008, January 15)

### Governors

* Aichi Prefecture: Masaaki Kanda
* Akita Prefecture: Sukeshiro Terata
* Aomori Prefecture: Shingo Mimura
* Chiba Prefecture: Akiko Dōmoto
* Ehime Prefecture: Moriyuki Kato
* Fukui Prefecture: Issei Nishikawa
* Fukuoka Prefecture: Wataru Asō
* Fukushima Prefecture: Yūhei Satō
* Gifu Prefecture: Hajime Furuta
* Gunma Prefecture: Hiroyuki Kodera (until 27 July); Masaaki Osawa (starting 28 July)
* Hiroshima Prefecture: Yūzan Fujita
* Hokkaido: Harumi Takahashi
* Hyogo Prefecture: Toshizō Ido
* Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
* Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
* Iwate Prefecture: Hiroya Masuda (until 29 April); Takuya Tasso (starting 30 April)
* Kagawa Prefecture: Takeki Manabe
* Kagoshima Prefecture: Satoshi Mitazono
* Kanagawa Prefecture: Shigefumi Matsuzawa
* Kochi Prefecture: Daijiro Hashimoto (until 6 December); Masanao Ozaki (starting 7 December)
* Kumamoto Prefecture: Yoshiko Shiotani
* Kyoto Prefecture: Keiji Yamada
* Mie Prefecture: Akihiko Noro
* Miyagi Prefecture: Yoshihiro Murai
* Miyazaki Prefecture: Kayoko Saka (until 22 January); Hideo Higashikokubaru (starting 23 January)
* Nagano Prefecture: Jin Murai
* Nagasaki Prefecture: Genjirō Kaneko
* Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto (until 2 May); Shōgo Arai (starting 2 May)
* Niigata Prefecture: Hirohiko Izumida
* Oita Prefecture: Katsusada Hirose
* Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
* Okinawa Prefecture: Hirokazu Nakaima
* Osaka Prefecture: Fusae Ōta
* Saga Prefecture: Yasushi Furukawa
* Saitama Prefecture: Kiyoshi Ueda
* Shiga Prefecture: Yukiko Kada
* Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita (until 29 April); Zenbe Mizoguchi (starting 30 April)
* Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
* Tochigi Prefecture: Tomikazu Fukuda
* Tokushima Prefecture: Kamon Iizumi
* Tokyo: Shintarō Ishihara
* Tottori Prefecture: Yoshihiro Katayama (until 13 April); Shinji Hirai (starting 13 April)
* Toyama Prefecture: Takakazu Ishii
* Wakayama Prefecture: Yoshinobu Nisaka
* Yamagata Prefecture: Hiroshi Saitō
* Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
* Yamanashi Prefecture: Takahiko Yamamoto (until 16 February); Shōmei Yokouchi (starting 17 February)

## Events
### January

* January 23 – A rare eel-like creature identified as a frilled shark is discovered in Japan by fishermen.

### February

* February 20 – A power outage strikes the central area of Nagoya.

### March

* March 25 – A tsunami occurs on the northern coast of Japan after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 in the Sea of Japan. NHK reports that 1 person has died and 40 have been injured.
* March 26 – Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe apologizes for Japan's use of women as sex slaves in frontline brothels during World War II.

### April

* April 1 – Niigata and Hamamatsu become cities designated by government ordinance.
* April 8 – Voters go to the polls in Japan for the first phase of the unified local elections including 13 gubernatorial elections, 44 prefectural assembly elections and 4 mayoral races in major cities.
* April 10 – The government of Japan extends economic sanctions against the North Korean government by an additional six months, citing a lack of progress in resolving kidnapping cases of Japanese citizens.
* April 16 – The United States, Japan and India carry out a joint naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to increase strategic cooperation.
* April 17 – Iccho Ito, the mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, is shot at least twice outside his re-election campaign headquarters. The assassin, Tetsuya Shiroo, is alleged to be a senior member of a local gang affiliated to the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate. Itoh was taken to the Nagasaki University Hospital, where he died early the next morning due to loss of blood.
* April 22 – In the second phase of the unified local elections, hundreds of municipal elections and two by-elections for the national Diet are held.
* April 25 – Japanese police raid the offices of a pro-North Korean group in relation to the alleged kidnapping of two children in the 1970s.

### May

* May 14 – The House of Councillors passes rules for revising the pacifist Constitution of Japan.
* May 28
** Riyo Mori becomes Miss Universe 2007 in Mexico City, the second Japanese to do so after Akiko Kojima.
** Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka is found dead at his Tokyo home, hours before he was to face questions in the Diet about his expenses.

### June

* June 1 – Archaeologists discover a 2,100-year-old melon in Shiga Prefecture.
* June 21 – Japan changes the name of Iwo Jima to its original name, Iwo To, to reflect the wishes of its original inhabitants.

### July

* July 3 – Japan's Minister of Defense Fumio Kyuma resigns over comments he made about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the weekend.
* July 4 – Japan's first female Minister of Defense, Yuriko Koike, is sworn in a day after the resignation of her predecessor, Fumio Kyuma.
* July 16 – 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake, eleven deaths and at least 1000 injuries were reported, and 342 buildings destroyed.
* July 29 – House of Councillors election

### August

* August 1 – Norihiko Akagi resigns as Japan's agriculture minister after scandals involving him adversely affected the Liberal Democratic Party's performance in the 2007 Japanese House of Councillors election.
* August 24 – Murder of Rie Isogai
* August 25 – The 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics get underway in Osaka, Japan.
* August 31 – Crypton Future Media's first Vocaloid on their Character Vocal Series, Hatsune Miku, is released for Vocaloid 2 software.

### September

* September 12 – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announces his resignation.
* September 14 – The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully launches SELENE, the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program, on a mission to explore the Moon.
* September 23 – Yasuo Fukuda, a political moderate, is elected by Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party to become the country's next prime minister.

### November

* November 18 – Japan resumes whaling of humpbacks for the first time in 40 years. Greenpeace and other environmentalist groups condemn the decision.
* November 28 – The Chinese Type 051B destroyer Shenzhen visits Tokyo in the first visit of a Chinese warship to Japan since World War II.

### December

* December 19 – A 32-year-old police sergeant shoots himself inside a kōban in front of Tokyo Station.

## Births

* August 30 – Momiji Nishiya, Olympic skateboarder
* September 18 – Toshiki Kumagai, actor and voice actor

## Deaths

* January 5 – Momofuku Ando, inventor of Instant noodles and Cup Noodles, founder of Nissin Foods
* January 8 – Iwao Takamoto, animator
* April 18 – Iccho Itoh, mayor of Nagasaki
* May 3 – Knock Yokoyama, comedian and politician
* May 27 – Izumi Sakai, singer
* May 28 – Toshikatsu Matsuoka, politician
* June 28 – Kiichi Miyazawa, 78th Prime Minister
* July 18 – Kenji Miyamoto, politician
* August 28 – Miyoshi Umeki, actress
* September 7 – Kenji Nagai, journalist (b. 1957)
* October 7 – Norifumi Abe, motorcycle road racer
* October 12 – Kurokawa Kisho, architect
* November 13 – Kazuhisa Inao, baseball player