1998 in Japan

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 1998: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 10 : LOVE is released in [J]apan.
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)
See also
1998 in Japanese television
List of Japanese films of 1998
References
Years of the 20th century in Japan
Japan
Japan
1990s in Japan