Timeline of Japan 2001-2005
Return to home
2001 Jan 6, The
number of national ministries and agencies was cut from 22 to 12 in an
effort to expand efficiency and shift power from bureaucracies to
politicians.
(SSFC, 1/7/01, p.D3)
2001 Jan 22, Fukushiro Nukaga,
economics minister, resigned in a bribery scandal and was succeeded by
Taro Aso.
(WSJ, 1/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 9, The US nuclear
submarine Greeneville struck the Japanese fishing boat, Ehime Maru,
near Oahu with 35 people on board including 13 students. The boat sank
in 5 minutes and 9 men and boys were killed. The sub was practicing a
rapid ascent and had 15 civilian guests onboard. It was later revealed
that civilian visitors sat at 2 of the subs 3 main controls when it
surfaced. Capt. Scott Waddle, the sub skipper, was relieved of duty
pending investiga-tion. Sonar contact with the fishing vessel had been
established over an hour before the acci-dent. Capt. Waddle was later
reprimanded and submitted his resignation.
(SFC, 2/10/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 2/11/01, p.A3)(SFC,
2/13/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/14/01, p.A2)(SFC, 2/15/01, p.A3)(SFC, 2/21/01,
p.A2)(SFC, 3/15/01, p.A3)(WSJ, 4/24/01, p.A1)(AP, 2/9/08)
2001 Feb 20, It was reported that
the snow on Mt. Kilimanjaro was almost gone and that 92% had melted
since 1912.
(WSJ, 2/120/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 10, Prime Minister
Yoshiro Mori announced that he would resign next month.
(SSFC, 3/11/01, p.D1)
2001 Mar 19, Pres. Bush met with
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. They did not come up with any
specific measures to revive economic growth.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 19, Masaru Hayami, the
Gov. of the Bank of Japan, said that a key interest rate will fall
virtually to zero and stay there until consumer prices stop falling.
(WSJ, 3/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 24, A 6.4 earthquake near
Hiroshima killed 2 people and injured at least 160.
(SSFC, 3/25/01, p.C1)
2001 Mar 30, In Osaka Universal
Studios officially opened its new theme park.
(WSJ, 3/22/01, p.B1)(SFC, 3/30/01, p.D3)
2001 Mar, Over the last 12
months18,926 companies went bankrupt in Japan and some 199,280 people
were affected.
(WSJ, 7/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 2, The new freedom of
information law went into effect 2 years after it was approved by
Parliament.
(SSFC, 4/15/01, p.D4)
2001 Apr 6, Parliament approved
its 1st law to protect victims of domestic violence.
(SFC, 4/7/01, p.A11)
2001 Apr 24, In Japan Junichiro
Koizumi (59) won elections to head the ruling Liberal Democ-ratic Party
(LDP). This set him up to become prime minister.
(SFC, 4/24/01, p.A9)(SFC, 4/25/01, p.A8)
2001 Apr 26, In Japan Junichiro
Koizumi named a Cabinet that included 5 women, an eco-nomics prof. and
2 outsiders.
(SFC, 4/27/01, p.D2)
2001 May 1, In Japan Kim Jong Nam
(29), the son of Kim Jong Il of North Korea, was de-tained with his son
as they attempted to visit Tokyo's Disneyland. They were later deported
to China.
(SFC, 5/4/01, p.A14)
2001 May 15, A celebratory mood
took hold of Japan after the palace formally announced that Crown
Princess Masako was pregnant.
(AP, 5/15/02)
2001 Jun 7, Mamoru Takuma (37)
stabbed at least 29 people at the Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka,
Japan, and killed 8 children. He was executed in 2004.
(SFC, 6/8/01, p.A16)(SFC, 9/4/01, p.A6)(Econ,
9/18/04, p.50)
2001 Jun 8, A knife-wielding man
killed eight children at a Japanese elementary school.
(AP, 6/8/06)
2001 Jun 21, In Japan PM Koizumi
outlined an aggressive economic reform program that promised to shrink
the government and create new economic incentives. Banks were given 2-3
years to solve their bad-loan problems.
(SFC, 6/22/01, p.A15)(WSJ, 6/22/01, p.A11)
2001 Jun 29, In Okinawa a woman
claimed that she was raped by an American. US Air Force sergeant
Timothy B. Woodland was later charged. Sgt. Woodland was handed over to
Japa-nese authorities on July 6. Woodland was convicted Mar 27 and was
sentenced to 32 months in prison.
(WSJ, 7/2/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/3/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/3/01,
p.A7)(SFC, 7/7/01, p.A1)(SFC, 3/28/02, p.A1)
2001 Jun 30, Pres. Bush met with
Japan's PM Koizumi and endorsed his plan for economic reform. They
agreed on alternative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions since
Bush re-jected the Kyoto global warming treaty.
(WSJ, 7/2/01, p.A8)(SSFC, 7/1/01, p.A12)
2001 Jul 6, The United States
turned over to Japanese authorities an American serviceman accused of
rape. Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland was convicted of rape and
sentenced to two years and eight months in prison.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2001 Jul 10, It was reported that
Yoshinori Kobayashi (47), cartoon book creator, promoted a philosophy
of Gomanism (politically provocative) in his best selling works. This
was seen as part of a rising sense of nationalism.
(SFC, 7/10/01, p.A8)
2001 Jul 19, Japanese prosecutors
charged a U.S. airman with rape in an alleged attack on a woman in
Okinawa. Air Force Staff Sgt. Timothy Woodland was later convicted and
sentenced to nearly three years in prison.
(AP, 7/16/02)
2001 Jul 21, Ten people, mostly
children, were killed on a crowded pedestrian bridge as they left a
fireworks display in Akashi.
(SFC, 7/22/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 29, The governing Liberal
Democratic Party of PM Koizumi won 64 of 121 contested seats in the
247-seat upper house.
(SFC, 7/30/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 13, Japanese PM Junichiro
Koizumi tried to ease the anger of Asian neighbors by visiting a
controversial war shrine two days before the actual anniversary of
Japan's World War II surrender.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A1)(AP, 8/13/02)
2001 Aug 15, Most local school
districts turned down "The New History Textbook" due to its whitewash
of 20th century history.
(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 23, Novelist Ryu Murakami
was featured in the WSJ and quoted to say: "Who ca-res about fitting
into the system? Think for yourself."
(WSJ, 8/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 29, Japan launched a
domestically developed rocket with hopes of developing its commercial
satellite industry.
(WSJ, 8/30/01, p.A1)
2001 Aug 30, The Nikkei fell to a
17-year low, 10,938, as the government reported declines in industrial
output and consumer spending.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A5)
2001 Sep 1, In Tokyo an early
morning explosion in a mah-jongg parlor killed at least 44 peo-ple. The
Kabukicho district building was crammed with sex clubs and gambling
parlors.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A6)(SFC, 11/16/01, p.E6)
2001 Sep 10, The government
reported that a dairy cow had tested positive for mad-cow dis-ease. It
was the 1st instance of the disease in Asian animals.
(WSJ, 9/11/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 10, The Nikkei closed at
10195, the lowest point since Aug 1984.
(WSJ, 9/11/01, p.A19)
2001 Sep 12, Hatsuko Kikuhara
(born as Hatsu Nunohara), master of traditional Japanese music, died at
age 102. She was a master of the 3-string shamisen and 13-string koto.
(SSFC, 9/16/01, p.A26)
2001 Sep 19, PM Koizumi promised
to push legislative changes to permit Japanese troops to provide
logistical support for a US-led war on terrorism.
(SFC, 9/20/01, p.A12)
2001 Oct 15, Japan's PM Koizumi
visited South Korea and expressed his remorse at Sodae-mun Independence
Park for suffering inflicted by Japan's colonial rule.
(SFC, 10/16/01, p.B6)
2001 Oct 18, Japan's House of
Representatives approved an anti-terrorism bill that defines a narrow
role for its military to support US attacks in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A5)
2001 Nov 23, Japan said it would
send 1,500 troops to help with relief operations in Afghani-stan.
(SFC, 11/24/01, p.A7)
2001 Dec 1 A baby girl was born to
Japan's Crown Princess Masako and Crown Prince Naru-hito, the royal
couple's first child in eight years of marriage; she was later named
Aiko.
(SFC, 12/1/01, p.A2)(AP, 12/1/02)
2001 Dec 6, Japan went into
recession officially for the 4th time in 10 years as the GDP shrank
0.5%.
(WSJ, 12/7/01, p.A14)(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D8)
2001 Dec 22, A fishing boat from
North Korea, suspected of spying, exchanged fire with Japanese coast
vessels and sank after a 6-hour chase. 15 crewmen were lost. 2 bodies
were later recovered. North Korea later denied any links to the fishing
boat and accused Japan of a "smear campaign."
(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.A15)(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A4)(SFC,
12/27/01, p.A5)
2001 Dec 28, Japan's Nikkei closed
at its lowest year-end mark since 1983: 10,542.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.B1)
2001 Dec, Kazuko Yokoo, former
ambassador to Ireland and a Labor Ministry official, was picked to
serve on the Supreme Court. Yokoo was the 2nd Japanese woman to serve
on the high court.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A2)
2001 Lesley Downer authored "Women
of the Pleasure Quarters," a history of the geisha.
(WSJ, 5/1/01, p.A24)
2001 Alex Kerr, author of "Lost
Japan," published "Tales From the Dark Side of Japan," a look at
development in Japan over the last 35 years.
(WSJ, 5/4/01, p.W10)
2001 Japan spent $2.7 billion on
an emergency work-creation program.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2001 Hiroya Masuda, governor of
Japan’s northern Iwate prefecture, sent out a bold new message: Just
give up.” It was an effort to improve the local quality of life.
(WSJ, 6/30/04, p.A1)
2001 Shuji Nakamura sued his
employer, Japan’s Nichia Corp., for a larger share in the prof-its from
his invention of the blue LED. He had originally received a 20,000 yen
bonus. In 2004 a court ordered Nichia to pay him 20 billion yen. A deal
in 2005 gave him 840 million yen.
(WSJ, 1/12/05, p.A9)
2001 Sony Corp. established Sony
Bank.
(WSJ, 3/7/05, p.A8)
2001 Vodaphone took control of
J-Phone, Japan’s 3rd largest operator. In 2003 J-Phone was renamed
Vodaphone.
(Econ, 3/11/06, p.56)
2001 Takashi Tokuyama, a Japanese
brewer of sake, patented his inventions of rice extracts for skin care
products. By 2006 sake was being displaced by shochu, a distilled drink
made from barley, rice, or sweet potatoes.
(Econ, 8/5/06, p.55)
2002 Jan 29, In Japan PM Koizumi
fired foreign minister Makiko Tanaka. Yoriko Kawaguchi was soon chosen
to replace her.
(SFC, 1/30/02, p.A8)(SFC, 2/1/02, p.A15)
2002 Jan, The jobless rate climbed
to 5.4%.
(WSJ, 3/19/02, p.A1)
2002 Feb 1, The Nikkei fell 2.1%
to 9791 and closed below the DJIA for the 1st time since 1957.
(WSJ, 2/4/02, p.C1)
2002 Feb 17, Pres. Bush opened a
three-nation Asian tour in recession-wracked Japan, where he urged PM
Junichiro Koizumi to follow through on long-promised economic reforms.
(SFC, 2/18/02, p.A1)(AP, 2/17/07)
2002 Feb 18, Addressing Japan's
national legislature, President George Bush said the coun-try's
recession-ravaged economy was "on the path to reform," and he urged the
Diet to help curb the spread of terrorism in the region.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2002 Feb 28, Japan reportedly
planned to double its whale catch to 260 whales and include the
endangered sei whale.
(SFC, 3/1/02, p.A19)
2002 Mar 25, It was reported that
educational changes for younger students in Japan in-cluded every
Saturday off, a 30% decrease in rote learning, and new integral study
classes to foster thinking.
(WSJ, 3/25/02, p.A12)
2002 Mar 28, US Air Force Staff
Sergeant Timothy Woodland was convicted in a Japanese court and
sentenced to nearly three years in prison for raping a woman on the
southern island of Okinawa.
(AP, 3/28/03)
2002 May 11, A cow tested positive
for mad cow disease for the 1st time since last fall.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A13)
2002 May 24, Japan led a
successful move to deny Alaska and Siberian native peoples a re-newal
of permission to hunt whales after a failed bid to end a 20-year
moratorium on commer-cial whaling.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A17)
2002 May 31, The World Cup soccer
tournament opened in Japan and South Korea for the first time with a
match between Senegal and defending champion France in South Korea.
Senegal upset France, 1-0.
(SFC, 6/1/02, p.A1)(AP, 5/31/03)
2002 May, Wal-Mart entered the
Japanese market by buying a 6.1% stake in the Seiyu Ltd. supermarket
chain.
(www.walmartfacts.com/articles/3612.aspx)
2002 Jun 4, Japan ratified the
Kyoto Protocol, aimed at cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases and
urged the US and other countries to do so.
(AP, 6/4/03)(SFC, 6/5/02, p.A3)
2002 Jul 4, A British ship left
Takahama, Japan, with 550 pounds of defective, near weapons-grade
plutonium, for return to its British supplier.
(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A12)
2002 Jul 11, Typhoon Chata'an left
5 dead in Japan and moved north.
(Reuters, 7/11/02)
2002 Jul 20, The number of
Japanese who have died after taking diet pills imported from China has
risen to four and 124 have fallen ill, Kyodo news agency reported
quoting a Health Ministry report.
(Reuters, 7/20/02)
2002 Aug 5, Japan launched a
compulsory ID system aimed at bringing government into the electronic
age in the face of stiff protests calling it a violation of privacy and
a temptation to hackers.
(AP, 8/5/02)
2002 Aug 9, Makiko Tanaka, former
Japanese foreign minister, resigned as a member of par-liament after
failing to clear up allegations she had misused state funds.
(AP, 8/9/02)
2002 Aug 12, In Japan protesters
ripped up and threw away documents printed with new ID numbers. A new
database that stores personal data, names, addresses, dates of birth,
gender and the new ID numbers, for each of Japan's 126 million
citizens, was implemented days ear-lier.
(AP, 8/12/02)
2002 Aug 19, Japan has launched a
diplomatic offensive to foil South Korea's attempt to re-name the ocean
separating the Asian neighbors from "Sea of Japan" to the "East Sea",
saying the weight of history is on the Japanese side.
(Reuters, 8/19/02)
2002 Aug 27, A Tokyo court
acknowledged for the first time Japan's use of biological weap-ons
before and during World War II, but rejected demands for compensation
by 180 Chinese who claimed they were victims of the germ warfare
program.
(AP, 8/27/03)
2002 Sep 17, Kim Jong-il
apologized to Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi for abductions of Japanese
citizens and offered concessions on security issues of global concern.
Both leaders exchanged apologies. Of 11 Japanese on an official North
Korea list of those who were kid-napped in the 1970s and 1980s, only 4
were still alive. Details of the kidnapped were made public Oct 2.
North Korea announced that it will indefinitely extend its moratorium
on missile testing as part of the North Korea-Japan Pyongyang
Declaration signed during a meeting be-tween Japanese PM Junichiro
Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
(AP, 9/17/02)(SFC, 10/3/02,
p.A8)(www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/dprkchron.asp)
2002 Oct 8, Japan's government
came under pressure to shield the economy from an ex-pected wave of
bankruptcies resulting from tough new bank reforms as new evidence
emerged that a brief recovery was shuddering to a halt.
(Reuters, 10/8/02)
2002 Oct 8, Masatoshi Koshiba (76)
was named one of this year's Nobel Prize winners for Physics, marking
Japan's third science Nobel in as many years. Riccardo Giacconi (71) of
As-soc. Univ. in Washington DC and Raymond Davis Jr. (87) of Univ. of
Pennsylvania shared the prize awarded for their work on neutrinos that
revised thinking about the nature of the universe.
(AP, 10/8/02)(SFC, 10/9/02, p.A2)(WSJ, 10/9/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 15, In Japan 5 citizens
snatched by North Korean agents in 1978, returned home for a visit.
(SFC, 10/16/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 25, Koki Ishii (61), a
Japanese opposition lawmaker known for his aggressive prob-ing into
ruling party corruption scandals, was stabbed to death in what could be
the nation's first political assassination in more than four decades.
The Democratic Party politician was attacked in front of his home in
central Tokyo by an unidentified man in his 50s who ran away.
(AP, 10/25/02)
2002 Nov 21, Prince Takamado, a
member of the Japanese imperial household known for his love of sports,
died after collapsing while playing squash.
(Reuters, 11/21/02)
2002 Dec 1, Prof. Saburo Ienaga,
Japanese historian, died at age 89. He had led battles against the
government screening of textbooks.
(SFC, 12/2/02, p.A19)
2002 Dec 13, Japan's ruling
coalition agreed to tax reforms to revive the economy.
(FT, 12/14/02, p.3)
2002 Dec 15, Japan won golf's
World Cup for the first time in 45 years.
(AP, 12/15/03)
2002 David Matsumoto authored "The
New Japan: Debunking Seven Cultural Stereotypes."
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.M5)
2002 The Institute of space and
Astronautical Sciences (ISAS) planned to launch its Muses-C to bring
asteroid samples back to Earth.
(SFC, 7/4/98, p.A10)
2002 Tokyo Electric Power shut its
17 nuclear reactors after it was caught falsifying safety records to
hide cracks at some plants.
(Econ, 7/25/05, p.58)
2002 The freighter Turubong 1
sailed from the North Korean port of Chongjin. Somewhere in the Sea of
Japan off the coast of the quiet village of Sakaiminato, its crew
dumped 522 pounds of amphetamines overboard for retrieval by smugglers.
In 2006 Japanese police made their first arrests in the case, seven
Japanese and a South Korean intermediary. Authorities said North Korea
was involved as a government.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2003 Jan 11, Japan's Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi, wrapping up a three-day visit to the
Russian capital, called for the abolition of all nuclear weapons in an
address at a leading atomic energy research center.
(AP, 1/11/03)
2003 Jan 12, Kinji Fukasaku (72),
Japanese film director, died. His films included "Battle with-out Honor
and Humanity" (1973), "Cops vs. Thugs" (1975), "Yakuza Graveyard"
(1976) and "Graveyard of Honor" (1976) and "The Geisha House" (1999).
(SFC, 1/28/03, p.A15)
2003 Jan 18, Activists in Tokyo
carried toy guns filled with flowers, one banner at a Moscow rally read
"Iraq isn't your ranch, Mr. Bush," and some 6,000 anti-war protesters
in Paris shouted, "Stop Bush! Stop war!"
(AP, 1/18/03)
2003 Jan, Eifuku, a $300 million
Tokyo-based hedge fund, collapsed. George Soros was be-lieved to have
$180 million in the fund.
(WSJ, 1/30/03, p.C1)
2003 Mar 28, Japan's first spy
satellites were blasted into orbit, causing an angry North Korea to
warn the move could spark an arms race in the region.
(AP, 3/28/03)
2003 Apr 2, The Japanese
government said a Japanese whaling fleet killed 400 minke whales during
a five-month scientific expedition in Antarctic waters.
(AP, 4/2/03)
2003 Apr 11, In southern Japan an
explosion ripped through a fireworks factory, killing seven people and
injuring four others.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 24, Japanese scientists
reported that a new vitamin that plays an important role in fertility
in mice and may have a similar function in humans. They said
Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), a substance discovered in 1979, can be
categorized as a vitamin.
(AP, 4/24/03)
2003 Apr, The 54-story Mori Tower
was scheduled to open in Tokyo amid a glut of commer-cial office space.
(WSJ, 12/11/02, p.B1)
2003 May 9, Japan launched a
rocket carrying the Muses-C probe, which planned to make contact with
asteroid 1998 SF36 in June of 2005.
(SFC, 5/10/03, p.A7)
2003 May 26, A 7.0 earthquake hit
Japan's main island of Honshu. At least 54 people were injured.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A3)
2003 May 31, In St. Petersburg,
Russia, Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi and Hu Jintao, the new president
of China, agreed in a summit to work at defusing tensions over North
Korea.
(AP, 5/31/03)
2003 Jun 9, Japan pledged $1
billion in aid to help rebuild war-torn Sri Lanka as a major do-nor
conference opened in Tokyo. $2 billion in aid was pledged but without
the participation of the country's Tamil rebels.
(AP, 6/9/03)
2003 Jun 18, The Japanese homeless
population was estimated at 25,000 compared to 600,000 in the US.
(WSJ, 6/18/03, p.A1)
2003 Jul 20, In southern Japan
weekend mudslides destroyed more than a dozen homes, kill-ing 16 people.
(AP, 7/22/03)
2003 Jul 25, Japanese lawmakers
voted to send military forces to Iraq to help with reconstruc-tion.
(SFC, 7/26/03, p.A3)
2003 Jul 26, Across northern Japan
3 powerful earthquakes knocked out power grids, col-lapsed buildings
and set off mudslides. At least 268 people were hurt.
(AP, 7/26/03)
2003 Aug 24, Japan’s Musashi-Fuchu
routed East Boynton Beach, Fla., 10-1 to win the Little League World
Series.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2003 Aug, Toyota sold more cars in
America than did Chrysler.
(Econ, 10/11/03, p.82)
2003 Sep 16, In western Japan a
man reportedly involved in a pay dispute set off an explo-sion that
killed himself, a hostage and a police officer in an office building.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 16, It was reported that
scientists in Japan have transformed mouse stem cells into sperm cells.
(SFC, 9/16/03, p.A6)
2003 Sep 18, Genshin Fujinami
(44), a Japanese Buddhist monk of the Tendai sect, com-pleted a 7-year,
24,800-mile spiritual journey to the Hiei mountains. 46 other marathon
monks have completed the journey since 1885. The ritual, believed to be
a path to enlightenment, dates to the 8th century.
(SFC, 9/20/03, p.A2)
2003 Sep 20, Japan's ruling party
entered the final phase of voting to choose its leader. PM Junichiro
Koizumi easily won re-election as head of Japan's ruling Liberal
Democratic Party.
(AP, 9/20/03)
2003 Sep 25, In northern Japan an
8.3 earthquake, the world's most powerful in 2 1/2 years, injured at
least 589 people and knocked out power on Hokkaido.
(http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/2003/eq_030925/)
2003 Sep 29, In Japan a
23-month-old bull tested positive for new strain of mad cow disease. A
quarantined of 604 cows followed to prevent the spread of the
disease.
(AP, 10/8/03)
2003 Oct 9, Japan's PM Junichiro
Koizumi ordered the lower house of Parliament dissolved, paving the way
for national elections that he's counting on to strengthen his party.
(AP, 10/9/03)
2003 Oct 15, Japan pledged $1.5
billion in reconstruction aid next year for Iraq and more down the line
despite economic woes at home.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Oct 17, Pres. Bush stopped in
Tokyo and thanked PM Junichiro Koizumi for aid to Iraq.
(WSJ, 10/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 23, Japan refused to
grant citizenship to a Japanese couple's twins because they were born
to an American surrogate mother in California.
(WSJ, 10/24/03, p.A1)
2003 Oct 28, Japan's Sony Corp.
said it would cut 20,000 workers and reduce costs by $3 billion over
the next 4 years.
(SFC, 10/29/03, p.B3)
2003 Oct 31, Kamato Hongo (116), a
Japanese woman believed to have been the world's oldest person, died.
(AP, 10/31/03)
2003 Oct, Vol. 1 of Osamu Tezuka's
"Buddha" series was published in the US. The 8-volume epic was about
the life and times of Siddhartha.
(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.F1)
2003 Nov 9, Japan's opposition
made big gains in elections, narrowing the ruling coalition's majority
on parliament and dampening its hopes for a strong mandate to carry out
ambitious economic and political reform.
(AP, 11/9/03)
2003 Nov 10, PM Junichiro
Koizumi's ruling party clawed its way back to a simple majority in
parliament following elections that strengthened the main opposition
party.
(AP, 11/10/03)
2003 Nov 13, Mitoyo Kawate, a
114-year-old Japanese woman who just weeks ago assumed the title of the
world's oldest person, died. The oldest person is now Charlotte
Benkner, of North Lima, Ohio, born Nov. 16, 1889.
(AP, 11/13/03)
2003 Nov 15, Japanese officials
told Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld they were confident their
country would not be left vulnerable by any agreements between the US
and North Korea. They also indicated they would like to send troops to
Iraq "as soon as possible."
(AP, 11/15/03)
2003 Nov 26, Japan threatened to
impose $85 million in retaliatory duties on American im-ports unless
the US backs away from steel tariffs ruled unfair by the WTO.
(AP, 11/26/03)
2003 Nov 29, A Japanese rocket
carrying two spy satellites for monitoring North Korea failed to reach
orbit and had to be destroyed, space officials said, a blow to Japan's
space program.
(AP, 11/29/03)
2003 Dec 9, In Japan PM Junichiro
Koizumi's Cabinet approved the dispatch of about 1,000 soldiers to help
in the reconstruction of Iraq.
(AP, 12/9/03)
2003 Dec 11, ASEAN members met for
a 2-day summit in Tokyo. Japan joined the 10 South-east Asian nations
in a pledge to expand trade and join forces on regional security.
(AP, 12/11/03)
2003 Dec 12, Japan pledged $3
billion in new aid to southeast Asia and promised to work with the
region to bolster security ties, liberalize trade and create a broad
"economic partnership.
(AP, 12/13/03)
2003 Dec 19, Japan announced that
it will begin building a missile defense system.
(AP, 12/19/03)
2003 Dec 22, South Korea and Japan
began negotiations on establishing a free-trade agree-ment between the
East Asian economic powerhouses.
(AP, 12/22/03)
2003 Dec 29, Japan pledged to
forgive "the vast majority" of its Iraqi debt if other Paris Club
nations do the same. China later said it would consider the idea.
(AP, 12/29/03)
2003 The new Mori Art Museum
opened in Tokyo atop the 53-story Mori Tower. It was named its founder
and builder, real estate developer Minoru Mori. It was part of the new
29-acre, $4 bil-lion Roppongi Hills complex.
(SFC, 10/29/03, p.D1)(SFC, 11/17/05, p.E8)
2003 Gillian Tett authored "Saving
the Sun: A Wall Street Gamble to Rescue Japan from Its Trillion Dollar
Meltdown." It is about the clash of 2 visions of finance, a competitive
American one and Japan's system of entangled preferments."
(WSJ, 9/2/03, p.D5)
2003 Japan’s government privatized
J-Power, the state-owned electric wholesaler.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.74)
2003 Toshihiko Fukui was appointed
governor of the Bank of Japan.
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.68)
2003 US sales of Japanese manga
comics reached $100 million.
(SSFC, 4/4/04, p.F5)
2003 Japan’s fertility rate fell
below 1.3, down from 3.65 in 1950.
(Econ, 11/13/04, p.45)
2003 In Japan the number of
suicides rose about 50% since 1990 to 34,500.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.6)
2004 Jan 5, Kiharu Nakamura (90),
Japanese geisha, died in the US. Her 10 books included "The Memoir of a
Tokyo-born Geisha."
(Econ, 1/24/04, p.78)
2004 Feb 9, Japan passed a law
making it easier to impose economic sanctions on impover-ished North
Korea, prompting the communist country to demand that Tokyo be barred
from fu-ture multilateral talks on its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/9/04)
2004 Feb 19, A Japanese consortium
announced it will develop an Iranian oil field with re-serves of up to
26 billion barrels. The deal was opposed by the United States because
of fears the money could go to nuclear proliferation.
(AP, 2/19/04)
2004 Feb 22, Japanese authorities
confirmed the nation's 10th case of mad cow disease since the first
sick animal was discovered in September 2001.
(AP, 2/22/04)
2004 Feb 27, Shoko Asahara was
convicted and sentenced to hang for masterminding the deadly 1995 nerve
gas attack on the Tokyo subway and other crimes that killed 27 people.
(AP, 2/27/04)
2004 Feb 29, Japan's agriculture
minister slammed a senior poultry industry executive for fail-ing to
report the deaths of tens of thousands of chickens on his farm, where
officials have con-firmed the country's third outbreak of bird flu.
(AP, 2/29/04)
2004 Mar 7, In central Japan a
helicopter chartered by a TV news station crashed while film-ing a
highway accident, killing all four aboard,
(AP, 3/7/04)
2004 Mar 16, Japan's Toshiba Corp
said that Guinness World Records had certified its stamp-sized hard
disk drives (HDDs) as the smallest in the world. The 0.85-inch HDDs,
un-veiled in January, have storage capacity of up to four gigabytes and
will be used in products such as cell phones and digital camcorders.
(AP, 3/16/04)
2004 Apr 8, In a dramatic video,
Iraqi insurgents revealed they had kidnapped 3 Japanese and threatened
to burn them alive in 3 days unless Japan agrees to withdraw its
troops. The hostages were later released unharmed.
(AP, 4/9/05)
2004 Apr 15, In Iraq 3 Japanese
hostages who had been threatened with death unless Tokyo withdrew its
troops from Iraq were released.
(AP, 4/15/04)
2004 Apr 18, Koken Nosaka (79),
Japanese lawmaker, died. He was a former top government spokesman under
Japan's first Socialist prime minister in the post-World War II era. He
helped end political turmoil by brokering a once-unthinkable alliance
between his party, the conserva-tive Liberal Democratic Party and the
now-defunct Sakigake Party in June 1994.
(AP, 4/18/04)
2004 Apr 22, It was reported that
Japanese scientists had demonstrated mammalian repro-duction in mice
using 2 sets of female genes.
(SFC, 4/22/04, p.A1)
2004 May 20, Taketo Hatakeyama
(41), a member of Japan’s Sumiyoshi Kai crime group, killed himself as
police stormed his apartment building in Utsunomiya. This followed a
2-day standoff. A woman was found dead inside.
(AP, 5/20/04)
2004 May 22, North Korea agreed to
release the family members of Japanese citizens kid-napped by Northern
agents, and Japan pledged aid to the impoverished country at a summit
between the two nations' leaders.
(AP, 5/22/04)
2004 May 27, In Iraq gunmen south
of Baghdad attacked a car carrying Japanese journalists Shinsuke
Hashida (61) and his nephew, Kotaro Ogawa (33). The vehicle burst into
flames and both were killed.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2004 May 28, The Tokyo High Court
sentenced Yoshihiro Inoue (34), a former doomsday cult member, to death
for a 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways, overturning a lower
court ruling condemning him to life in prison.
(AP, 5/28/04)
2004 May, A Japanese consulate
worker in Shanghai committed suicide. Japanese newspa-pers later
reported the official took his life because Chinese officials were
pressuring him for secret information, using a "woman problem" as
leverage. China accused Japan of deliberately smearing China's
international image.
(AP, 1/1/06)
2004 Jun 5, Japan's legislature
adopted a bill designed to save the country's troubled pension system
following an all-night debate marred by brawls and a walkout by
opposition parties. The bill raised pension fund premiums from 13.58%
of pay to 18.3% by 2017.
(AP, 6/5/04)(Econ, 7/16/05, p.36)
2004 Jul 11, In Japan’s
upper-house elections PM Junichiro Koizumi and his Liberal Democ-ratic
Party LDP won 49 seats, one seat less than the opposition DPJ. Koizumi
and his Liberal Democratic Party-led ruling bloc held on to a majority.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.41)(AP, 7/11/05)
2004 Jul 17, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo
launched a wallet phone aimed to combine cash and cell phones with a
small embedded chip that can store money and personal information.
(Reuters, 7/18/04)
2004 Jul 19, Zenko Suzuki, former
prime minister of Japan (1980-1982), died.
(SFC, 7/21/04, p.B7)
2004 Jul 23, The Japanese
government reported that suicides in Japan in 2003 surged to an
all-time high topping 34,000 deaths in a trend fueled by health and
financial troubles.
(AP, 7/23/04)
2004 Aug 2, In western Japan 7
members of a family were found stabbed to death with a kitchen knife.
(AP, 8/2/04)
2004 Aug 9, In Japan a
nonradioactive steam leak killed 5 people and injured seven in the
worst-ever accident at a nuclear power plant in Fukui prefecture. The
No. 3 reactor of the Mi-hama Nuclear Power Plant was shutdown and not
restarted until January 2007.
(AP, 8/9/04)(Econ, 8/14/04, p.54)(AP, 1/9/07)
2004 Aug 12, Japan’s Mitsubishi
Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG) announced that it had beaten the Sumitomo
Mitsui Financial Group for the acquisition of UFJ. [see Aug 30]
(Econ, 8/14/04, p.66)
2004 Aug 20, Tropical storm Megi
swept out to sea beyond northern Japan, leaving behind an arc of
destruction that killed 13 people.
(AP, 8/21/04)
2004 Aug 30, Japan's Supreme Court
ruled that troubled bank UFJ Holdings Inc. can pull out of a deal to
sell its trust business to a smaller rival, clearing the way for a full
takeover of UFJ by larger Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG).
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Aug 30, Typhoon Chaba plowed
into southern Japan, killing at least five people and in-juring 73.
(AP, 8/30/04)
2004 Sep 1, Accused U.S. Army
deserter Charles Jenkins said he will surrender to the US to face
charges that have dogged him since he vanished from his unit in South
Korea in 1965. Af-ter expressing a desire to put his conscience at
rest, Jenkins reported on September 11, 2004 to Camp Zama in Japan. He
reported in respectful military form, saluting the receiving military
police officer. On November 3, 2004, Jenkins pleaded guilty to charges
of desertion and aiding the enemy, but denied making disloyal or
seditious statements – the latter charges were dropped. He was
sentenced to 30 days' confinement and received a dishonorable
discharge, being released six days early, on November 27, 2004, for
good behavior. Jenkins and his family settled on Sado Island in Japan.
(AP,
9/1/04)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Robert_Jenkins)
2004 Sep 5, Typhoon Songda, billed
as the strongest to hit southern Japan in at least three decades,
lashed Okinawa island with heavy rains and high winds and headed toward
Japan's main islands.
(AP, 9/5/04)
2004 Sep 8, Japan's coast guard
found five more bodies from an Indonesian cargo ship that ran aground
during a powerful typhoon that has hammered Japan, raising the death
toll from the storm to at least 28.
(AP, 9/8/04)
2004 Sep 10, Japan confirmed a
12th case of mad cow disease.
(AP, 9/13/04)
2004 Sep 14, Mount Asama, one of
Japan's largest and most active volcanoes, began spew-ing gray smoke
into the air. Its last major eruption was in 1783.
(AP, 9/15/04)
2004 Sep 17, Mexico and Japan
signed a free trade agreement that Mexicans hope will ease their
reliance on the United States while encouraging Japan to build more
factories there. PM Junichiro Koizumi wrapped up a four-day Latin
American trip then headed for New York to pitch for a permanent
Japanese seat on the UN Security Council.
(AP, 9/17/04)
2004 Sep 29, Tropical storm Meari
battered Japan, killing five people and injuring 52 and forced
thousands to evacuate to shelters. [see Sep 30]
(AP, 9/29/04)
2004 Sep 30, In Japan the death
toll from tropical storm Meari rose to 19 after searchers found more
victims.
(AP, 9/30/04)
2004 Oct 9, Typhoon Ma-on hit
Japan. It was the most powerful typhoon to hit Japan's Pacific
coastline in a decade and left 2 dead with 5 missing.
(AP, 10/9/04)(WSJ, 10/11/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 12, Police found 7 young
people slumped over dead in a parked van outside Tokyo in what was
believed to be Japan's biggest-ever group suicide. Another 2 people
were found dead in a rented car parked in Yokosuka.
(AP, 10/12/04)(SFC, 10/13/04, p.A2)
2004 Oct 15, Japan won a two-year
term on the U.N. Security Council along with Argentina, Denmark, Greece
and Tanzania.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 19, Typhoon Tokage
(Lizard), the biggest typhoon to hit Japan in more than a dec-ade,
roared over the country's main island with heavy rain and fierce winds
leaving at least 16 people dead and 12 others missing.
(AFP, 10/20/04)(SFC, 10/21/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 21, China and Japan
planned emergency talks over energy rights in the disputed waters
between them.
(WSJ, 10/21/04, p.A17)
2004 Oct 21, Japan's deadliest
typhoon in more than two decades left at least 66 people dead as
rescuers searched frantically for 22 still missing in floods and
landslides.
(AP, 10/21/04)
2004 Oct 23, Several earthquakes,
the largest measuring 6.8, hit northwestern Japan, top-pling homes,
causing blackouts, cutting water and gas and derailing a bullet train.
40 people were killed and as many as 1,900 injured.
(SFC, 10/28/04, p.A12)(Econ, 10/30/04, p.50)(AP,
10/23/05)
2004 Oct 30, The decapitated body
of a Japanese backpacker (Shosei Koda) was found wrapped in an American
flag in northwestern Baghdad; the militant group led by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi later claimed responsibility. In 2006 Hussein Fahmi (28), an
operative for al-Qaida in Iraq, confessed to carrying out 116
beheadings, including that of 24-year-old Japanese back-packer Shosei
Koda.
(WSJ, 11/1/04, p.A1)(AP, 10/30/05)(AP, 3/2/06)
2004 Oct 31, Japan condemned the
beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq as a despicable act of
terrorism and vowed to keep its troops in the country on their
reconstruction mission.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Oct 31, African and Asian
leaders opened a two-day conference in Tokyo to spur trade and
investment between the two regions. The gathering is a follow-up
meeting of the Third To-kyo International Conference on African
Development (TICAD III) held last year and is co-hosted by Japan, the
World Bank. TICAD, a Japanese initiative, was started in 1993 to raise
in-ternational support for African development and has been held every
five years.
(AP, 10/31/04)
2004 Nov 10, Japan's navy went on
alert when a submarine was detected in Japanese waters between the
southern island of Okinawa and Taiwan. Japan soon determined that it
was Chi-nese nuclear submarine and incident strained relations between
two of Asia's biggest economic and military powers.
(AP, 11/13/04)
2004 Nov 12, It was reported that
Japan and China owned about a quarter of outstanding US Treasury debt.
They held $723 and $172 billion respectively.
(WSJ, 11/12/04, p.C4)
2004 Nov 29, A powerful earthquake
with a preliminary magnitude of 7.1 struck Japan's northern island of
Hokkaido, injuring at least 24 people.
(AP, 11/29/04)
2004 Dec 10, Japan's government
overhauled its defense guidelines, easing an arms exports ban and
singling out North Korea and China as security threats.
(AP, 12/10/04)
2004 Dec 15, A walking, talking
child-size robot from Honda Motor Co. managed an easy, al-though
comical, jog in the Japanese automaker's latest quest to imitate human
movement.
(AP, 12/15/04)
2004 Dec, Sakae Hatashita (81)
arrived in Japan following a solo sailing across the Pacific from San
Diego. He planned to bury his wife’s ashes. Hatashita died in 2005 of a
heart attack on his return trip shortly after leaving Japan.
(WSJ, 7/12/05, p.A13)
2004 Japan's Fair Trade Commission
(FTC) grew to 331 investigators and a budget of ¥7.82 billion.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.9)
2004 In Japan workers’ pay dropped
to about 64% of corporate earnings.
(Econ, 10/8/05, Survey p.4)
2005 Jan 1, Japan pledged up to
$500 million in grant aid for tsunami disaster relief.
(AP, 1/1/05)
2005 Jan 1, Japan was forecast for
1.7% annual GDP growth with a population at 127.4 mil-lion and GDP per
head at $37,550.
(Econ, 1/1/05, p.91)
2005 Jan 1, Japan’s currency
opened at 102.41 yen to the dollar. Rising oil prices pushed it down in
April to 108.91 to the dollar.
(WSJ, 4/7/05, p.C16)
2005 Jan 18, A tsunami conference
began in Japan with calls to expand warning systems.
(WSJ, 1/19/05, p.A1)
2005 Jan 22, In Japan the world's
nations ended their tsunami conference and agreed to work together to
better guard their people against natural disasters.
(AP, 1/22/05)
2005 Jan 27, It was reported that
Japan’s trade with China in 2004 exceeded its trade with the US for the
1st time. This included figures for Hong Kong.
(WSJ, 1/27/05, p.A10)
2005 Feb 4, Japan confirmed its
1st human death from mad-cow disease. It was suspected that the man
died as a result of beef he consumed in England around 1989.
(WSJ, 2/7/05, p.A16)
2005 Feb 5, in central Japan
police found 9 bodies were found in two cars in what appeared to be the
country's latest group suicides.
(AP, 2/5/05)
2005 Feb 14, In western Japan a
man carrying a knife burst into a public elementary school and stabbed
at least 3 adults. Kyodo News reported that one of the victims died.
(AP, 2/14/05)
2005 Feb 16, Japan released GDP
numbers indicating that its economy has technically been in a recession
since Spring of 2004.
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.40)
2005 Feb 21, Kyodo News said that
Japan's Princess Aiko, the 3-year-old daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito
and his wife, will be next in line for the Chrysanthemum Throne after
her father.
(AP, 2/21/05)
2005 Feb 26, Japan put a weather
satellite into space for the first time since a humiliating fail-ure 15
months ago in hopes of entering the launch market.
(SSFC, 2/27/05, p.A3)
2005 Mar 7, Sony Corp. picked Sir
Howard Stringer (63), Welsh-born head of its US opera-tions, to replace
chairman and CEO Nobuyuki Idei.
(WSJ, 3/7/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 14, Akira Yoshizawa (94),
an origami master whose expressive paper gorillas made an art out of
Japan's craft tradition, died of heart failure and pneumonia.
(AP, 4/3/05)
2005 Mar 20, A magnitude 7.0
earthquake struck off the coast of southern Japan, killing one person
and injuring at least 381 others.
(AP, 3/20/05)
2005 Mar 22, Kenzo Tange (91),
Japanese architect, died. His work included the stadiums for the 1964
Tokyo Olympics.
(SFC, 3/23/05, p.B7)
2005 Mar 24, Chess legend Bobby
Fischer walked free from a Japanese detention center and immediately
headed to the airport to fly to his new home in Iceland.
(AP, 3/24/05)
2005 Mar 22, India said it has
reached a basic agreement with Japan on the joint develop-ment of
natural gas off the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal.
(AFP, 3/26/05)
2005 Mar 25, Japan’s world fair,
Aichi Expo 2005, opened.
(SSFC, 3/27/05,
p.F2)(www-2.expo2005.or.jp/en/index.html)
2005 Mar, Takafumi Horie, chief
executive of Japanese Internet portal Livedoor, authored “Making Money
for Beginners.”
(WSJ, 2/3/06, p.A1)
2005 Apr 4, PM Junichiro Koizumi
proposed privatizing Japan's postal service by 2017, a step that would
create the world's biggest bank out of the mammoth pile of cash
deposited at post offices by conscientious Japanese savers.
(AP, 4/4/05)
2005 Apr 13, Japan and India took
a first step to a possible free trade deal with an agreement to spend a
year looking at the effects of a pact on the two major Asian economies.
(AFP, 4/14/05)
2005 Apr 16, Protesters in
Shanghai threw stones and broke windows at Japan's consulate and
Japanese restaurants as tens of thousands of people defied government
warnings and staged demonstrations against Tokyo's bid for a permanent
UN Security Council seat.
(AP, 4/16/05)
2005 Apr 22, Japan's PM Koizumi
apologized for his country's World War II aggression in Asia in a bid
to defuse tensions with regional rival China, but a Chinese diplomat
dismissed the remarks, saying "actions are more important" than words.
(AP, 4/22/05)
2005 Apr 23, The leaders of China
and Japan met in an effort to end a dispute over Japan's World War II
aggression that has badly damaged relations between them. They met on
the sidelines of a summit for Asian and African leaders in Jakarta.
(AP, 4/23/05)
2005 Apr 25, A packed commuter
train that was behind schedule and may have been speed-ing jumped the
tracks and hurtled into an apartment complex, killing 107 people and
injuring 450 in Japan's worst rail accident in 40 years.
(AP, 5/1/05)
2005 Apr 29, Japanese PM Junichiro
Koizumi wooed India, aiming to build a partnership with New Delhi to
cope with the growing clout of China in a changing continent.
(AP, 4/29/05)
2005 May 4, Japanese media
reported Japan will withdraw its 550 soldiers from their non-combat
mission in Iraq in December.
(AP, 5/4/05)
2005 May 7, China and Japan agreed
to try to improve strained ties and meet soon to discuss a disputed gas
field.
(Reuters, 5/7/05)
2005 May 20, Australia stepped up
diplomatic efforts to stop Japan from increasing its whale hunt, saying
up to 35 countries were opposed to the plan.
(Reuters, 5/20/05)
2005 May 25, Japan and Malaysia
agreed to key elements of a free-trade pact, to be launched in
December, covering automobiles and most other economic sectors.
(WSJ, 5/26/05, p.A10)
2005 Jun 2, Australia led 15
countries including Britain, France and Germany in a protest on against
Japan's plans to expand its annual whale hunt.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 10, Two American
scientists and an Austrian conductor won this year's Kyoto Prizes, the
Japanese awards for achievement in the arts and sciences.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 10, In southern Japan an
18-year-old student tossed a homemade bomb into a high school
classroom, injuring 58 teenagers.
(AP, 6/10/05)
2005 Jun 14, Japanese automaker
Toyota Motor Corp. broke ground on a new assembly plant in Russia, in a
vote of confidence in the booming Russian consumer market despite
inves-tors' jitters over the Yukos case.
(AP, 6/14/05)
2005 Jun 16, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi,
Japanese resort and railroad kingpin, pleaded guilty to charges of
insider trading and falsifying records at the opening of his trial.
This was widely seen as a symbol of the growing pressures toward
transparency and social responsibility in corporate Japan.
(AP, 6/16/05)(SFC, 6/17/05, p.C1)
2005 Jun 20, Japan said it would
dramatically expand its research whaling, doubling the num-ber of minke
whales it kills annually for scientific study.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 20, The leaders of Japan
and South Korea failed to make progress on mending ties damaged by a
territorial dispute over islands in the Sea of Japan and a flap over
Tokyo's milita-ristic past during a tense summit.
(AP, 6/20/05)
2005 Jun 21, The International
Whaling Commission meting in South Korea upheld its nearly
two-decade-old ban on commercial whaling.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 21, Taiwan sent two
warships to protect fishermen who have repeatedly been chased by
Japanese patrol boats away from rich fishing grounds near disputed
islands in the East China Sea, a decision likely to raise diplomatic
tensions.
(AP, 6/21/05)
2005 Jun 23, A fast food chain in
northern Japan began offering a whale burger , even as anti-whaling
nations urged Japan to cut back on its catch at an international
conference on whaling.
(AP, 6/23/05)
2005 Jun 30, China overtook Japan
as the world’s largest holder of foreign exchange re-serves. The
combined China and Hong Kong reserves stood at $833 billion.
(Econ, 9/17/05, p.80)
2005 Jul 4, A Japanese
parliamentary committee approved bills that would create the world's
largest bank by privatizing the state-run postal system, which handles
trillions of dollars in sav-ings and insurance deposits.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 15, Two Japanese tankers
collided in the Pacific Ocean off the central Japan coast, sparking a
blaze that killed one sailor and left five others missing.
(AP, 7/15/05)
2005 Jul 16, Yi Ku (73), the son
of Korea's last crown prince, died alone of a heart attack in Japan. He
was the last member of the Chosun dynasty that ruled Korea from 1392
until 1910.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 20, Japanese electronics
giant Hitachi said it has become the first foreign company to win
certification from US transport authorities for its bomb-detection
equipment, opening up major new markets.
(AP, 7/20/05)
2005 Jul 22, Japan's Parliament
approved legislation authorizing the defense chief to shoot down
missiles without permission from the prime minister or Cabinet,
boosting a missile de-fense system Japan is working on with the United
States.
(AP, 7/22/05)
2005 Jul 23, A magnitude-6.0
earthquake shook the Tokyo area, injuring at least 27 people.
(AP, 7/23/05)
2005 Aug 1, Japan said it would
retaliate against America’s abuse of WTO anti-dumping rules with a 15%
duty on 15 American products.
(Econ, 8/6/05, p.62)
2005 Aug 8, Japanese lawmakers
rejected legislation to split up and sell the nation's postal service,
leading PM Junichiro Koizumi to call snap elections next month. He
promised to make the vote a referendum on his reform plan and pledged
to resign if it fails.
(AP, 8/8/05)
2005 Aug 16, A 7.2 earthquake
shook northeastern Japan, triggering landslides, sending a shower of
ceiling debris into a crowded indoor swimming pool and shaking
skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo. At least 59 people were reportedly
injured.
(AP, 8/16/05)(WSJ, 8/17/05, p.A1)
2005 Aug 18, A pride of lions
attacked a Japanese woman (50) visiting the Lion and Cheetah Park at
Norton, a Zimbabwe wildlife park. She died the next day.
(AP, 8/21/05)
2005 Aug 23, Japanese electronics
giants Sony and Toshiba said they would go ahead with incompatible
formats for next-generation DVDs after talks to reach a common standard
failed.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 23, Stores across Japan
started taking orders for the Roborior, a watermelon-sized eyeball on
wheels that glows purple, blue and orange. Roborior can function as a
virtual guard dog that can sense break-ins using infrared sensors,
notify homeowners by calling their cellular phones, and send the
owner's cell phone videos from its digital camera.
(AP, 8/23/05)
2005 Aug 27, Kyodo News said
Kenichi Shinoda, an ex-gang boss in Nagoya and formerly the
Yamaguchi-gumi's number-two, became the sixth head of the 90-year-old
yakuza gang in a ceremony in the western port city of Kobe. Japan's
biggest underworld syndicate, the Yamagu-chi-gumi, formally appointed
its new don, marking the first change of power for the dreaded group in
16 years.
(AP, 8/27/05)
2005 Aug, Researchers in Tokyo
announced their fabrication of flexible webs of plastic the include
temperature and pressure sensors suitable for use a e-skin for robots.
(Econ, 8/20/05, p.63)
2005 Sep 1, In Japan Tokyo’s Keio
University Hospital received a bomb threat linked to de-mands that its
medical school increase their admissions. 10 other major university
hospitals re-ceived similar threats but no explosives were found.
(AP, 9/5/05)
2005 Sep 6, Japan said it had
completed the 20-year privatization of the nation's biggest
tele-communications company.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 6, Typhoon Nabi lashed
southern Japan and South Korea driving more than 300,000 people from
their homes. At least 9 people were killed, and 16 people were missing,
including two in South Korea.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 7, A powerful tropical
storm churned northward through the Sea of Japan, killing at least 16
people and leaving landslides and flooded towns in its wake.
(AP, 9/7/05)
2005 Sep 9, Japanese software
company Access Co., maker of the NetFront Internet browser for mobile
devices, said it has agreed to buy PalmSource Inc., maker of the Palm
operating system for handheld computers and cell phones, for $324
million in cash.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 11, Japanese voters
handed PM Junichiro Koizumi's ruling coalition a landslide vic-tory in
elections for the lower house of parliament.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2005 Sep 11, A leading newspaper
said Japan plans to demand a cut in its contributions to the UN budget
from 2007 after the failure of its high-profile campaign to win a
permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
(AP, 9/11/05)
2005 Sep 12, In Japan PM Junichiro
Koizumi's triumph in parliamentary polls handed the leader a new
mandate to harness his revitalized ruling party and turn promises into
action for a range of sweeping economic reforms.
(AP, 9/12/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Osaka Susumu
Kitagawa (58), convicted of robbing, raping and killing two women in
the 1980s, was executed. This was Japan's first hanging of the year.
His execution left 74 people on death row in Japan.
(AP, 9/16/05)
2005 Sep 17, In Japan DPJ
(Democratic Party of Japan) members, stunned by the loss of a third of
their 177 seats in the lower house of parliament, chose Seiji Maehara
(43) as their new leader.
(Econ, 9/24/05, p.50)
2005 Sep 21, Japan's Parliament
re-elected Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister following the ruling
coalition's landslide electoral victory last week, and he pledged to
plow ahead with privati-zation of the postal service and other reforms.
(AP, 9/21/05)
2005 Sep 22, Japan's finance
ministry said government debt, already the highest in the
indus-trialized world, rose 1.7% to a record high of 795.8 trillion yen
($7.1 trillion) at the end of June.
(AP, 9/23/05)
2005 Sep 22, In Japan Sony Corp.
said it will cut about 10,000 jobs, close 11 plants and shrink or
terminate 15 unprofitable operations in an ambitious restructuring bid
to revive its stumbling electronics business.
(AP, 9/22/05)
2005 Sep 25, Japan’s world fair,
Aichi Expo 2005, closed.
(SSFC, 3/27/05,
p.F2)(www-2.expo2005.or.jp/en/index.html)
2005 Sep 26, Japan's Cabinet
approved legislation to privatize the country's trillion-dollar postal
service, pushing ahead with its plan to create the world's largest
financial institution.
(AP, 9/26/05)
2005 Sep 28, A team of Japanese
scientists reported their capture on film for the 1st time the 26-foot
long Architeuthis (a giant squid) as it attacked prey nearly 3,000 feet
deep off the coast of Japan's Bonin islands.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep 29, In Japan Matsushita
Electric Industrial Co. reported a new chip that uses the common
electric socket as your home's connection to broadband, doing away with
all the Ethernet cables or the hassle of hooking up to a wireless
network device.
(AP, 9/29/05)
2005 Oct 1, Japan privatized four
debt-ridden public corporations that run the nation's high-ways, in the
latest of PM Junichiro Koizumi's initiatives to reduce the size of
government.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Oct 1, China and Japan ended
2 days of talks with no resolution on their territorial dis-pute in the
East China Sea, which focused on oil and gas deposits straddling the
border.
(Econ, 10/8/05, p.52)
2005 Oct 4, Japan's Cabinet
endorsed a one-year extension of the country's naval mission to support
U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, citing renewed concerns about terrorism
after the recent bombings in Indonesia.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 5, Toyota Motor Corp.
said it has agreed to buy an 8.7 percent stake in rival Japa-nese
automaker Fuji Heavy Industries, the maker of Subaru cars, from General
Motors Corp. for about $315 million.
(AP, 10/5/05)
2005 Oct 6, In Japan the Yomiuri
Shimbun newspaper was awarded compensation from a small Internet firm
that used its news headlines without permission, in a first-of-a-kind
ruling in the country. The Intellectual Property High Court, a special
branch court of the Tokyo High Court, ordered Digital Alliance Corp. to
pay about 237,700 yen (2,000 dollars) to the Yomiuri.
(AFP, 10/6/05)
2005 Oct 10, Japan's space agency
conducted a test flight of a supersonic jet prototype in the Australian
Outback.
(AP, 10/10/05)
2005 Oct 11, Japan's powerful
lower house of parliament approved a plan to privatize the country's
vast postal system.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 16, A Japanese newspaper
reported that the US and Japan have reached a basic agreement on
relocating two US military bases on the southern island of Okinawa,
where the US presence has frequently provoked protests.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2005 Oct 17,
Japanese PM Junichiro Koizumi enraged China and South Korea by
visiting To-kyo's Yasukuni war shrine.
(AP, 10/17/06)
2005 Oct 26, The US accepted a
Japanese proposal for the relocation of a US air station on Okinawa,
resolving a dispute that had blocked progress on military realignment
talks and caused friction between the two allies.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2005 Oct 26, Toyota Motor Corp.
said that its joint venture with China's biggest automaker plans to
build a 3rd plant in China with annual production capacity of 200,000
passenger cars.
(AP, 10/26/05)
2005 Oct 28, US Ambassador Thomas
Schieffer said the US plans to reduce the number of American troops in
Okinawa and the rest of Japan.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Oct 28, Japan's government
said basing a US nuclear-powered warship in Japanese waters for the
first time will boost stability in East Asia, hailing an agreement even
as it drew protests from the community that will host the aircraft
carrier.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Oct 29, The US and Japan
agreed to step up military cooperation and substantially re-duce the
number of Marines on the strategically important southern island of
Okinawa. The US will move 7,000 US Marines from Japan's Okinawa
prefecture to Guam.
(AP, 10/29/05)(AFP, 10/29/05)
2005 Oct 31, Japanese PM Junichiro
Koizumi named a new Cabinet, putting outspoken con-servatives, and
potential successors, in top positions and retaining his economic team.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Oct 31, Okinawa's governor
told Japan's central government that a plan to build a U.S. heliport on
the southern island as part of a realignment of the American military
presence there was unacceptable.
(AP, 10/31/05)
2005 Nov 1, Japanese artist Hiro
Yamagata announced plans to recreate Afghanistan's de-stroyed Bamiyan
Buddhas using as many as 240 laser beam images, a giant project that
could also bring electricity to local people.
(AFP, 11/1/05)
2005 Nov 3, North Korea's
abduction of Japanese citizens decades ago took center stage at the
opening of talks in Beijing between the former bitter enemies.
(Reuters, 11/3/05)
2005 Nov 8, A fleet of Japanese
whaling ships left for the seas of Antarctica amid protests Tuesday,
aiming to kill 850 minke whales, almost double last year's catch, and
expand the hunt to fin whales for the first time.
(AP, 11/8/05)
2005 Nov 9, Japanese electronics
makers Toshiba Corp. and NEC Electronics Corp. an-nounced they will
jointly develop technology to produce next-generation semiconductors
that are smaller, faster, more efficient and less costly.
(AP, 11/9/05)
2005 Nov 11, The Japanese
government announced that Yoshifumi Nishikawa, the former president of
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., will lead preparation of the
privatization of Japan's mammoth postal corporation. The privatization
begins October 2007.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 11, Automaker
DaimlerChrysler AG ended its ill-fated involvement with Japan's
Mit-subishi Motors Co., selling its 12.4 percent stake in the company
to Goldman Sachs for an un-disclosed price.
(AP, 11/11/05)
2005 Nov 12, Japan’s Hayabusa
probe successfully released its Minerva surface-exploring robot, but
Minerva appeared to start drifting away from the asteroid's surface.
The space agency said it is targeting actual landings on the
potato-shaped asteroid Itokawa on Nov. 19 and Nov. 25. The asteroid was
named after Hideo Itokawa, founder of Japan’s space program. Hayabusa
was the 1st spacecraft to use an ion engine as its main propulsion
device.
(AP, 11/13/05)(Econ, 11/26/05, p.94)
2005 Nov 15, Japanese Princess
Sayako (36), the emperor's only daughter, quit the world's oldest
monarchy and married Yoshiki Kuroda, a 40-year-old urban planner.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 15, US President George
W. Bush has arrived in Japan to start a week-long trip to Asia, seeking
progress on the North Korean nuclear crisis and looking to press China
for politi-cal and economic reforms.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 16, A private research
agency said corporate bankruptcies in Japan climbed 23 percent to 825
cases in October from the previous month, the first increase in two
months.
(AP, 11/16/05)
2005 Nov 20, Project manager
Junichiro Kawaguchi said Hayabusa, a Japanese spacecraft, has failed to
land on the Itokawa asteroid in the 2nd setback for the landmark
mission aiming to bring samples from such a celestial body to Earth for
the first time. The space agency, after evaluating more data, said on
Nov 23 that Hayabusa did land for a half-hour, but failed to col-lect
any material.
(AFP, 11/20/05)(SFC, 11/23/05, p.A16)
2005 Nov 21, The leaders of Russia
and Japan said the settlement of a 60-year-old dispute that kept their
nations from formally ending their World War II hostilities requires
closer eco-nomic cooperation and patient trust-building as Tokyo backed
Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization.
(AP, 11/21/05)
2005 Nov 22, Japan's Liberal
Democratic Party marked its 50th anniversary by unveiling a proposed
revision to the country's pacifist constitution that would end the ban
on having a mili-tary and give the armed forces a more assertive
international role.
(AP, 11/22/05)
2005 Nov 24, Japan finalized an
agreement to forgive $6.1 billion of Iraqi debt, or about 80% of the
total owed by Baghdad.
(AP, 11/24/05)
2005 Nov 26, Japan reported that
its space probe Hayabusa had landed on the surface of the Itokawa
asteroid and then collected rock samples that could give clues to the
origin of the solar system. Data on the sample collection was later
subject to question.
(Reuters, 11/26/05)(AP, 12/07/05)
2005 Nov 30, A Tokyo appeals court
ordered the Japanese government to pay more than $27 million in
compensation to residents affected by noise from a US air base, raising
the amount awarded by a lower court.
(AP, 11/30/05)
2005 Nov 30, In Japan police
arrested Juan Carlos Pizarro Yagi, a Peruvian man of Japanese descent,
for the murder of Airi Kinoshita, 7-year-old schoolgirl whose body was
found Nov 22 in a cardboard box in western Japan. A DNA match led to
the arrest. In 2006 Yagi (34) was sen-tenced to life in prison.
(AP, 12/01/05)(AP, 7/4/06)
2005 Dec 6, Japan's Cabinet
approved measures to demolish buildings designed using falsi-fied
earthquake safety data and to relocate residents amid a widening
construction scandal. Some 60 of over 200 hotels and condominium
complexes designed by Hidetsugu Aneha were ordered to be pulled down
due to faked earthquake-resistance data.
(AP, 12/06/05)(Econ, 12/10/05, p.46)
2005 Dec 6, Kyodo News said Japan
plans to extend its humanitarian military mission to Iraq into 2006 but
could pull its ground forces in the middle of the year if the British
and Australian troops guarding them leave.
(AP, 12/06/05)
2005 Dec 8, In Japan a typing
error caused Mizuho Securities Co. to lose at least 27 billion yen, or
$225 million, on a stock trade. The next day the government rebuked the
Tokyo Stock Exchange and Mizuho Securities, one of the country's
biggest brokerage firms.
(AP, 12/09/05)
2005 Dec 11, Japanese peace envoy
Yasushi Akashi invited Sri Lanka and Tamil Tiger rebels to meet in
Japan for talks to save their ceasefire, which is threatened with
collapse after 34 people were killed in fresh violence.
(AP, 12/11/05)
2005 Dec 12, Japan gave the final
go-ahead to resume imports of some US beef after a two-year ban due to
fears of mad cow disease, averting a potential trade war between the
close po-litical allies.
(AFP, 12/12/05)
2005 Dec 14, Japan’s space agency
said the return of its Hayabusa probe would be delayed until June,
2010, due to a thruster problem.
(SFC, 12/15/05, p.A19)
2005 Dec 15, Japan’s ruling
Liberal Democratic Party agreed to raise taxes starting in April. The
timing and amount of a consumption tax increase was deferred.
(WSJ, 12/16/05, p.A16)
2005 Dec 16, Sony Corp. unveiled
an upgrade of its 23.5-inch humanoid robot QRIO, which can now
recognize boxes and play with them like building blocks.
(AP, 12/16/05)
2005 Dec 19, Japan’s Honda Motor
Co. said it plans to start mass-producing solar cells in 2007, eyeing
growing demand for environmentally friendly energy sources.
(AP, 12/19/05)
2005 Dec 22, Japan's government
said the population dropped this year for the first time on record,
signaling a demographic turnaround for one of the world's fastest-aging
societies. Ja-pan became the world's first leading economy to suffer a
decline in population, with 21,408 more deaths than births, the feared
onset of what may become a crippling labor shortage at mid-century.
(AP, 12/22/05)(AP, 1/20/07)
2005 Dec 23, Greenpeace activists
said a Japanese whaling fleet is "on the run" as activists chased it
across the icy waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. A day
earlier activists in small inflatable boats had repeatedly maneuvered
into position between target whales and the harpooners, allowing
several whales to escape.
(AP, 12/23/05)
2005 Dec 24, The Japanese
government said it has decided to move forward with a ballistic missile
defense program with the United States.
(AP, 12/24/05)
2005 Dec 25, In northern Japan an
express train traveling through strong winter winds de-railed in
Yamagata prefecture, killing 5 people and injuring more than 30. Heavy
snowfall and blizzards have lead to the deaths of eight other people
and disrupted traffic for hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers
across Japan.
(AP, 12/26/05)(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 26, Japan's benchmark
stock index topped 16,000 points, reaching its highest level since
October 2000. The dollar rose slightly against the yen and euro.
(AP, 12/26/05)
2005 Dec 27, The Japanese
government endorsed measures that would put more women in top
government posts and provide more support for working mothers at a time
when the coun-try is facing low birth rates and a looming labor
shortage.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 28, Japanese harpooners
slipped away from Greenpeace anti-whaling activists un-der cover of a
storm in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica. Greenpeace vessels stuck
with the Japanese whaling fleet's mother ship.
(AFP, 12/28/05)
2005 The city government of Tokyo,
Japan, founded the ShinGinko Tokyo bank. It was con-ceived by Gov.
Shintaro Ishihara. Mismanagement over the next 3 years let it burn
through $1 billion.
(Econ, 4/12/08, p.84)
2005 Japanese investment in China
reached $6.5 billion, more than a tenth of the total re-ceived by China
this year.
(Econ, 10/7/06, p.30)
2005 Some 500 million immature
jellyfish drifted into the Sea of Japan each day. Giant jelly-fish
started swarming into the area in large numbers in 2002 impacting the
local fishing.
(WSJ, 11/27/07, p.A1)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Japan