Timeline of Japan (E) 2006-2021
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A: thru 1940
B: 1941-1979
C: 1980-2000
D: 2001-2005
E: 2006-2021
2006 Jan 3, In Japan Yoshie Sato (56) was killed near the Yokosuka base. Japanese media later reported that a US serviceman (21) had admitted to US military authorities to killing her. In June 2 the soldier was sentenced by a Japanese court to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/6/06)(WSJ, 6/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 4, The world’s largest bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), opened for business with $1.6 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.64)
2006 Jan 7, Japanese police arrested William Oliver Reese (21), an American sailor, on charges of robbing and beating a Japanese woman to death. Reese was accused of robbing Yoshie Sato (56) of $129.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, Environmentalists continued attempts to thwart Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, as both sides accused each other of underhand tactics in the high-seas struggle.
(AFP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 8, Greenpeace claimed a Japanese whaling ship deliberately rammed its ship Arctic Sunrise, denting the ship's bow but causing no injuries. Greenpeace said it would continue hounding Japan's whaling fleet in Antarctic waters despite the damaging collision.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, The death toll from snowstorms that have blasted northern and central Japan since early December rose to 71 after three people died while clearing snow.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, China and Japan agreed to hold new talks to resolve a dispute over gas deposits in the East China Sea that could help ease their increasingly strained relations.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 14, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said the death toll from heavy snow reached 87 as relatively mild weather over the weekend sparked several avalanches.
(AFP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 18, Japan's main stock market index tumbled for a second day led by a sell-off in technology shares in a session that was halted 20 minutes early because of heavy trading volume amid a widening criminal investigation of the Internet startup Livedoor. Technical glitches forced an emergency closing for the 1st time in the exchanges 57-year history.
(AP, 1/18/06)(WSJ, 1/19/06, p.A1)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.64)
2006 Jan 19, In Germany environmentalists positioned a 55-foot dead whale in front of the Japanese Embassy in Berlin to protest against Japanese whale-hunting.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 20, Japan halted imports of US beef just a month after lifting a ban, following the discovery of spinal material in a shipment that should have been removed due to the risk of mad cow disease.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Greenpeace said that its two vessels shadowing the Japanese whaling fleet in the icy Southern Ocean were ending their protests because their fuel and food were running short.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 23, Takafumi Horie, chief executive of Japanese Internet portal Livedoor, was arrested for alleged securities law violations in a scandal that has caused a week of turmoil in Japan's stock market. On Jan 25 Horie resigned from the board of Livedoor.
(AP, 1/23/06)(Econ, 1/28/06, p.60)
2006 Jan 24, Japan launched the leading rocket in its space program for the first time in nearly a year, putting into orbit one of the world's largest land observation satellites to monitor natural disasters.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 28, China’s state-owned CNOOC began gas production at the Chunxiao field near the disputed border region with Japan.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.A13)
2006 Jan 31, Japan said it will begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in March and complete the pullout by May, ending its largest military mission since the end of World War II.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan, A Toyota engineer died of ischemic heart disease one day before leaving for an auto show in the US. In 2008 a Japanese labor bureau ruled that the man died from working too many hours (karoshi), a phenomena recognized by the Health Ministry since 1987.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.C3)
2006 Feb 3, Japan’s parliament enacted a law awarding compensation to former leprosy sufferers who were forced into isolated leper colonies in Taiwan and Korea by Japan's imperial government decades ago.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 6, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said that it was buying nuclear plant builder Westinghouse Electric Co., the US-based unit of the British government's British Nuclear Fuels PLC, for $5.4 billion.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 8, Japan and North Korea ended five days of high-level talks aimed at establishing diplomatic relations without any agreements, citing major differences on the North's abduction of Japanese nationals and its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 9, Japanese officials said 45 cows at a farm in northern Japan were suspected of having mad cow disease and will be destroyed.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 10, A leading marine conservation organization said Japan's stock of whale meat from hunting for scientific research is so large that the country has begun selling it as dog food.
(Reuters, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 14, Sanyo and Nokia announced they will set up a joint venture to make advanced cell phones, underlining the ambitions of the Japanese and Finnish manufacturers to grow globally in the competitive mobile market.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 17, In western Japan 2 young children were found stabbed on a roadside, one dead and the other seriously injured.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 21, Japan's trade minister arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the highest-level contact between the two countries since relations soured last October.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 22, A Tokyo court convicted and sentenced Fusako Shigenobu (60), a founder of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group, to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and attempted murder in a 1974 attack on the French Embassy in the Hague.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Japan's Shizuka Arakawa stunned favorites Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina Slutskaya of Russia to claim the women's figure skating gold medal at the Turin Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2006 Feb 24, Japan suspended all French poultry imports and threatened a similar ban on the Netherlands following reported cases of H5N1 bird flu.
(Reuters, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 26, Shizuka Arakawa won a gold medal for Japan in figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 27, Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Japan's second biggest sheet glass maker, said that it will pay about $3 billion for the remaining 80 percent stake in Britain's Pilkington PLC, which makes glass for cars and buildings.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 1, It was reported that Japan was on the verge of a shift in monetary policy. An end to a policy of easy money, begun in 2001 to spur spending, was expected to have a major effect on global financial markets as interest rates got forced up.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 5, In Japan thousands of protesters gathered on the southern island of Okinawa to rally against plans to relocate the Futenma US air base there, with reports saying the protesters numbered as many as 35,000.
(AP, 3/5/06)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.46)
2006 Mar 8-2006 Mar 9, In Japan 9 people in two groups were found asphyxiated in sealed cars, apparently the latest cases of group suicides that have surged there. A record 91 people died in 34 Internet-linked suicide cases last year, up from 55 people in 19 cases in 2004.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Bank of Japan abandoned the super-easy monetary policy it has kept for five years, saying it will gradually raise interest rates and start to cut the excess cash in the banking system amid signs of economic recovery.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 10, Japan, the second largest contributor to the UN, called for minimum dues for permanent members of the Security Council, forcing China and Russia to pay more or lose their seats.
(AFP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 12, Residents of Iwakuni, a southern Japanese city, voted no in an unprecedented non-binding referendum on whether to host the relocation of an additional US naval air wing.
(AFP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 13, The Tokyo Stock Exchange said shares of disgraced Japanese Internet startup Livedoor Co. will be delisted from the exchange next month over alleged securities law violations.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that Japanese scientists had unveiled a robotic fish that could one day be used to observe fish in the ocean or survey oil platforms for damage.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Japan 4 people suspected of committing group suicide were found dead inside a parked car.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 17, Officials in Japan said they have confirmed the country's first case of mad cow disease in cattle raised to provide meat.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 20, In San Diego, Ca., Japan’s baseball team beat Cuba 10-6 in the World Baseball Classic. The US team was embarrassingly knocked out in the second of the four rounds.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/03/21/baseball.japan.ap/)
2006 Mar 21, Japanese police found three bodies inside a parked van in what is believed to be the latest example of a recent trend of group suicides.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 24, A Japanese court ordered the shutdown of Japan's second-largest nuclear reactor in response to a lawsuit by residents who feared it could leak dangerous radiation during a powerful earthquake.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, In Japan Naha District Court official Tatsuhiko Toguchi said a US military civilian employee was sentenced to nine years in prison for two rapes on Okinawa. Dag A. Thompson (36) was sentenced for the rapes which took place in 1998 and 2004.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 27, Japan's parliament passed the nation's most austere budget in 8 years, marking another achievement for PM Junichiro Koizumi and his efforts to cut the huge public debt.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 30, Japan and the US pledged to work together to defend intellectual property rights amid concern in both countries about piracy in rapidly growing China.
(AFP, 3/30/06)
2006 Mar 31, Japan's opposition party suffered a fresh humiliation when its leadership resigned en masse over a fake e-mail scandal, handing PM Junichiro Koizumi an uncontested grip on power in his last six months in office.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 6, Japan said it would launch free trade talks with six Gulf kingdoms that provide three-quarters of its oil imports, during a visit by a Saudi crown prince aimed at expanding business ties.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, At least 28 people received medical attention after suspected pickpockets used pepper-spray to escape police at a Tokyo train station. Media reports said the suspects are believed to be members of a South Korean organized pickpocket gang which has preyed on Japan's train system.
(AFP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, Japan’s health and welfare ministry said the nation’s population shrank in the year through November 2005, the first annual decrease on record, confirming an earlier government prediction.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 19, Japan defied South Korean protests and dispatched two ships to begin a maritime survey near disputed islets between the two nations, raising the stakes in the territorial standoff.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 22, Japan and South Korea defused a tense standoff over disputed waters, with Japan withdrawing a plan to survey the area and South Korea delaying plans to submit name proposals for underwater features.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 23, Japan agreed to pay $6 billion of the $10 billion cost in transferring 8,000 US Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 25, US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless estimated that Tokyo will pay some $26 billion for the realignment of the US military in Japan. The number shocked Japanese officials.
(AP, 4/27/06)(Econ, 5/13/06, p.26)
2006 Apr 30, In Ethiopia visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he backed plans for an expanded United Nations Security Council, adding that he would present his country's position at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 24, IKEA opened its first store in Japan.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.69)(http://global.japandesign.ne.jp/EXPRESS/060426/)
2006 May 16, Electronics giant Sony Corp said it will launch the world's first notebook personal computer equipped with a next-generation Blu-ray optical disk drive on June 24.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 25, India and Japan pledged to step up military cooperation, as Tokyo tries to move closer to the South Asian nation which is seeking to modernize its armed forces.
(AFP, 5/25/06)
2006 Jun 2, A Japanese court convicted a US sailor of killing a Japanese woman during a Jan 3 robbery near Tokyo and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 6/2/06)(WSJ, 6/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 5, In Japan investment manager Yoshiaki Murakami admitted that he had violated insider trading laws and said he would resign from his fund. He was arrested later in the day.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 9, Leonard Herzenberg, Stanford geneticist and immunologist, was named a winner of the Kyoto Prize for his work in developing the Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS).
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.B3)
2006 Jun 13, Toshihiko Fukui, Japan’s central bank governor, admitted that he was an early investor in the Murakami Fund. On June 5 Murakami admitted that he had violated insider trading laws.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.47)
2006 Jun 16, Japan's parliament enacted a bill that would impose sanctions on North Korea if it fails to cooperate in clearing up details of its past abductions of Japanese citizens.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 20, Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 21, Japan agreed to lift its ban on US beef imports, pending planned inspections of US meat processing plants.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 23, Japan and Washington agreed to strengthen cooperation on missile defense amid concerns of a possible long-range rocket launch by North Korea.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2006 Jun 26, An official said Japan hopes to slash greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming with a revolutionary plan to pump 200 million tons of carbon dioxide into underground storage reservoirs by 2020 instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
(AP, 6/26/06)(WSJ, 6/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 26, Officials said Tokyo and Washington will deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles in Japan for the first time, amid concerns North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 26, A new survey said Moscow has eclipsed Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. The Russian capital moved up 3 spots from a year ago thanks to a recent property boom. South Korea's Seoul ranked second on the list, up from fifth last year.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 27, A Japanese government white paper on youth said the number of child abuse cases reported in the year to March 2005 surged to 33,408 from 26,569 the year before, a rise of 25.7 percent.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 29, President George W. Bush welcomed PM Junichiro Koizumi as a good friend and thanked Japan for support in Iraq and handling common threats like terrorism and North Korea.
(Reuters, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 29, An official said Japan’s government will require all new cars to be able to run on a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline by 2010.
(WSJ, 6/30/06, p.A8)
2006 Jun, In Japan a new traffic law went into effect that gave local police the authority to outsource control of illegal parking.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.36)
2006 Jul 1, Ryutaro Hashimoto (68), former Japanese PM (1996-1998), died. He had stood up to the US in trade negotiations and helped diffuse tensions over US military bases in Japan.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 3, Nissan Motor Co. approved opening talks with General Motors Corp. over a possible alliance.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 4, Japan initiated new rules that tightened 89 existing laws covering the financial industry. It doubled the maximum jail sentence for fraud to 10 years and gave extra power and broader authority to the Financial Services Agency (FSA).
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.67)
2006 Jul 5, Japan, the United States and Britain readied a UN Security Council resolution demanding that nations withhold all funds, goods and technology that could be used for North Korea's missile program.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 7, The first batch of Japanese troops began pulling out of Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a series of reforms that were welcomed by the US as a long overdue step toward greater efficiency and accountability. A two-week UN conference reviewing efforts to fight the illegal weapons trade ended in failure, with nations too divided on too many contentious issues to agree on the best way to combat a scourge that fuels conflict worldwide. Japan introduced a draft UN Security Council resolution to sanction North Korea for test-launching a series of missiles. The Council unanimously adopted a compromise resolution on July 15.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 14, Japan’s central bank raised a key interest rate for the first time in six years, ending an unorthodox experiment meant to jump-start the country after a decade of economic doldrums. The rate increased from zero to .25%.
(AP, 7/14/06)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.65)
2006 Jul 22, Japan's death toll from floods and mudslides triggered by this week's torrential rain rose to 19 as an evacuation warning was issued in the country's southwest. Heavy rains caused mudslides and flooding killed four people in southern Japan. About 100,000 people were urged to flee their homes.
(AFP, 7/22/06)(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, The 654-foot Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night hundreds of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members were rescued the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and listed on its side for several weeks before being righted. 4,703 of the cars were new Mazdas valued at about $100 million. After a year of planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for complete reduction to scrap in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 7/25/06)(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A9)
2006 Jul 27, Japan said it will allow US beef imports, suspended for the past six months, to restart from all but one of 35 US beef processing plants authorized by the US government as suppliers to Japan.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul, In Japan fans of pachinko slot machines queued up to play the latest Hokuto-no-ken (North-star Fist) game. It was estimated that Japanese spent $260 billion playing pachinko and pachislot slot machines. Parlors gave non-cash prizes, but shops nearby allowed winners to trade their prizes for cash.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.60)
2006 Aug 3, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit, bringing with him a loan of 3.3 billion yen ($29 million) to jump-start Iraq's economic development.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 10, Yasuo Takei, Japan’s richest man, died. Forbes listed his assets at $5.4 billion. In 1966 he founded Fuji Shoji, a consumer loan company. In 1974 it was renamed Takefuji and grew to become a leader in Japan’s loan industry. In 2004 he was convicted for ordering an illegal wiretapping of a reported who criticized his company.
(SFC, 8/14/06, p.B8)
2006 Aug 14, A Japanese tanker spilled about 1.4 million gallons of crude oil in the eastern Indian Ocean following a collision with a cargo ship. The spill, which would be about 4,500 tons, may be the largest ever involving a Japanese tanker. The tanker was carrying about 77.6 million gallons, or 250,000 tons, of crude. It had left port in Oman bound for Japan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Japan’s PM Junichiro Koizumi made a pilgrimage to a Tokyo war shrine reviled by critics as a symbol of militarism, triggering a further erosion in Japan's ties with its neighbors just a month before he leaves office.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 16, A Russian patrol boat opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters, killing a fisherman and prompting a strong protest from Tokyo. Moscow urged Japanese boats to stay out of its waters. 3 fishermen were detained.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 19, Russia handed over the body of a Japanese fisherman killed by a Russian patrol boat that opened fire in disputed waters, sparking a diplomatic feud.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 25, Japanese officials said Kazusaku Tezuka, the president of precision instrument maker Mitutoyo Corp., was arrested along with four other Mitutoyo executives and employees for the alleged export to Malaysia of equipment that can be used in making nuclear weapons.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 30, Russia released two Japanese fishermen held since their boat was seized for allegedly fishing in Russian waters in a confrontation in which a crewman was killed.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Sep 1, Shinzo Abe, the front-runner to be Japan's next prime minister, announced his candidacy, promising to defend Japan's interests and maintain the security alliance with the US.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, Greece beat the Americans 101-95 in the semifinals of the world championships in Saitama, Japan.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 2, The former Stella Polaris, a historic ocean liner (1927-1970), sank overnight off Japan's southeastern coast. The Swedish company Petro-Fast AB had planned to operate the ship, renamed the Scandinavia, as a hotel-restaurant in Stockholm.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 6, Japan's Princess Kiko gave birth to the royal family's first male heir in four decades. The male heir was named Hisahito, meaning "virtuous, calm and everlasting"
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 6, Andy Ross, owner of Cody’s bookstore in Berkeley, Ca., announced that the store had been sold to Yohan Inc., a book company based in Tokyo.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 14, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo held talks in Tokyo on the start of a trans-Pacific trip.
(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 17, A strong typhoon swept toward southwestern Japan with fierce winds and heavy rains, leaving at least 8 people dead or missing and injuring dozens more.
(AFP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 19, Australia and Japan imposed financial sanctions on 11 North Korean companies, a Swiss company and its president, based on allegations they helped the communist nation's weapons programs.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 20, Nationalist candidate Shinzo Abe won the race for Japan's ruling party leader, all but clinching next week's election as prime minister and pledging to make his country a more robust force on the world stage.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 21, A Japanese court ruled that an order forcing Tokyo teachers to stand before Japan's flag and sing an anthem to the emperor violated the constitution, a rare victory for the country's waning pacifist movement.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Japan nationalist Shinzo Abe, a proponent of a robust alliance with the US and a more assertive military, easily won election in parliament to become the country’s youngest postwar prime minister. Abe faced a government debt equivalent to 170% of GDP. Junichiro Koizumi formally stepped down as prime minister. His achievements included changing the way politics was carried out, advancing big economic reforms, and extending Japan’s role in foreign affairs.
(AP, 9/26/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.14)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.44)
2006 Sep 26, Officials said a cow in northern Japan is suspected of having the country's 29th case of mad cow disease.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 29, A press report said Japan has decided to stop financial support for the development of Iran's largest onshore oil field if the Islamic republic continues uranium enrichment. The move means Japan's virtual withdrawal from its two billion-dollar contract to develop the Azadegan field. The contract was signed in 2004 by Inpex Corp., a Japanese oil exploration company that is supported by the government but also has private stakeholders.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep, Japan’s government approved measures to block the transfer of funds to North Korea. The rules went into effect on Jan 4, 2007.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.39)
2006 Oct 6, The Panamanian-registered Giant Step ran ashore after catching fire in rough seas off Kashima in eastern Japan, killing one crewman and injuring two others. Of the remaining crew, 13 were rescued but nine are missing.
(AP, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 8, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe visited Beijing and held talks with Pres. Hu Jintao and PM Wen Jiabao. Abe said Japan and China agree that a North Korea nuclear test "cannot be tolerated" and that Pyongyang should return unconditionally to six-party negotiations on its nuclear programs.
(AP, 10/8/06)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.29)
2006 Oct 11, North Korea threatened more nuclear tests saying additional sanctions imposed on it would be considered an act of war. Japan imposed a total ban on North Korean imports and said ships from the impoverished nation were prohibited from entering Japanese ports as punishment for its apparent nuclear test.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 11, In SF 2 Japanese champions of shogi, a cousin of Western chess played on an 81-square board, squared off for the opening game of the “Dragon King" title at the Hotel Nikko.
(SFC, 10/12/06, p.B1)
2006 Oct 18, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan will not build a nuclear bomb, declaring discussion on that topic "finished," despite the atomic test by North Korea.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 20, Japan's government said the birth rate rose for the seventh straight month in August, raising hopes for an upturn in the country's plunging annual birthrate and declining population.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 27, The US agreed to return to Japan part of the airspace used by the military near Tokyo, allowing civilian planes to reduce flight times and cut costs. The handover will take place by September 2008 before an expansion at Tokyo's Haneda airport.
(AFP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 27, It was reported that a new mobile phone in Japan can recognize its owner. The P903i from NTT DoCoMo automatically locks when the person gets too far away from it and can be found via satellite navigation if it goes missing.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 31, PM Shinzo Abe said Japan will continue assisting Equatorial Guinea in its efforts to promote democracy. Abe made the pledge during a 45-minute meeting with Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Tokyo.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 7, A rare tornado tore across Japan's far north, killing nine people and leaving dozens more destitute.
(AFP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 11, Sony Corp. launched its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) in Japan.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.63)
2006 Nov 14, Honda unveiled the hydrogen powered Honda FCX in Monterey, Ca. Hondo planned to produce fuel cell cars within 2 years.
(SFC, 11/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 15, A fleet of Japanese whalers set sail for an annual hunt in the Antarctic, where they hope to kill 860 whales for a research program that has been heavily criticized by environmentalists and some other nations.
(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 17, Japan’s Sony Corp. launched its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) in the USA.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 19, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe, fresh after his first Asia-Pacific summit, kicked off his official visit to Vietnam as business chiefs unveiled plans to invest more than 700 million dollars.
(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 19, Nintendo's new Wii video game console debuted, the final entrant in the three-way scramble for dominance in the $30 billion global game market.
(Reuters, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 23, Japan decided to temporarily suspend South Korean poultry imports due to a suspected bird flu outbreak that has killed around 6,000 chickens.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 30, Japan's lower house of parliament passed a bill to create a cabinet-level defense ministry for the first time since World War II.
(AFP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 13, Indian PM Manmohan Singh started a visit to Japan to seek support from the major civilian atomic power for the controversial US-India nuclear cooperation pact.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Japan PM Shinzo Abe’s government pushed through legislation requiring Japanese schools to encourage patriotism and elevating the Defense Agency to the status of a full ministry for the 1st time since WW II.
(SFC, 12/16/06, p.A10)
2006 Dec 18, Japanese electronics maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said it will begin mass production of a new lithium-ion battery that is safe from the overheating problems that prompted a massive recall of Sony Corp. batteries this year.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Dec 21, Japan said it saw no hope of a breakthrough in talks on scrapping North Korea's nuclear weapons, accusing Pyongyang of using a financial dispute with the United States to drive a stake into a proposed deal.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 25, Four Japanese inmates on death row were hanged, the first executions to take place in Japan since September 2005.
(AP, 12/25/06)
2006 Dec 26, Chinese and Japanese history scholars met for the first in a series of government-mandated study groups aimed at smoothing over differences between the Asian powers on historical issues.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 31, Japanese media reported that Japanese courts had sentenced 44 people to death in 2006, the largest number in at least 26 years, amid a toughening of sentences for violent crimes.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 The number of suicides in Japan dipped this year but the total topped 30,000 for the ninth straight year.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jan 5, Momofuko Ando (b.1910), inventor of instant noodles (1958), died in Japan.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.94)
2007 Jan 8, USS Newport News nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's oil supplies travel. The bow of the submarine was traveling submerged when it hit the stern of the supertanker Mogamigawa. Damage was light.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 9, Japan launched its first full-fledged defense ministry since World War II as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to build a more assertive nation.
(AFP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 14, Australia's Environment Minister Ian Campbell told national radio that Japanese whaling ships on their annual hunt in the Antarctic are banned from docking in Australia and should use restraint in looming clashes with protesters.
(AFP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 21, Russian border police seized a Japanese fishing boat and its six crew members in disputed waters between the two countries, prompting the Japanese government to protest. The No. 38 Zuisho Maru was captured off Kunashiri Island, one of four disputed islands in a group the Japanese call the Northern Territories and the Russians call the Kurils.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 26, It was reported that scientists in Japan have developed a new technique for detecting explosives such as TNT in landmines or luggage using radio waves. The scientists created a device called superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), which has a very sensitive magnetic field sensor that detects nitrogen, an element found in many explosives, including TNT.
(Reuters, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 30, Another outbreak of bird flu was suspected in southern Japan after 23 chickens were found dead at a farm.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 31, The New York Stock Exchange announced a cooperative agreement with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 5, Britain pressed ahead with a cull of 160,000 turkeys after the nation's first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in farmed poultry as Russia and Japan banned British poultry imports.
(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 7, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe pledged to regain four disputed northern islands from Russia, saying it was time to end the bickering between Tokyo and Moscow over the prime fishing grounds.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 9, Nichiro Corp., a Japanese food company, recalled nearly 5 million cans of tuna after a customer found part of a box cutter blade in a can. The small piece of blade was found in a can of tuna produced in Vietnam in February 2006 and imported to Japan by a third company for sale by Nichiro.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 12, A Japanese whaling ship issued a distress signal from Antarctic waters, after it collided with a protest boat trying to save whales from slaughter.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 13, Japan opened an international whaling conference by blasting a boycott by dozens of anti-whaling nations, saying their absence would block much-needed reforms of the commission that sets regulations.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 15, Officials warned of a potential environmental disaster in Antarctica after fire erupted on a Japanese whaling ship, as the search continued for a missing crewmen from the crippled ship. The next day Japanese officials said the ship posed no environmental threat.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 16, Japan's Cabinet approved sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program under UN Security Council guidelines.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 18, Japanese researchers said they had grown normal-looking teeth from single cells in lab dishes, and transplanted them into mice.
(Reuters, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, The United States sent eight more US F-22 stealth fighter planes to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa in their first full deployment overseas.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 20, Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Japan for a meeting with the emperor, dinner with the PM and a pep rally for US troops aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, The Bank of Japan voted to raise interest rates by a quarter of a point to 0.5%.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.85)
2007 Feb 26, Officials said that after nearly a decade of trying, Japan has succeeded in establishing a network of spy satellites that can peer at any point on the globe.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 28, Japan and Russia looked to expand trade despite rocky relations as they agreed to cooperate on nuclear energy and in preventing disasters in disputed islands.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Officials said Japan has decided to pull its whaling fleet out of the Antarctic and end this year's whale hunt early after a deadly fire crippled its mother ship.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 1, PM Shinzo Abe said there was no evidence Japan coerced Asian women into working as sex slaves during World War II, backtracking from a landmark 1993 statement in which the government acknowledged that it set up and ran brothels for its troops. A passenger train derailed in northern Japan after slamming into a truck, leaving dozens injured including 25 high school students.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 3, In central Japan an annual hunt for as many as 20,000 dolphins drew to a close. Herded since October the youngest and most attractive dolphins were put up for sale to theme parks for as much as $100,000.
(SFC, 3/3/07, p.B6)
2007 Mar 4, An aide said PM Shinzo Abe will stand by Japan's 1993 apology over forcing Asian women to have sex with Japanese troops in the last century, after the leader's denial that Tokyo used coercion caused an international uproar.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 5, A Tokyo paper said Japan, the United States and India will carry out a joint military drill in the Pacific off Japan's coast amid concerns about China's military build-up.
(AFP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 8, PM Shinzo Abe said that ruling party lawmakers will conduct a fresh investigation into the Japanese military's forced sexual slavery of women during World War II.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 9, In Japan Aeon supermarket chain said it will take a 15% stake in troubled Daiei for 46.2 billion yen, or $393.5 million. The alliance would create Japan's biggest retail grouping.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 13, Australia and Japan signed a groundbreaking defense pact in Tokyo that the leaders of both countries stressed was not aimed at reining in China, but the road ahead for a two-way trade deal looked rougher.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 14, A Japanese court overturned a landmark ruling ordering the Japanese government and a company to compensate Chinese who were forced to work as slave laborers in Japan during World War Two. The Tokyo High Court acknowledged that the state and the firm had violated the human rights of the 11 Chinese, but rejected the plaintiffs' demand for compensation because a 20-year statute of limitation had expired.
(Reuters, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 14, Israeli and Palestinian envoys said that improving the economy can revive the peace process as they got to work on a Japanese initiative to create jobs in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Japan 3 masked men stole 220-pound block of gold worth more than $2 million from the Ohashi Collection Kan museum in Takayama. 26 railways and 75 bus companies in the greater Tokyo area were scheduled to begin sharing a new stored value system called Pasmo.
(AP, 3/19/07)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.72)
2007 Mar 22, A Japanese court sentenced Ryoji Miyauchi, former chief financial officer of dot-com company Livedoor, to 20 months in prison for inflating earnings reports.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 22, Brian Joubert became the first Frenchman in 42 years to win the world title by taking the men's event at the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2007 Mar 23, A Japanese whaling ship returned to port from Antarctica with a catch of 508 whales, despite having its annual hunt cut short by a deadly fire.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 24, Japan's Miki Ando won the women's title at the World Figure Skating Championship in Tokyo, leading a 1-2 finish for the host country with Mao Asada second.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2007 Mar 24, Swedish truck maker Volvo said it has successfully acquired Japan's Nissan Diesel, the latest merger in the industry as companies prepare for more stringent emissions rules.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 25, A powerful earthquake struck central Japan, killing at least one person and injuring 170 others as it toppled buildings, triggered landslides and generated a small tsunami along the coast. The quake was followed throughout the day by aftershocks.
(AP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, under fire for denying that Japan forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II, offered a fresh apology but refused to clearly acknowledge Japan's responsibility for running the frontline brothels.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Ann Hawker (22), a British language teacher, was found naked in a sand-filled bathtub at an apartment outside Tokyo. She had been beaten and then suffocated. Police hunted for the prime suspect, a 28-year-old Japanese male. On Nov 10, 2009, Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested as the only suspect in the murder, after he had spent over two years on the run and altered his appearance with plastic surgery. In 2011 Ichihashi admitted the killing but said it was accidental. On July 21 Ichihashi was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/29/07)(AFP, 12/2/09)(AFP, 7/4/11)(AFP, 7/21/11)
2007 Mar 27, In Japan a Cabinet official said an electrical glitch has knocked out a satellite in a spy network Japan hoped to use to gather intelligence on North Korea and other trouble spots around the world.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 28, A Japanese man was sentenced to death for murdering three people he lured through a suicide Web site by offering to die with them.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, In Tokyo the director of a research institute said Japanese scientists have developed an oral vaccine for Alzheimer's disease that has proven effective and safe in mice.
(Reuters, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 2, Thailand's premier hailed ties with Japan as he prepared to sign a free-trade agreement with his country's top investor, easing international isolation of the kingdom since last year's coup. Army-installed PM Surayud Chulanont will sign the deal April 3, which Thailand hopes will boost investment from Japan.
(AFP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Japan and Thailand signed a free trade agreement that will cut tariffs on a wide range of traded goods, from seafood to automobiles.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 8, In Japan Nationalist Shintaro Ishihara won a third term as governor of Tokyo.
(Reuters, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 9, Japan lent some 850 million dollars to PM Nuri al-Maliki's government as the oil-hungry Asian power looked to boost output from the war-torn country. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki met with Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, starting off a four-day visit that was delayed after Iran refused to allow his plane to fly over its airspace.
(AP, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 10, Japan's Cabinet approved a six-month extension on trade sanctions against North Korea, which were imposed in the wake of the communist state's nuclear test last year.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 11, Japanese and Chinese leaders heralded a new era of closer ties between the two Asian powers, moving to repair relations damaged by a harsh dispute over history and signing accords on energy and environmental protection.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 12, Toyota named the first non-Japanese to its board of directors, appointing American James Press, the automaker's president of North American operations, amid growing fears of a political backlash for its booming US sales.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 16, Five young Japanese were found dead inside a sealed van in an apparent group suicide.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, In Japan the mayor of Nagasaki was shot outside a train station and is in critical condition. Police arrested Tetsuya Shiroo (59), who they said was the head of a local gang affiliated with Japan's largest "yakuza" group, the Yamaguchi-gumi. Mayor Itcho Ito (61) died the next day. The gangster arrested in the shooting had visited city offices more than 30 times seeking compensation for car damage caused by a pothole. In 2008 Shiroo was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder.
(AP, 4/17/07)(Reuters, 4/18/07)(AP, 4/19/07)(AP, 5/26/08)
2007 Apr 20, In Paraguay Japanese businessman Hirokazu Ota, the leader of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church in Paraguay, was freed following a 19-day abduction and a 140,000-dollar ransom payment.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 22, Japan went to the polls in two upper-house by-elections and a chain of local elections that could further weaken the leadership of embattled PM Shinzo Abe.
(AFP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 24, Joji Obara (54), a Tokyo businessman, was sentenced to life in prison for a wave of brutal assaults on women, but was cleared over the 2000 abduction and killing of British bar hostess Lucie Blackman.
(AFP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 24, Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. reported that it outsold General Motors Corp. by around 90,000 vehicles in the first quarter, moving a step closer to unseating its US rival as the world's biggest automaker. Aside from a few strike-related blips GM had been the top US car seller since 1931.
(Reuters, 4/24/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.76)
2007 Apr 25, Japan adopted stricter gun control guidelines following a spate of gangster shootings that rattled a nation renowned for its crime-free streets.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 27, President Bush and visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe threatened stronger punitive actions against North Korea if it reneged on a promise to padlock its sole nuclear reactor.
(AP, 4/27/08)
2007 Apr 27, Japan's Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying compensation to two Chinese women who were forced to work in military brothels during World War II. The court said that the women had no right to seek war compensation from Japan because of a 1972 agreement with China. The top court also overturned a lower court ruling awarding compensation to five Chinese who were forced to work for a Japanese construction company during the war.
(AP, 4/27/07)
2007 Apr 29, Japan and the resources-rich United Arab Emirates agreed to launch a high-level dialogue aimed at boosting economic ties and to speed up talks on a free trade pact. Officials of the governmental Japan Bank for International Cooperation decided to extend massive loans to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in exchange for securing a stable oil supply for Japan.
(AP, 4/29/07)(http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070430a2.html)
2007 May 1, Japan and Qatar stressed their solid energy partnership and agreed to launch initial negotiations on moves to stimulate Japanese investment in the Gulf state.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 2, Egypt and Japan agreed to push together in a bid to end the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions, calling for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, James Abegglen, American-born chronicler of the rise of “Japan Inc.," died in Japan. In the 1960s and 1970s he warned corporate America that Japan should be taken more seriously. His 9th book was titled “21st-Century Japanese Management."
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)
2007 May 5, A roller coaster traveling up to 46 mph hit a guardrail at an amusement park in western Japan, killing one person and injuring 21 others.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 6, Japan pledged $100 million in grants to the Asian Development Bank to combat global warming and promote greener investment in the region and called for a stronger international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 9, Japan's Supreme Court rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 10, A Japanese hospital opened the country's only anonymous drop box for unwanted infants despite government admonitions against abandoning babies.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 15, It was discovered that a father used a Japanese drop box for unwanted babies to deposit a preschooler, and not an infant, during its first day of operation.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 16, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe approved an initiative to deregulate Japan’s aviation market. Japanese officials said the landlocked nation of Laos has agreed to join the International Whaling Commission at Japan's request and is highly likely to support Tokyo's high-profile pro-whaling campaign.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.40)(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, In central Japan a man went on a shooting rampage in his home, killing a policeman, wounding three other people, including his son and daughter, and taking his wife hostage.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 18, In Japan a former gangster surrendered after a shooting rampage at his home that left one policeman dead and three other people, including his son and daughter, injured.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 19, Japan's state and navy police raided a Japanese naval academy over an alleged leak of sensitive warship technology data shared between Japan and the US.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 21, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Sweden, kicking off a 10-day tour of Europe that will take in the three Baltic nations and Britain, where they have faced protests in the past.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 23, Japan passed a law to fund the reorganization of US forces in Japan and help move thousands of Marines from the country's south to the US territory of Guam. Fire broke out at a farm in northern Japan, killing about 2,000 pigs.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 23, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said she welcomed a greater global role by Japan as she discussed a stalled free trade agreement in Tokyo.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 24, Japan's prime minister proposed cutting world greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 as part of a new global warming pact for all countries, including top polluters United States and China.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 24, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Estonia's seaside capital on their first-ever visit to a former Soviet republic.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 28, Japan's agriculture minister died after hanging himself just hours before he was to face questioning in a political scandal.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In Alaska officials from 75 nations began talks critical to whale conservation amid pressure, notably from Japan, to lift a 20-year ban on commercial whale hunting.
(AFP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In Mexico City Riyo Mori, a 20-year-old dancer from Japan who hopes to someday open an international dance school, was crowned Miss Universe 2007.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 29, In Japan an executive allegedly involved in a bid-rigging scam that has been linked to the suicide of the agriculture minister leaped to his death.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 31, Japan failed in its bid to lift a moratorium on commercial whaling after stormy annual talks in Alaska of the 75-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) and warned it might pull out of the organization.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 May, In Japan a new corporate law was scheduled to take effect allowing foreign companies to use stock swaps to acquire Japanese firms.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.65)
2007 May, In Japan it was uncovered that the Social Insurance Agency was unable to match 50 million computerized pension records to people who have paid into public programs. Another 14 million records appeared to have never made it into the computer at system at all.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.24)
2007 Jun 2, Four people believed to have fled North Korea arrived at a port in northern Japan in a small boat and told police they want to go to South Korea.
(Reuters, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 2, The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) decided to permit a one-off sale of 60 tons of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to Japan, saying it would monitor closely the impact on poaching and population levels.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 6, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse held talks in Colombo with a top Japanese envoy on the future of the island's peace process following bloody recent clashes. A bomb detonated by suspected Tamil rebels derailed a train in eastern Sri Lanka.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 8, The Japanese government donated 9.25 million dollars (6.42 million euros) to UNICEF to support its child survival programs in Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 8, Japan’s Inamori Foundation announced that a California-based earthquake scientist, Japanese chemist and German choreographer have won the $410,000 Kyoto Prize for achievement in the arts and sciences. The basic sciences award went to Hiroo Kanamori of the California Institute of Technology for his research on major earthquakes along the Pacific Rim; Hiroo Inokuchi at the University of Tokyo received the advanced technology award for his work in organic electronics; German choreographer Pina Bausch was awarded the arts and philosophy prize for her pioneering work in developing a new genre of ballet dubbed "Tanztheater," or dance theater. The prizes were awarded on Nov 10.
(AP, 6/9/07)(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Jun 9, The Hawaiian canoe Hokulea sailed into the Japanese port of Yokohama, completing a five-month journey of more than 8,500 miles across the Pacific.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 12, An official said Japan has agreed to offer direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, but will send it to President Mahmud Abbas and not Hamas militants.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 14, Rifat Hadziahmetovic (39) of Montenegro and another "Pink Panther" member allegedly stole a diamond tiara worth 200 million yen (2.3 million dollars) and other gems from a jewelry store in Tokyo's upmarket Ginza district. Hadziahmetovic was arrested in 2009 in Cyprus. In 2010 he was extradited to Japan from Spain for the robbery in Tokyo. The other suspect in the heist, Radovan Jelusic (39) was arrested in Rome in May in possession of a forged Croatian passport.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2007 Jun 14, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, visiting Japan, pledged to fight corruption to lure more investors from top donor Japan as he tries to wean his government away from foreign aid.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 18, Japan changed the name of the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, site of the famous World War II battle, to its original name of Iwo To after residents there were prodded into action by two recent Clint Eastwood movies.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 20, Japanese lawmakers approved a two-year extension of the country's air force transport mission in Iraq, despite criticism of Tokyo's involvement in the unpopular war.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 26, A Japanese robot maker unveiled what it called the world's first prototype of an artificial hand with "air muscles" that can do even delicate work like picking up a raw egg.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 26, Tokitaizan, whose real name is Takashi Saito (17), collapsed during a training session in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, and was confirmed dead a few hours later. On Oct 5 the Japan Sumo Association expelled stablemaster Junichi Yamamoto. On Feb 7, 2008, 3 wrestlers and a former trainer were arrested for Saito’s death.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.46)(www.japantoday.com/jp/news/419435)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.49)
2007 Jun 28, Shigetake Ogata (73), the former head of Japan's intelligence agency, was arrested on fraud allegations involving a $29 million purchase of the headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents from a pro-North Korean group that he had monitored.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 28, Kiichi Miyazawa (87), former PM of Japan (1991-1993), died.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 3, Fumio Kyuma, Japan's defense minister, resigned under an avalanche of criticism for suggesting that the United States was justified in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the attacks saved Japan from a Soviet invasion.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 5, Japanese police arrested an American sailor on suspicion of attempted murder after two women were stabbed near a naval base south of Tokyo. In 2008 a Japanese court found sailor Joshua David Williams (20) guilty of stabbing the two Japanese women sentenced him to eight years in prison.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 6/19/08)
2007 Jul 13, A powerful typhoon pounded Japan's southern Okinawa island chain, cutting power to tens of thousands of households and grounding flights with winds up to 100 mph.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 15, Typhoon Man-yi, one of the most powerful storms to hit Japan in decades, headed away from Tokyo after leaving four people dead or missing.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 16, A 6.8 earthquake struck northwestern Japan, destroying hundreds of homes, buckling seaside bridges and causing a fire at one of the world's most powerful nuclear power plants. 11 people were killed and hundreds were injured. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant suffered a slew of problems, including spilled waste drums, leaked radioactive water, fires and burst pipes.
(AFP, 7/16/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.41)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 29, In Japan exit polls showed that PM Shinzo Abe's ruling party suffered humiliating losses in parliamentary elections after a string of political scandals, but Abe said he did not plan to resign. Official election results showed the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito, with a total of 103 seats, a 30-seat loss that left it far short of the 122 needed to control the house. The main opposition Democratic Party grabbed 112 seats, up from 81. For the 1st time in its history the LDP was no longer the biggest party in the upper house.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.35)
2007 Jul 30, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe rejected calls for his resignation, saying the country couldn't afford the resulting "power vacuum."
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 1, Norihiko Akagi, Japan's scandal-embroiled agriculture minister, stepped down, taking responsibility for a shattering election defeat for the ruling party. Akagi had been hit by an embarrassing accounting scandal, which was widely viewed as a major reason behind the ruling election loss.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 10, Japan and the US signed an agreement aimed at protecting classified military information to be shared by the two countries promoting closer defense cooperation.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 15, Japan's foreign minister launched plans for a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial park in the West Bank that he said would promote peace in the region through prosperity.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, Japan sizzled through its hottest day on record as a heat wave claimed at least nine lives and threatened power supplies strained by a recent earthquake. The mercury hit 105.6 degrees in the western city of Tajimi in the afternoon, breaking a previous national record of 105.4 degrees set in 1933.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Okinawa, Japan, passengers used emergency slides to evacuate a China Airlines Boeing 737-800 just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball on the tarmac. All 165 people aboard escaped unhurt, including the pilot, who jumped from the cockpit at the last second.
(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in New Delhi to firm up billions of dollars of investment projects, expand trade ties and discuss India's controversial nuclear cooperation deal.
(AFP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 31, Leading Japanese mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will tie up with broadband provider ACCA Networks to introduce ultra-fast mobile WiMAX technology.
(AFP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, Takehiko Endo, Japan's latest agricultural minister, acknowledged that a private farming group he leads exaggerated weather damage to the 1999 grape harvest in order to receive government compensation, which amounted to $9,930.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 3, Takehiko Endo, Japan's scandal-hit farm minister, resigned dealing a fresh blow to PM Shinzo Abe just a week after he reshuffled his cabinet in the hope of cleaning up the government's image.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 4, 5-nation war games began in the Bay of Bengal. Indian and US aircraft carriers launched fighter jets into the air as American submarines cruised below Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 5, Japan and North Korea held talks for the first time in six months in a bid to ease tensions amid signs of cautious optimism for progress from the arch-foes. The meeting in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator is part of a working group set up by six-nation talks designed to stop North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
(AFP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 6, Japan and North Korea wrapped up a rare meeting without a breakthrough in an emotional row over kidnappings, but they pledged to keep talking amid small signs of hope between the arch-rivals.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, An unmanned Russian rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned after liftoff, sending parts crashing in an uninhabited part of Kazakhstan and triggering concerns about environmental damage.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 12, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced he will resign, ending a troubled year-old government that has suffered a string of damaging scandals and a humiliating electoral defeat.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 14, Japan's space agency launched its much-delayed lunar probe, beginning what it calls the largest mission to the moon since the US Apollo flights. The Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), probe was launched aboard one of the space program's mainstay H-2A rockets from its launch-pad on remote Tanegashima island.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 14, It was reported that researchers at Tokyo Univ. had developed a method, dubbed surrogate broodstocking, whereby they inject newly hatched, sterile Asian masu salmon with sperm-growing cells from rainbow trout. The grown salmon then produce trout.
(SFC, 9/14/07, p.A14)
2007 Sep 15, Yasuo Fukuda (71), the front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister, vowed to extend his nation's support for US-led operations in Afghanistan. The Sept. 23 Liberal Democratic Party ballot to replace PM Shinzo Abe, who abruptly resigned earlier this week, will pit the liberal Fukuda against the more hawkish former Foreign Minister Taro Aso (66). Both candidates have said Japan cannot afford to drop out of the global war on terrorism.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 20, Japan's Sharp Corp. said it had agreed to become the top shareholder in its financially troubled rival Pioneer Corp. as part of a broad business tie-up in response to growing competition.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 23, Yasuo Fukuda, a veteran moderate, easily won election as Japan's ruling party president, pledging to keep a pro-US foreign policy and improve ties with Asia after he almost certainly becomes prime minister later this week.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 25, Japan’s Parliament elected Yasuo Fukuda to be the prime minister, thrusting the moderate political insider into the job of taking on a resurgent opposition and rebuilding the scandal-scarred ruling party.
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 28, Japan suspended poultry imports from Canada after the H7N3 strain of avian influenza was found on a Saskatchewan chicken farm.
(Reuters, 9/28/07)
2007 Sep 29, In southern Japan more than 100,000 people protested against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.
(AP, 9/30/07)
2007 Oct 1, Japan began a 1-year process of privatizing its postal system, recognized as the world’s largest bank with over $2 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.82)
2007 Oct 5, Japan put its first satellite into orbit around the moon, placing the country a step ahead of China and India in an increasingly heated space race in Asia.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 8, Satoshi Nakamura (23), a Japanese tourist, was abducted in a restive region of southeast Iran bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-built citadel of Bam. Nakamura was released on July 14. A bandit called Esmail Shahbakhsh, blamed for the kidnapping, had reportedly demanded the release of his arrested son in exchange for Nakamura.
(AFP, 6/15/08)
2007 Oct 9, Japan's Cabinet approved plans to extend economic sanctions against North Korea, despite the communist state's agreement to disable its main nuclear complex by year's end.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 10, Police in Japan arrested Kazunari Saito (33), who ran an Internet suicide site, for allegedly killing a woman who paid him to do so. He allegedly gave Sayaka Nishizawa (21) sleeping pills and suffocated her in April. Nishizawa had contacted the suspect through an Internet suicide site he hosted and paid him $1,700.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 16, Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, said it had canceled a multimillion dollar grant to protest the military-ruled nation's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, Investigators began raids on Japanese companies accused of corruption in projects to remove chemical weapons abandoned in China during World War II. The allegations involve the illegal diversion of some of the $199 million the government has disbursed since 2004 to help dispose of 400,000 chemical weapons that retreating Japanese troops left in northeast China at war's end. China has said poisons have leaked from the weapons and killed about 2,000 people since 1945.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 26, An official said Japan hopes to thwart potential terrorists from entering the country by fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners aged 16 or over on entry starting next month.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 28, The USS Porter, a guided missile destroyer, fired on and destroyed two pirate boats tied to the Golden Nori, a hijacked Japanese-flagged chemical tanker. The ship was carrying a load of benzene off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 29, Japanese megabank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said that its losses on US subprime loans soared by as much as six-fold over two months to $263 million.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct, In Japan a woman (19) in Hiroshima was allegedly raped by 4 US Marines. In 2008 Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean (20) was sentenced to two years in prison for "wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts" but cleared of rape. 3 other Marines still faced court-martial.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2007 Nov 1, Japan's defense minister ordered ships supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan to return home after opposition lawmakers refused to support an extension of the mission, saying it violated the country's pacifist constitution.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 16, US President George W. Bush and Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda met for talks aimed at bridging rifts on North Korea and Tokyo's military role in the "war on terror."
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 18, A defiant Japan embarked on its largest whaling expedition in decades, targeting protected humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s despite international opposition. 4 ships headed for the waters off Antarctica, resuming a hunt that was cut short by a deadly fire last February that crippled the fleet's mother ship. An anti-whaling protest boat awaited the fleet offshore.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in Japan and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 28, In Japan former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya (63) and his wife were arrested on suspicion they accepted lavish gifts from companies, including one linked to General Electric, in exchange for contracts.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo in the communist nation's first military visit to Japan since World War II, symbolizing improving ties.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 29, ZMP of Japan began selling a two-legged walking robot that runs on Microsoft's new robotics software, a product the companies said will make it easier to transfer technology from one robot to another.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 1, China and Japan began talks on trade and economic issues that are intended to bolster the recent warming of their long-uneasy relations.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 2, China and Japan amicably wrapped up their first high-level trade and economic talks on Sunday by pledging greater overall cooperation, but left the touchy issue of gas exploration in the East China Sea unresolved.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 10, Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co. said it will buy US biopharmaceutical company MGI Pharma Inc. for $3.9 billion in cash in a move aimed at boosting its cancer drug business and sustain sales growth.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 12, Pirates freed a Japanese chemical tanker loaded with highly explosive benzene off the coast of Somalia, six weeks after seizing the vessel and its crew.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, Japan said that Russia seized four Japanese fishing boats in disputed waters between the two countries, calling the detention unacceptable and demanding an explanation from Moscow.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan began sending warnings to an estimated 8.5 million people that their pension data may have gone missing, as the government seeks to clean up a scandal that has damaged its credibility.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan and the United Arab Emirates signed an accord to strengthen economic ties, including a deal for Japanese banks to extend a multibillion-dollar loan to a state-owned Abu Dhabi oil firm.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, US trade officials said the US has reached a deal with the EU, Japan and Canada to keep its Internet gambling market closed to foreign companies, but is continuing talks with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau and Costa Rica.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 18, Japan said it had shot down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean as part of joint efforts with the United States to erect a shield against a possible North Korean attack.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 21, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan is dropping its plan to kill humpback whales in the seas off Antarctica. The fleet will, however, kill some 935 minke whales, a smaller, more plentiful species, and 50 fin whales.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 28, China and Japan made no major breakthroughs in resolving a row over natural resources in the East China Sea, but a visit by Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda signaled a new warmth in bilateral relations.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 29, Shu Uemura (79), Japanese makeup artist, died. He had won acclaim in Hollywood and built an international cosmetics brand under his name.
(AP, 1/8/08)(WSJ, 1/12/08, p.A10)
2007 “The Reason I Jump" by Naoki Higoshida (b.1992), Japanese poet, novelist, and essayist, was published in English in a translation by British novelist David Mitchell and his wife Keiko Yoshida. The book explained the hidden frustrations of his autism.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.68)
2007 Kenneth B. Pyle authored “Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.94)
2007 Japan’s government debt this year stood at around 180% of GDP, the highest for any developed economy.
(Econ, 12/1/07, SR p.3)
2007 In Japan the Nippon Kaigi lobby group persuaded the government to make April 29 a national holiday in honor of Hirohito (1901-1989), the WWII Emperor of Japan.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.33)
2007 Over Some 33,000 people took their lives in Japan this year, topping 30,000 for the tenth consecutive year despite a government campaign to reduce what is one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
(Reuters, 6/19/08)
2007 Australia, India, Japan, and the US met for a "quadrilateral dialogue" on security matters. The first iteration of the Quad ceased to exist following the withdrawal of Australia in February 2008. The pact was revived in 2017.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrilateral_Security_Dialogue)(Econ., 11/21/20, p.36)
2008 Jan 10, Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said it will drop the name of its charismatic founder and become Panasonic Corp. to strengthen its global image.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 11, Japan's parliament cleared the way for its navy to return to the Indian Ocean on a US-backed anti-terror mission, after stiff lobbying from Washington in support of the measure.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 12, Greenpeace said its protest ship located Japan's whaling fleet in Antarctic waters and is pursuing it to stop the hunt for the giant sea creatures.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Sri Lanka Japan's peace envoy opened talks, hinting international donors may hold back much-needed foreign aid if the island's decades-long ethnic conflict escalates.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 15, An Australian judge banned the company that conducts Japan's whale hunt from killing the animals in a large part of its regular hunting grounds off Antarctica. Japanese whalers said they are holding captive two activists who "illegally" boarded their vessel in the Southern Ocean, in a dramatic escalation in the battle between the two sides.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 16, Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic halted its operations and scrambled to arrange the turnover of two activists who boarded one of its harpoon ships after a tense, high-seas chase, accusing the Sea Shepherd conservation group of piracy.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 17, Australia said it would send a ship to pick up two anti-whaling activists who jumped on a Japanese harpoon vessel from a rubber boat in Antarctic waters, offering a solution to a tense, two-day standoff on the high seas.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 18, Two activists who had jumped on board a Japanese whaling boat were returned to their ship by Australian officials.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 24, Japan's national police, facing allegations that officers regularly squeeze confessions from suspects with abuse, issued guidelines for the first time setting limits on how far they can go in questioning sessions.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 29, Japan's coast guard said it has sent a team of officers to protect its whaling fleet against intensifying protests by environmentalists.
(AFP, 1/29/08)
2008 Jan 29, Japan said it was setting up a fund to help African countries enhance protection of intellectual property rights, calling it key to boosting the continent's economic potential.
(AP, 1/29/08)
2008 Jan 31, In northern Sri Lanka a bomb being transported by a suicide bomber on a bicycle exploded prematurely, killing four people and injuring 13 others. Japan cautioned it will review its aid policy unless the violence subsided.
(AP, 1/31/08)(AFP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 1, Scientists in Japan and New Zealand said they have created a "tear-free" onion using biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us cry.
(AFP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 1, An Australian report said that Japanese harpoonists killed five whales in one day after Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd ships, which had halted the hunt in Antarctic waters, were forced to return to port to refuel.
(AFP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 3, Police said Japanese investigators found insecticide on the outside of six bags of Chinese-made dumplings in Japan after separate dumplings made by the same company sickened 10 people there.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 9, In Japan the world's leading economies pledged to work together to secure stability in volatile markets but brushed off the idea of a single uniform remedy for the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 11, In Japan US Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott was arrested after a 14-year-old girl said he raped her in his car. Hadnott was released Feb 29 after the girl withdrew her criminal complaint against him. He still faced a US military investigation. On May 16 Hadnott (38) was found guilty of abusive sexual conduct and sentenced to four years in prison.
(AFP, 2/12/08)(AP, 3/1/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 Feb 16, A company source said Toshiba Corp is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high-definition video, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp.
(Reuters, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 19, A Japanese navy destroyer equipped with advanced radar plowed into a fishing boat off the Pacific coast, splitting the boat in two and plunging two fishermen into the chilly waters. The men remained missing.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Japan’s Toshiba Corp. announced it would no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 23, Japan's space agency launched an experimental communications satellite designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 27, Japan and Israel shared their concerns about Iranian nuclear programs and agreed to cooperate to prevent Tehran from going nuclear.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Mar 5, In western Japan 3 vessels collided in a strait, killing one Filipino crew member and leaving three others missing when their cargo ship sank. The body of Gold Leader's captain, Tomas Nirid Demandaco Jr. (51), was found the next day. A suspected right-wing activist committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in front of Japan's parliament in apparent protest against Japan's warming ties with China.
(AP, 3/5/08)(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 7, Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a protest ship harassing Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, said he was shot in a high-seas clash and his crew members pelted with flash grenades, injuring one. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Japanese officials insisted only warning devices were fired.
(AFP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 11, In Japan authorities arrested in Osaka arrested Hatsue Shimizu (64) and Yoshiko Ishii (55), two sisters, for allegedly hiding millions of dollars worth of cash in their garage to evade inheritance taxes. Their father, who was in the real-estate lease business, died in 2004, leaving $72.9 million to his family.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 11, The US space shuttle Endeavour blasted off from a seaside Florida launch pad to deliver part of a long-awaited Japanese space laboratory and a Canadian-built robotic system to the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Japan Tony Blair, during a meeting of senior officials from the world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters, urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United States, China and India to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 19, In Japan Masaaki Takahashi (61) of Tokyo was found fatally stabbed in his cab in Yokosuka, about a half-mile from a US naval base. US and Japanese authorities soon began searching for a US sailor for questioning in the killing of the Japanese taxi driver. On April 2 US sailor Olatunbosun Ugbogu (22), a Nigerian national, admitted during police questioning that he had killed the man. On July 30, 2009, Ugbogu was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/21/08)(AFP, 4/2/08)(AP, 7/30/09)
2008 Mar 23, In eastern Japan a person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a knifing spree at a shopping mall. Police arrested Masahiro Kanagawa (24), who was also wanted over the earlier slaying of a 72-year-old man.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 25, America’s baseball season opened in Japan as the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.83)
2008 Mar 26, Italian officials held a crisis meeting after Japan and South Korea banned imports of mozzarella following the discovery of high dioxin levels in buffalo milk used to make the famed cheese.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 31, The US investment banking company Lehman Brothers sued the Japanese trading company Marubeni, seeking to recover $350 million in financing it says was obtained fraudulently.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Scientists in Japan reported that they have designed artificial molecules that when used with rats successfully reversed liver cirrhosis, a serious chronic disease in humans that until now can only be cured by transplants.
(Reuters, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 3, Japanese police arrested Olatunbosun Ugbogu (22), a Nigerian national serving in the US Navy, in the March 19 stabbing death of a taxi driver near an American naval base outside Tokyo. He was handed over to Japanese authorities just before the arrest under a bilateral security pact.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 5, In Japan G8 development officials began a two-day ministerial meeting in Tokyo on how to ease suffering in Africa and other impoverished states as well as bolster their efforts in foreign development aid.
(AFP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Japan the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations vowed to step up cooperation with emerging donors such as China and India and said they remained committed to a goal to double their own aid to Africa by 2010.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 9, Japanese lawmakers approved Masaaki Shirakawa as the new central bank chief, ending a power vacuum that had left the nation's top economic job vacant for weeks with global markets in disarray.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 14, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said they had finished signing a deal to tear down trade barriers between the world's second-largest economy and the 10-member bloc.
(AFP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Japan’s government said violent clashes with animal rights groups and fewer whale sightings forced its whaling fleet to head home from the Antarctic with only 55 percent of its 985-whale hunting target.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 21, In Japan PM Yasuo Fukuda met with South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak and both declared a new era of closer cooperation.
(WSJ, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 21, Pirates in the Gulf of Aden fired on a Japanese oil tanker, unleashing hundreds of gallons of fuel into the sea. The attack took place 170 miles off the coast of Yemen while the 150,000-ton tanker was heading to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Japan protesters waved the Tibetan flag and denounced China's rulers as the Beijing Olympic torch arrived for the latest leg of a worldwide relay marred by demonstrations.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 May 4, In Japan thousands of activists, artists and scholars gathered for an international peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and prevent the clause from being weakened.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 6, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Tokyo for a feel-good visit that will use ping pong and pandas to take the edge off more contentious problems like border disputes, historical animosity and concerns over China's rule in Tibet.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 7, The leaders of Japan and China agreed to resolve a territorial row and start regular summits to ease decades of tension, pledging that Asia's two largest economies would not see each other as a threat.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, It was reported that Japan was experiencing a problem with a growing population of crows. Over the last 2 years utilities in Tokyo had reported almost 1400 cases of crows cutting fiber optic cables.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A10)
2008 May 19, Japan’s tourism ministry named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among kids and young women.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Nissan Motor Co. and NEC corp. announced plans to begin mass-producing lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. Nissan and Renault planned to have an all-electric car in the US and Japan by 2010.
(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.B1)
2008 May 23, Japan allocated $54 million in emergency grants to the UN to help Afghanistan, Africa and Palestinian refugees cope with the ongoing food crisis.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 26, In Japan the Group of Eight (G8) environment chiefs pledged "strong political will" toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that developed nations should take the lead in battling global warming, but failed to agree on much more contentious near-term targets.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 28, African leaders, in Japan for a major development conference, lashed out at rich nations for erecting trade barriers that prevent the continent's economic development even as they make lofty pledges to boost aid. Japan pledged to double aid to Africa by 2012 and to help the continent boost rice production two-fold to ease food shortages.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 30, In Japan participants closed a 3-day African development conference saying they aim to double rice production in Africa in 10 years and expand irrigated land by 20 percent in five years.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 8, G8 leaders meeting in Japan pledged to fight skyrocketing energy prices by increasing efficiency and accelerating investment in new technologies, while urging producers to expand production.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Tokyo police arrested Tomohiro Kato, a blood-spattered 25-year-old man, who they said drove a truck into a crowd of people, then got out and began a frenzied knife attack stabbing 17 people leaving at least 7 dead. On March 24, 2011, a court sentenced the former auto plant worker to death.
(Reuters, 6/8/08)(WSJ, 6/9/08, p.A1)(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A3)(AFP, 3/24/11)
2008 Jun 10, Japan’s Toyota said it will start making the Camry hybrid in Australia and Thailand as part of its efforts to step up production of "green" cars around the world.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 10, A Japanese patrol boat unintentionally sank a recreational fishing boat from Taiwan near the Senkaku islands, controlled by Japan, but also claimed by Taiwan and China. The vessel picked up all 16 passengers and crew.
(Econ, 6/21/08, p.55)
2008 Jun 11, In Japan the upper house, newly controlled by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), passed its first ever censure motion against the government.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.55)
2008 Jun 11, Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo said it would buy control of top Indian generics firm Ranbaxy for up to 4.6 billion dollars, entering the fast expanding non-branded drugs market.
(AFP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 14, In Japan G8 finance ministers said soaring oil and food prices are emerging as serious threats to global economic growth, while vowing to work together to address the problem.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 14, In northern Japan a magnitude-7.2 earthquake ripped across mountains and rice fields, killing at least 13 people as it sheared off hillsides, jolted buildings and shook nuclear power plants. 10 people remained missing.
(SFC, 6/17/08, p.A8)(AP, 6/18/08)(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jun 16, The FCX Clarity, Honda's new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car, rolled off a Japanese production line and headed to Southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 17, In Japan serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki (45), who mutilated the bodies of four young girls and reportedly drank the blood of one of his victims, was among three convicted murderers executed for crimes an official called indescribably cruel. Also executed were Shinji Mutsuda (45), who had been on death row for the murder and robbery of two people, and Yoshio Yamasaki (73), who was convicted of killing two people for the insurance money.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 18, China and Japan agreed to end a dispute over control of offshore natural gas fields and to jointly develop the fields in the East China Sea.
(SFC, 6/19/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 23, A Japanese fishing boat capsized and sank off the country's eastern coast, leaving four crew members dead and 13 missing.
(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 24, A Japanese warship steamed into a Chinese port, the first such visit since World War Two, in a military exchange aimed at putting relations between the former bitter enemies on a firmer footing.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Japan foreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations agreed on the need to step up efforts to secure Afghanistan's borders and stabilize food and oil prices to avoid a global crisis.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Japan Group of Eight (G8) powers warned they could take further action against Sudan at the UN Security Council unless it complies with demands to bring Darfur war crimes suspects to justice.
(AFP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jul 2, Japan and Middle Eastern leaders agreed on a project to bring thousands of badly needed jobs to the West Bank, voicing hope it would lay the groundwork for a Palestinian state.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 4, Japan announced it will provide $50 million in new emergency food aid to help developing countries cope with the impact of soaring food prices.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern Japan more than 1,000 people marched to protest an upcoming summit of the G8 industrialized countries. Police arrested four protesters after a brief scuffle.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Japan G8 leaders raised the prospect of more sanctions against Zimbabwe unless quick progress is made to end a political crisis after a violent election that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule. The G8 met with seven African leaders at its annual summit. African leaders urged the Group of Eight nations to tackle spiking oil and food prices. Japan included 5 “outreach" countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) for brief discussions with the G8.
(Reuters, 7/7/08)(AFP, 7/7/08)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.33)
2008 Jul 8, In Japan G8 leaders endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The G8 also agreed to impose targeted sanctions against leading Zimbabwean officials after a violent election last month that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Japan G8 leaders reiterated their commitment for doubling aid to Africa by 2010 and instituted new accountability procedures to ensure that wealthy countries fulfill their promises of aid there. They also agreed to combat global warming but developing nations declined o endorse emissions targets.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A7)(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 13, Thousands of Japanese rallied against the permanent basing of the nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier near Tokyo, saying a recent onboard fire made it unsafe.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 14, South Korea said it will recall its ambassador from Japan over a rekindled debate about disputed islands between the countries, as the new Seoul government seeks to lift its sagging popularity at home with an appeal to nationalism.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 15, Fishermen across Japan went on a massive one-day strike to protest skyrocketing fuel prices, the latest blow to the country's foundering fishing industry.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 28, In central Japan 4 people died after being swept away in torrential rains that caused floods and mudslides and prompted an evacuation order for 50,000 people.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul, Japan for the first time exported more to China this month than to America. Japan’s public sector debt stood at 170% of GDP, the highest among the big rich economies.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.87)
2008 Aug 5, In Japan 4 people were missing after being washed away by a surge of sewage water while working in a manhole in downtown Tokyo.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over 200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, A new US Embassy report released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the USS Houston submarine was already leaking during nine earlier port calls in Japan and the amount of radiation leaked was larger than initially reported. It "has been steadily leaking a small amount" of radiation from June 2006 to July 2008 when it entered a drydock in Hawaii.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 10, Japan's Masato Uchishiba has won his second straight Olympic gold medal, pinning France's Benjamin Darbelet just seconds into their final match in the men's 66-kilogram division and bringing Japan its first judo gold of the Beijing Games.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 21, Armed pirates hijacked a Japanese chemical tanker with 19 crew, an Iranian bulk carrier with 29 crew, and a German cargo ship with a crew of 9 off Somalia's coast.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Japanese scientists said they had derived stem cells from wisdom teeth, opening another way to study deadly diseases without the ethical controversy of using embryos.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pirates fired on a Japanese-operated cargo ship off Somalia and attempted to board the vessel but failed to seize it.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 26, A UN team in Herat, Afghanistan, said it found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians, including 60 children, were killed in US-led air strikes last week. Aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some 78 houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others. Kazuya Ito (31), a Japanese aid worker, was kidnapped at gunpoint with his driver near Jalalabad. Ito was found killed the next day. A group of Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district of Helmand province, sparking a clash that killed 18 militants. An air strike killed 30 Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 8/26/08)(AP, 8/27/08)(Reuters, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 29, Central Japan was hit by heavy rains and flooding forcing the evacuation of over a million people. At least one person was killed and several more were missing.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A1)(http://english.pravda.ru/news/hotspots/29-08-2008/106251-japan_flood-0)
2008 Aug 30, China’s tallest building, the 101-story, 1,614-foot Shanghai World Financial Center, opened 14 years after Minoru Mori, its Japanese developer, began the $1.13 billion project. The family owned Mori Building Co. owned 70% of the project.
(SFC, 8/29/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.B2)
2008 Sep 1, Japan's chronically unpopular PM Yasuo Fukuda (72), suddenly announced his resignation after less than a year in office, throwing the world's second-largest economy into political confusion.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Japan right-leaning former Foreign Minister Taro Aso announced that he will run for ruling party president in a move that would put him on track to take over as Japan's next prime minister.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 6, Yahoo! Japan announced support for victimized users whose Yahoo IDs were used illegally. The company admitted that its online auction site suffered a huge security breach and agreed to reimburse users who had been charged fees relating to fraudulent transactions.
(http://blog.trendmicro.com/caution-needed-jp-yahoo-auctions-site-phished/)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.76)
2008 Sep 6, In Greece the body of Amphithea Tanida (36) was found wrapped in sheets in a bathroom in her parents' villa at Amarynthos on Evia. Masami Tanida (77), a retired Japanese diplomat, and his wife Maria (67) were arrested the next day and charged with murdering their daughter.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 11, Japan said it was ending an air mission in Iraq, wrapping up a military deployment which was historic for the pacifist nation but deeply unpopular among the public.
(AFP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 16, A Japanese researcher said he has taught a beluga whale to "talk" by using sounds to identify three different objects, offering hope that humans may one day be able to hold conversations with sea mammals.
(Reuters, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, Urgently trying to keep cash flowing amid a Wall Street meltdown, the Federal Reserve pumped another $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help ease credit stresses. Late in the day the Federal Reserve agreed to a 2-year $85 billion loan to insurance giant American International Group (AIG) in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake in the form of warrants called equity participation notes. Central banks in the US, Europe and Japan pumped tens of billions into their banking systems to keep money flowing.
(AP, 9/16/08)(SFC, 9/17/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 19, Japan's agriculture minister resigned in a widening scandal over rice contaminated with mold and pesticide that was sold as food for thousands of people, including schoolchildren and nursing home patients.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 22, Brash conservative Taro Aso easily won the presidency of Japan's struggling ruling party, virtually ensuring his election as prime minister later this week amid political and economic turmoil.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 22, Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest brokerage, reached a deal to buy the Asian operations of bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in a deal valued at around $225 million.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 23, Japan’s Nomura Holdings said it will buy the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of Lehman Brothers for an undisclosed sum.
(AFP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 24, Taro Aso (68), former foreign minister and flamboyant conservative of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), took charge as Japan's new prime minister, pledging to work for a "cheerful" nation by reviving an economy in the doldrums.
(AP, 9/24/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.53)(Econ, 11/1/08, p.51)
2008 Sep 29, Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ said it would take a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley at a cost of $9 billion.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/30/content_10134094.htm)
2008 Sep 29, The US Federal Reserve with the help of the ECB, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan agreed to lend banks a further $620 billion.
(Econ, 10/04/08, p.73)
2008 Oct 1, In Japan a pre-dawn fire raged through an adult video theater in the western city of Osaka, killing at least 15 people and injuring 10 others.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 8, Six central banks jolted markets by cutting interest rates together in an attempt to shore up confidence in the world's crisis-stricken financial system. The US Fed reduced its key rate from 2% to 1.5%. The Bank of England unexpectedly slashed its key lending rate by a half-point to 4.5%. The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 2.5%. China also cut its key interest rates for a second time in less than one month to 6.9%. The European Central Bank sliced its rate by half a point to 3.75%. Sweden, and Switzerland also cut rates. Earlier in a day Japan's Nikkei showed its biggest drop since the October, 1987 stock market crash. The IMF said the world economy is entering a major downturn.
(AP, 10/8/08)(AFP, 10/8/08)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.100)
2008 Oct 2, Nissan unveiled the Nuvu, a prototype for an electric city car.
(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.B2)(http://odeo.com/episodes/23832952-Nissan-NuVu-Concept-EV)
2008 Oct 9, The central banks of Taiwan and South Korea cut interest rates as Japan and others pumped more cash into the financial markets.
(WSJ, 10/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 15, Armed pirates hijacked a Japanese-operated bulk carrier with 21 Filipino crew members in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia. The ship African Sanderling was released on January 12, 2009.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 1/13/09)
2008 Oct 17, The UN added Japan, Austria, Turkey, Mexico and Uganda as members to the 10 non-permanent seats of the Security Council, replacing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 24, Tokyo and Beijing agreed to establish a hotline between their leaders to build mutual trust, as Prime Minister Taro Aso held his first meeting as Japanese leader with his Chinese counterparts.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 28, Namibia sold more than seven tons of ivory for $1.1 million, in the first legal auction of elephant tusks in nearly a decade, exclusively for Chinese and Japanese buyers.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 30, Japan unveiled a $51.5 billion stimulus package to buttress its economy against the fallout of the global financial crises.
(WSJ, 10/31/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 31, In Japan an essay by Gen. Toshio Tamogami, head of Japan’s air force, was published. He had won a competition for best essay denying Japan’s wartime role as an aggressor and sponsor of atrocities. The contest was sponsored by Toshio Motoya, the head of a hotel chain. Within hours of publication Gen. Toshio Tamogami was out of a job.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.57)
2008 Oct 31, The Leakey Foundation awarded its Leakey Prize to American primatologist Jane Goodall and Japanese scientist Toshidada Nishida for their work with chimpanzees.
(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Nov 6, Japanese researchers said they had created functioning human brain tissues from stem cells, a world first that has raised new hopes for the treatment of disease.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 10, In Japan a California-based computer scientist, a Canadian philosophy professor and a Canadian molecular biologist each received US$500,000 at an awards ceremony for this year's Kyoto Prizes for achievement in the arts and sciences.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 12, LCD makers LG Display of South Korea, Sharp of Japan, and Chunghwa Picture tubes of Taiwan pleaded guilty to US charges of price fixing and will pay fines totaling $585 million.
(WSJ, 11/13/08, p.B3)
2008 Nov 13, Vietnam's premier pledged to probe a corruption case in which Japanese businessmen have admitted bribing a Vietnamese official in the latest scandal involving a foreign aid-funded road project.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Pakistan a Japanese and an Afghan journalist were shot in the frontier city of Peshawar, the third attack on foreigners in three days. Motoki Yotsukura from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was wounded in the leg. Abdul Sami Yousafzai, was more seriously hurt. Missiles apparently fired by US unmanned aircraft in North Waziristan killed at least 12 people, including 9 militants.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AFP, 11/14/08)(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 17, The mother ship in Japan's whaling fleet left for the country's annual hunt in the Antarctic. Greenpeace anti-whaling activists vowed to disrupt the expedition once again after high-seas clashes forced an early halt last year.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Australia said it will invest millions of dollars in non-lethal whale research to show Japan that the animals do not need to be killed in order to be studied.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, US Automakers begged governments to save them amid a spreading global recession. Cash-strapped General Motors Corp. said it will sell its entire stake in Suzuki Motor Corp. for 22.37 billion yen ($230 million), the automaker's latest move to stay afloat while awaiting a decision on government aid for the industry.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Japan Takehiko Yamaguchi (66) and his wife Michiko (61) were found dead near the doorway of their home in Saitama, just outside Tokyo. Evidence showed the pair had been stabbed repeatedly. On Nov 22 Takeshi Koizumi (46) turned himself in to police saying that he had killed the retired vice health minister. Authorities later said they suspected the attacks were connected to the ministry's mishandling of millions of pension records, a debacle that has drawn intense ire from the public, many of whom lost their retirement funds as a result. It was later reported that Koizumi accused the ministry of killing his childhood pet dog.
(AP, 11/23/08)(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 28, Japan announced it would end its airlift operations in Iraq by the end of the year, citing security improvements and moves toward democracy in Iraq.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Dec 5, Japan approved a law that will grant citizenship to all children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers who acknowledge them, regardless of the nationality of their mothers.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 9, Sony said it is slashing 8,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its global work force, aiming to cut costs by $1.1 billion a year as an economic downturn and a stronger yen batter profits at the Japanese electronics maker.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 13, Japan, China and South Korea moved to ward off the effects of the global financial crunch at a trilateral summit in Japan, while Tokyo and Seoul criticized North Korea for stalling denuclearization talks.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 20, Militant environmental activists said they had intercepted the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters and attempted to attack one of the boats with stink bombs.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 22, Toyota Motor Corp. projected its first-ever operating loss since 1939, acknowledging that its nine-year stretch of global vehicle-sales growth had stalled. Pres. Katsuaki Watanabe projected an operating loss of $1.7 billion.
(AP, 12/22/08)(WSJ, 12/23/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 25, Japan and Vietnam signed an economic partnership pact with a promise to cut tariffs on some 92% of goods and services traded between the two nations within a decade.
(AFP, 12/25/08)
2008 The Japanese film “Departures" depicted the beauty and dignity of nokan, a Buddhist-derived ritaul cleansing ceremony for the recently deceased.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.32)
2008 Japan began allowing city residents to divert a proportion of their income to a furusato (a home town area) of their choice.
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.35)
2008 Japan’s Olympus Corp. paid a $687 advisory fee relating to the purchase of Gyrus, a British medical devices firm. The fee was over 30% of the purchase price. In 2011 the company confessed that the deals were designed to hide losses on securities dating back to the 1990s.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.74)
2009 Jan 3, Bitcoin, the “world’s first decentralized digital currency" was introduced. It was devised in 2008 by programmer Satoshi Nakomoto (thought not to be the person’s real name). It was run by a peer-to-per network and limited to 21 million coins. Nakamoto mined the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins. By 2013 the leading exchange was Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based firm.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin)(Econ, 6/18/11, p.83)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.69)
2009 Jan 20, In Japan Toyota tapped Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, as president, paying homage to its roots at a time when the company faces its first operating loss in 70 years.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, GM reported an 11% drop in 2008 vehicle sales, relinquishing its crown as the world’s biggest auto maker to Toyota after 77 years.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.B3)
2009 Jan 22, Asian economic gloom worsened when China said growth plunged in the final quarter of 2008 while Japan said exports fell at a record pace in December amid weakening Western consumer demand.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 23, Japan’s space agency (JAXA) launched Ibuki (breath), the first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. Officials hoped to gather information on climate change and help the country compete in the lucrative satellite-launching business.
(AP, 1/23/09)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.90)
2009 Jan 27, Japan announced a $16.7 billion stimulus package to help businesses that have en decimated by the global financial crisis.
(www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/timeline/Credit_Crisis_Timeline.pdf)
2009 Jan 27, Japan’s No. 38 Yoshi Maru fishing boat was seized by Russian authorities in waters between the two countries and was taken to the Russian port of Nakhodka. On Feb 7 Russian authorities released all 10 Japanese crew members seized after allegedly straying into Russian waters.
(AFP, 1/28/09)(AP, 2/7/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan's defense minister ordered the dispatch of ships to fight pirates off the shores of Somalia, joining other countries in the battle against the outlaws.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan’s territorial row with Russia was re-ignited as Japan announced that it had cancelled humanitarian aid to the four disputed Russian-held islands, north of Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido, following new Russian demand that a disembarkation card be submitted in addition to the usual procedures.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe signed a partnership accord with Iraq, on a rare visit to the country for a senior leader of the close US ally.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 29, Japan hanged four convicted murderers, carrying out the country's first executions of the year despite international criticism.
(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Feb 2, A volcano near Tokyo erupted, shooting up billowing smoke and showering parts of the capital with a fine ash that sent some city residents to the car wash and left others puzzled over the white powder they initially mistook for snow.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 9, Nissan said it is slashing 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force, to cope with what Japan's third-largest automaker expects will be its first annual loss in nine years.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, Scientists in Japan reported that they have identified an enzyme which appears to suppress breast cancer and they hope the finding will spur new therapies to control the second most common cancer in the world.
(Reuters, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 16, Japan warned it was in the deepest economic crisis since World War II, after Asia's biggest economy suffered its worst contraction in almost 35 years.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched her Asia tour in Japan calling US-Pacific ties "indispensable" for curbing problems like climate change, the global financial crisis and nuclear weapons.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, Japan's Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa abruptly resigned over allegations he made a drunken appearance at a G-7 news conference, shaking PM Taro Aso's already deeply unpopular government. On Oct 4 Nakagawa (56) was found dead in his home. Police ruled out foul play.
(AP, 2/17/09)(AP, 10/4/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Japan US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned North Korea against following through on a threatened missile launch, saying it would damage its prospects for improved relations with the United States and the world. Clinton also signed an agreement with Japan that will move 8,000 Marines off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to the US territory of Guam.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 18, Japanese PM Taro Aso met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on an island near disputed resource-rich maritime territory, hoping to make progress toward resolving a dispute lingering since World war II.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 23, Honda Motor Co. named Takanobu Ito (55), head of core automaking operations, as its new chief executive, in an effort to provide fresh leadership to battle a global crisis in the auto industry. He replaced Takeo Fukui (64) as CEO and president.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 24, President Barack Obama told Japanese PM Taro Aso that his nation was the cornerstone of US security policy in East Asia and America's links to the world economy.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed four US troops in the deadliest single attack on international forces this year. Japan said it will pay the salaries of Afghanistan's 80,000 police officers for six months as part of its ongoing financial support for the country.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 27, A court ordered the Japanese government to pay 5.6 billion yen ($57.7 million) to compensate people whose lives are disrupted by the noise of warplanes at a US air base on the southern island of Okinawa. The Fukuoka High Court ruling doubled the 2.8 million yen compensation awarded in 2005 to the people living around Kadena Air Base, and upheld the appeals of 5,540 residents.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 5, A political scandal in Japan widened when government figures, including an influential former premier, said they had taken money linked to a firm whose murky donations have shaken the opposition.
(AFP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 10, Two cargo ships collided off the coast of a central Japanese island, leaving 16 South Korean and Indonesian crew members missing.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 13, Japan said it could shoot down any threatening object falling toward its territory, after North Korea said a planned rocket launch would send it across Japanese territory.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 21, In Botswana Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone opened a development conference and warned that the global economic crisis would affect Africa for at least two years.
(AP, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 23, In Japan an MD-11 aircraft operated by FedEx crashed at Tokyo's main international airport, killing its two-member crew. Though largely retired from passenger use for economic reasons, the MD-11 aircraft is still employed for cargo transport.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 24, Prosecutors charged a top aide to Japan's opposition leader in connection with a political donations scandal, but the lawmaker said he would stay on as party chief and continue his quest to become the country's next prime minister. Ichiro Ozawa, the head of the Democratic Party of Japan, said he still believed he and his aide have not broken any laws. But he apologized for causing the concerns because of the scandal.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 6, Japan’s Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said PM Taro Aso has ordered a $100 billion stimulus plan to boost the national economy. PM Aso and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed to deepen ties in energy, investment and trade, with Japanese companies ready to participate in gas and crude production in the Latin American country.
(WSJ, 4/7/09, p.A8)(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 10, Japan renewed and strengthened sanctions against North Korea, but disagreed with the US over how the UN Security Council should censure Pyongyang for its rocket launch.
(AP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 16, Japan promised to pledge up to $1 billion in aid for cash-strapped Pakistan at a donors conference as allies pressed the country for commitments to fight an Islamist insurgency and implement economic reforms.
(Reuters, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 17, Thirty-one international donors, led by the US and Japan, pledged $5.3 billion to stabilize Pakistan's troubled economy and fight the spread of terrorism in the Islamic nation and neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/17/09)(Econ, 4/25/09, p.81)
2009 Apr 21, Japan's highest court upheld the death sentence of a woman convicted of murdering four neighbors and sickening dozens more with arsenic-laced curry more than a decade ago. A district court had convicted Masumi Hayashi (47) in 2002 of deliberately lacing a pot of curry with arsenic and serving it to neighbors at a festival in July 1998 in Wakayama city.
(AP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 22, The film “City of Life and Death," written and directed by Chuan Lu, opened in China. It depicted the 1937 Japanese assault on Nanjing.
(Econ, 5/2/09, p.43)(www.imdb.com/title/tt1124052/)
2009 Apr 27, In Japan Univ. of Wyoming professor Craig Arnold (41), an award-winning poet, was reported missing after he failed to return from a hike on the tiny island of Kuchinoerabu-jima, about 30 miles (50 km) off the coast of southern Kyushu island.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 Apr 27, America, Canada, Europe and Japan promised to cooperate on validating alternatives to using animals in medical research. An estimated 50-100 million animals were used in research annually around the world.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.18)
2009 Apr 29, The prime ministers of China and Japan pledged to lay a stronger foundation for cooperation between the historic Asian rivals amid global economic and health crises.
(AFP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, In Beijing Japan’s PM Taro Aso called for Tokyo and Beijing to unite in facing the world's environmental and economic challenges, while playing down concerns over China's military power.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 1, In Cambodia a court official said Japan has donated $4.17 million to the UN-backed genocide tribunal trying former Khmer Rouge leaders on war crimes charges, just as the troubled court was running out of funding.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 2, India's biggest drug maker Ranbaxy announced the recall of an antibiotic, on sale in the US, because of manufacturing problems, marking a new setback for the company. The Japanese-controlled company said it was voluntarily recalling all lots of nitrofurantoin capsules, an antibiotic used in the treatment of urinary tract infections.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 9, Australia and Japan joined the ranks of affected countries with confirmed H1N1 swine flu. New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm cases, reported two more for a total of seven.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 11, Ichiro Ozawa, head of Japan’s opposition DPJ, resigned following a fund raising scandal involving his main political aide.
(Econ, 5/30/09, p.42)
2009 May 14, Japan’s Sony Corp. reported its first annual net loss in 14 years and forecast a bigger loss this year, saying the pressure from sliding sales, competition in gadget prices and a strong yen was expected to continue.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 16, Japan's main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, which hopes to take control of the country in elections later this year, chose Yukio Hatoyama, the grandson of a former prime minister, as its chief.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 16, Japan said 8 high school students had tested positive for swine flu amid fears the virus was spreading in at least two cities where scores of students said they felt ill.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 18, In Japan health officials said a wave of new confirmations sent the number of H1N1 flu cases soaring to more than 120, prompting the government to order the closure of schools and the cancellation of community events.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 21, Japan’s PM Taro Aso again urged the public to stay calm as a total of 292 swine flu cases were reported, including the third in greater Tokyo, the world's largest urban area.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 28, It was reported that Japanese researchers have added genes to monkeys that cause the animals to glow under a fluorescent light, and that the new genetic attributes can pass to their offspring.
(SFC, 5/28/09, p.A9)
2009 Jun 7, China and Japan pledged to throw their combined weight behind efforts to revive the struggling world economy after talks aimed at boosting trade between the two powers.
(AFP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 19, Isamu Akasaki (80), a professor at Nagoya University in central Japan, was among the winners of this year's Kyoto Prizes. He will receive the advanced technology award for his pioneering work in the development of blue light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. Peter (72) and Rosemary Grant (72), a husband-and-wife team of biologists from Princeton University, won for their decades of research on evolution in the Galapagos Islands and will share an award of $515,000. This year's award in arts and philosophy went to French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (84).
(AP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jul 2, The UN nuclear agency's governing board (IAEA) chose Yukiya Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat as its new head. The term of the present head, Mohamed ElBaradei, ends in November.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 2, Manabu Kurita caught a 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass on Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. On Jan 8, 2010, the Florida-based International Game Fish Association credited him with tying the 77-year-old world record for catching the biggest largemouth bass.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2009 Jul 13, Japan passed a law that will allow children to receive organ transplants for the first time, reversing a ban that doomed many young patients or forced them to seek medical care abroad.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Japan 10 senior citizen climbers were found dead in the northern mountains of Hokkaido, apparently from hypothermia. Police began investigating possible negligence by the tour organizers.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 21, Japan’s PM Taro Aso dissolved the powerful lower house of the parliament and vowed his divided ruling party will make a new start in national elections next month despite forecasts it may lose the grip it has held on the nation for most of the past 55 years.
(AP, 7/21/09)
2009 Jul 21, In southern Japan torrential rains triggered floods and landslides, leaving at least six people dead and 10 others missing, including elderly residents at a nursing home.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 23, In Japan Jerry Yu (30), a US citizen who worked for a Japanese communications company in Tokyo, was found dead of probable hypothermia off a trail just below the peak of Mount Fuji. His colleague, Takeshi Nakamura (27), was found dead the next day.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 30, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata described his test of new underwear, called J-Wear, as the shuttle Endeavour prepared to come home after over 2 weeks aloft. Wakata tested the high-tech underwear for a month at a time during his 4½ months aboard the ISS.
(SFC, 7/31/09, p.A9)
2009 Aug 6, Japan's first jury trial since World War II concluded with a mixed group of citizens and professional judges convicting a man of murder and sentencing him to a tougher-than-expected 15 years in prison.
(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 10, Typhoon Etau slammed into the west coast of Japan. 13 people were killed in raging floodwaters and landslides, and 10 others were missing.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 13, In Japan a woman (23) crashed her moped when it hit a rope that was stretched across the road. She suffered a fractured skull after being thrown from her bike near western Tokyo's US Yokota Air Base. Police later arrested four children, three boys and one girl aged between 15 and 18, of US military personnel on suspicion of attempted murder.
(AFP, 12/5/09)
2009 Aug 15, Japan's PM Taro Aso expressed deep regret over the suffering his country inflicted on Asian countries during World War II in a solemn ceremony that marked the 64th anniversary of Tokyo's surrender.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 22, The West Australian town of Broome, with deep historical ties to Japan, voted to sever its sister city relationship with the Japanese village of Taiji to protest an annual dolphin slaughter near there. At an extraordinary meeting on October 13 Broome rescinded the decision, which it said was made in haste and without wide consultation, and issued an apology to the Japanese community in Broome and Taiji, their families and friends for any disrespect caused by council's resolution. But it noted that it did not condone the harvest of dolphins in Taiji, with which it forged sister-city relations in 1981.
(AP, 8/24/09)(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Aug 25, Sony Corp. unveiled a new electronic book reader for the American market, dubbed the “Daily Edition." It was scheduled to become available in December for $399 and compete with Amazon’s Kindle.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.56)
2009 Aug 30, Japan's ruling party conceded a crushing defeat as voters were poised to hand the opposition a landslide victory in nationwide elections, driven by economic anxiety and a powerful desire for change. The left-of-center Democratic Party of Japan, under Yukio Hatoyama (62), won 308 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955.
(AP, 8/30/09)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.29)
2009 Sep 1, In Japan dolphin hunting season opened in Taiji. Over the next 6 months fishermen were expected to catch about 2,300 of Japan’s annual quota of 20,000 dolphins, to be sold for meat and to aquariums.
(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.A20)
2009 Sep 3, Japan’s Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. said it is acquiring US drug maker Sepracor Inc., which makes insomnia drug Lunesta, for about $2.6 billion in an effort to expand in the US market.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 7, Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's next prime minister, vowed to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 10, The Japanese space agency successfully launched a new rocket carrying an unmanned cargo ship on a $680 million maiden voyage to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/11/09, p.A9)
2009 Sep 10, Amnesty International issued a new report saying Japan executes mentally ill prisoners, some of whom are driven insane by harsh treatment while on death row.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 10, Australia announced liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals worth up to 60 billion US dollars with Japan and South Korea, raising its status as a major energy supplier.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 16, Japan opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama took office as prime minister, naming a new Cabinet and vowing to rebuild the economy and refocus Japan's place on the world stage with his largely untested party. Japan’s debt was almost 200% of GDP. Shizuka Kamei, founder of the People’s New Party (PNP) (2005), took office as the new minister for financial and postal services.
(AP, 9/16/09)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.69)(Econ, 9/26/09, p.88)
2009 Sep 24, Japan’s Tokyo Game Show, billed as the world's largest computer entertainment fest, kicked off with hopes that depressed sales of game consoles will enjoy a holiday resurrection.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 25, Japan's new government launched an investigation into whether previous administrations entered secret security pacts with Washington, including one said to endorse US nuclear-armed ships despite a policy of barring such weapons.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 28, In China foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea pledged to deepen cooperation on non-proliferation and disarmament, as pressure grew on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
(AFP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 29, Toyota Motor Corp. issued its largest-ever US recall, involving 3.8 million vehicles. Toyota and the government warned owners to remove the mats from their vehicles that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 2, In Denmark the IOC opened a meeting hearing the cases led by government leaders and kings to win the right to stage the 2016 Olympic Games. US Pres. Obama spoke for Chicago, Japan's new PM Yukio Hatoyama spoke for Tokyo, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva spoke for Rio de Janeiro, and Spain's King Juan Carlos and PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke for Spain. Brazil won the bid.
(AFP, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 7, The first British-built Honda Jazz auto rolled off the assembly line after production was switched from Japan in a move the manufacturer hopes will end a troubled year for the factory.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 8, Typhoon Melor tore through Japan's main island, peeling roofs off houses, cutting electricity to hundreds of thousands and forcing flight cancellations before turning back toward the sea. Two men died.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 9, Japanese officials said they have obtained rights to develop platinum mines in South Africa and Botswana in a bid to ensure a stable supply of the metal. The government-backed Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC) said it has signed a contract with Discovery Metals in Australia to jointly develop nickel and platinum mines in northeast Botswana. It has also inked another deal with Canadian firm Platinum Group Metals to explore for platinum in South Africa.
(AFP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 10, Japan said it has suspended beef shipments from an American meatpacking plant after finding cattle parts banned under an agreement to prevent the spread of mad cow disease. The suspension only affected Tyson's factory in Lexington, Nebraska, one of 46 meatpacking plants approved to export beef to Japan.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 10, China, Japan and South Korea held a 3-way summit in Beijing.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.43)
2009 Oct 16, Eight countries called on Tokyo to allow divorced foreign parents access to their children living in Japan and to sign a treaty against international parental child abductions.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 19, Japan said it has caught 59 whales off Hokkaido, one short of the maximum allowed by international guidelines, under a research program that critics say is a cover for commercial whaling.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 20, Japan’s government said it would reverse the privatization of Japan Post along with its enormous banking unit. On Oct 28 the new government ousted the president of Japan Post and almost the entire board.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.50)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.73)
2009 Oct 27, The Japanese destroyer JS Kurama collided with the South Korean container ship Carina Star in the Kanmon Strait near the southern main island of Kyushu and both were engulfed in flames.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Japan it was revealed that PM Yukio Hatoyama had failed to declare some $800,000 in income from stock sales. He already faced flak for falsified fundraising reports.
(SSFC, 11/8/09, p.A10)
2009 Nov 6, Japan pledged $5.5 billion in aid over 3 years for Southeast Asia's 5 Mekong River nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam), seeking to deepen ties with the region amid growing influence from China.
(AFP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 7, In Japan a 66-year-old man was hit by a car and killed. Investigators later linked a US Army soldier to the hit-and-run accident in Okinawa. On Jan 7 Clyde Gunn (27), a staff sergeant from Oxford, Mississippi, was charged with the fatal hit-and-run.
(AP, 11/19/09)(AP, 1/7/10)
2009 Nov 10, Japan announced $5 billion in fresh aid to Afghanistan even as it plans to bring home refueling ships supporting US-led forces there. The pledge came just days before President Barack Obama arrives in Tokyo for talks that are sure to focus on the countries' military alliance.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 13, President Barack Obama met with Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama on his first major trip to Asia. He emphasized cooperation and opened with a warning to North Korea that there will be tough, unified action by the US and its Asian partners if the Koreans fail to abandon their nuclear weapons programs. Obama and Hatoyama agreed to joint efforts to realize a nuclear weapons-free world.
(AP, 11/13/09)(SFC, 11/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Nov 14, Pres. Obama spoke in Tokyo and then flew to Singapore for a 21-nation summit of Asia-Pacific leaders. In his Tokyo speech Pres. Obama declared the United States a "nation of the Pacific and reached out warmly to China, applauding Beijing's robust strides as a burgeoning economic giant.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 14, In South Korea at least ten people, including eight Japanese tourists, were killed and six others injured in a blaze at an indoor shooting range in Busan.
{South Korea, Japan}
(AFP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 16, A Yemeni security official and the Japanese Embassy said armed tribesmen have kidnapped a Japanese engineer working on the construction of a school and demanded the government release one of their imprisoned tribe members. Takeo Mashimo was released on Nov 23.
(AP, 11/17/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 19, Four whaling ships left Japan for a five-month hunt in the Southern Ocean, using a loophole in an international moratorium that allows their killing for lethal "research."
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 27, China and Japan agreed to conduct their first joint military training exercise, in the latest sign of warming ties between the Asian neighbors, long marked by mutual suspicion and spats over a range of issues.
(Reuters, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 28, Japan launched its fifth spy satellite into orbit in a bid to boost its ability to independently gather intelligence.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Vienna Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano took the helm of the UN atomic watchdog (IAEA), pledging a steady hand to steer the agency through the storm surrounding Iran's nuclear drive. Mohamed ElBaradei (67), the outgoing Egyptian chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), handed over his leadership to Yukiya Amano.
(AP, 11/30/09)(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 5, Australia welcomed a 90 billion dollar (82 billion US) deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Japanese power company in what is believed to be the country's biggest export sales contract.
(AFP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 9, Germany’s Volkswagen announced that it has agreed to pay $2.5 billion for a 19.9% stake in Suzuki, a family-owned Japanese maker of small cars and motorcycles.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.72)
2009 Dec 10, Ichiro Ozawa, Japan’s “shadow shogun," flew 645 people in 5 airplanes, including 143 members of the DPJ, to meet with China’s Premier Hu Jintao.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.75)
2009 Dec 11, Australia's PM Kevin Rudd threatened legal action against Japan if it does not stop its research whaling program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 23, Japanese whalers and militant conservationists clashed in the Antarctic Ocean over two days, with weapons including water cannon, blinding lasers and bottles of rancid acid.
(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 24, Two former aides to Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama were charged with falsifying reports of campaign contributions, dashing the promise of the leader who vowed to usher in a new, cleaner era in the country's politics. Dead and false contributors were found on the list of Hatoyama’s campaign donors.
(AP, 12/24/09)(Econ, 10/25/14, p.44)
2009 Dec 27, Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama arrived in India on a three-day visit aimed at strengthening economic and security cooperation with the emerging giant.
(AFP, 12/27/09)
2009 In Japan the first two volumes of “IQ84," a novel by Haruki Murakami, were published and a million copies were sold in a few weeks. English translations became available in 2011.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.95)
2009 Japan became the first large country to ban handheld mobile phone use while driving.
(Econ, 4/16/11, p.37)
2009 Japan’s population of 127 million was set to decline.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.50)
2009 In Japan the yakuza, the country’s organized crime groups, boasted some 84,000 members, with half as part timers. They were estimated to bring in about $21 billion annually.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Japan a robber bored a hole through the wall of jewelry shop and walked off with about 200 luxury watches worth 300 million yen ($3.2 million) in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. On Jan 7-8 three men and 3 women were arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the jewelry heist. Police suspect many of the watches were mailed from Japan to Hong Kong, with some then sent to mainland China.
(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 6, In the waters off Antarctica the trimaran Ady Gil, a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boat, had its bow sheared off and was taking on water after it was struck by the Shonan Maru 2, a Japanese whaling ship. The trimaran’s 6 crew members were safely transferred to the bob Barker, another of the Society's vessels. The Ady Gil was left to sink the next day after a tow rope snapped and the Bob Barker resumed its pursuit of the Japanese whalers.
(AP, 1/6/10)(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 13, Japanese prosecutors raided the fund-raising office of ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa over a widening money scandal, dealing a fresh blow to the troubled government.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Seattle, Washington Tohru Shigemura (71), a Japanese psychiatrist traveling the world as a big game hunter, was charged in connection with smuggling black bear gall bladders. He had pretended to be a US citizen to buy guns, which he used to kill 6 black bears in and around the Quinault Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 19, Japan Airlines filed for one of the country's largest bankruptcies ever, entering a restructuring that will shrink Asia's top carrier and its presence around the world.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 21, Toyota said it is recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the US to fix accelerator pedals with mechanical problems that could cause them to become stuck. The announcement comes just months after it recalled 4.2 million vehicles due to gas pedals that could become trapped under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 24, Japanese voters in Nago city on Okinawa island elected a mayor who opposes plans for a controversial new US air base, complicating a row with Washington over relocating troops.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 26, Toyota Motor Corp. announced it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles. Toyota said it is also suspending production at six North American car-assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1. It gave no date on when production could restart.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, Honda Motor Co. said it would recall a total 646,000 units of the Fit/Jazz and City models globally, including 140,000 in the United States. The recall was to fix a defective master switch, which could cause water to enter the power window switch and in some cases cause a fire.
(Reuters, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Japan thousands of protesters from across Japan marched in central Tokyo to protest the US military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to move a Marine base Washington considers crucial out of the country.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 31, Mexican President Felipe Calderon arrived in Japan for a three-day visit, as the countries mark 400 years of official ties.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 6, Japanese naval ships returned home at the close of an eight-year refueling mission in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in the icy waters off Antarctica — the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 7, Newspapers said Toyota will recall 300,000 Prius hybrid vehicles because of brake flaws. Toyota said that it will soon announce plans to deal with braking problems in its prized Prius hybrid amid reports it has decided to issue a recall for the latest model in Japan, a possible new embarrassment for the world's biggest automaker.
(AFP, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 9, Toyota officials went to Japan's Transport Ministry to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid. The automaker is also recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the US and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan. The total recall amounted to 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Honda Motor Co. added 378,000 US vehicles and 41,000 in Canada to its 15-month-old global recall for faulty air bags in the latest quality problem to hit a Japanese automaker. The next day 17,000 cars in Japan were added to the list.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 11, In the Antarctic Ocean Sea Shepherd protesters shot butyric acid, produced from stinking rancid butter, at Japanese whalers to try to disrupt the annual whale hunt. The activists maintained that butyric acid is nontoxic.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Antarctic waters Peter Bethune, a member of the US-based Sea Shepherd activist group, jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a Jet Ski with the stated goal of making a citizen's arrest of the ship's captain and presenting him with a $3 million bill for the destruction of a protest ship last month. The Japanese government said Bethune will be charged with trespassing and assault and tried under Japanese law.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, New US Treasury data said China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt.
(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 24, Akio Toyoda, scion of the beleaguered Toyota empire, apologized before a US House committee investigating deadly flaws that sparked the recall of 8.5 million cars.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 26, Australia warned Japan that "diplomacy comes to an end this year" on whaling, after presenting a bold plan to phase out the controversial hunts in the Southern Ocean.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, Militant anti-whalers declared an end to this season's pursuit of Japanese harpoon ships in Antarctic waters, saying it was their most successful and intensely fought campaign so far.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 7, In the US Academy Awards the film “The Hurt Locker" triumphed with six prizes and made Kathryn Bigelow the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar. Sandra Bullock won as best actress for "The Blind Side"; Jeff Bridges as best actor for "Crazy Heart"; Mo'Nique as supporting actress for "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds." The best documentary feature was won by “The Cove," an examination of a bloody dolphin hunt filmed with hidden cameras in Taiji, Japan.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 9, Japan confirmed for the first time the existence of once-secret Cold War-era pacts with the US that tacitly allowed nuclear-armed warships to enter Japanese ports in violation of Tokyo's postwar principles.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Qatar the CITES convention said consumer appetite for caviar is pushing sturgeon to the brink of extinction. Fishing nations led by Japan rejected a US backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. A proposal to ban the int’l. sale of polar bear skins also failed to pass.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A2,5)
2010 Mar 19, Japan said it will boost its aid to quake-hit Haiti to 100 million dollars as the country's foreign minister prepared to visit the impoverished Caribbean nation this weekend.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 22, Japan deported Abubakar Awudu Suraj, a Ghanaian who had lived illegally in Japan for 22 years and was married to a Japanese citizen. Suraj was forced onto a plane for Cairo and died shortly after his forced boarding.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 24, Japan’s government passed a 92 trillion yen budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Mar 27, In Turin, Italy, Mao Asada (19) of Japan toppled Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim in a triumphant season finale which saw her claim her second world title at the world figure skating championships.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 28, The Pritzker Architecture Prize was awarded to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in Sanaa Ltd. of Tokyo. Their work included NYC’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 2007.
(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 29, In Japan more than 2,000 people who suffer from a rare neurological disorder agreed to accept a settlement proposal and abandon their lawsuits against the Japanese government and the company they say made them sick by dumping mercury. Minamata disease was first diagnosed in 1956 and later was linked to the consumption of fish from southern Kyushu island's Minamata Bay, where chemical company Chisso Corp. dumped tons of mercury compounds.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 30, Japan’s government approved a plan to halt the privatization of Japan Post, the world’s biggest bank, and increased the amount of deposits it can take from a customer to 20 million yen. The government will retain a stake of over one-third, giving it veto power.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Apr 6, China said it had executed a Japanese man for drug smuggling, the first execution of a Japanese citizen since the countries established relations in 1972. Mitsunobu Akano (65) was convicted in 2008 of attempting to smuggle 2.5 kg (4.8 pounds) of drugs from China to Japan in 2006. He was executed in Liaoning province.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, Auto giants Renault, Nissan and Daimler launched a partnership to save billions of euros and accelerate sales of low-pollution electric cars.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 25, In Japan nearly 100,000 protesters attended a rally on Okinawa to demonstrate against Futenma, a US air base, in a row that is dominating Japan's national politics and souring its ties with Washington.
(AP, 4/25/10)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.46)
2010 May 7, Japanese researchers said they had found high mercury levels in residents of the dolphin-hunting town of Taiji, but no cases of related illness.
(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 16, Thousands of Japanese linked hands and encircled a Marine Corps base in Okinawa to protest its presence on the island, putting more pressure on Tokyo to resolve an impasse over the base's future.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 21, In China some 1900 workers at a Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province went on strike demanding higher pay. Monthly pay at the facility in Foshan city was about $117 per month. Similar companies paid between $292 and $365 a month. Honda announced a settlement on June 4.
(www.china.org.cn/business/2010-05/28/content_20133668.htm)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 May 28, Japan and Washington agreed to keep a contentious US Marine base in Okinawa, with PM Yukio Hatoyama highlighting the importance of the Japanese-American security alliance amid rising tension on the nearby Korean peninsula.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 28, Australia said it will challenge Japan's whale hunting in the Antarctic at the International Court of Justice, a major legal escalation in its campaign to ban the practice despite Tokyo's insistence on the right to so-called scientific whaling.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 30, In Japan a small party decided to leave PM Yukio Hatoyama's ruling coalition over his broken campaign promise to move a US Marine base off Okinawa island, as he faced calls Sunday to resign and dim prospects in upcoming elections.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 31, Australia filed an international lawsuit against Japan arguing that its whale cull does not qualify for a scientific exemption to a 1986 ban. Japan said the next day that it would staunchly defend its research hunt that kills hundreds of whales per year.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama resigned to improve his party's chances in an election next month, after his popularity plunged over his broken campaign promise to move a US Marine base.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 4, In Japan Naoto Kan (63), a straight-talking populist, was named the new prime minister. He faced a host of daunting tasks, from reviving the nation's stagnant economy to cutting back its ballooning national debt.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 11, Japan's new PM Naoto Kan pledged a fiscal policy overhaul to reduce the country's massive public debt mountain, warning of a Greece-style meltdown.
(AFP, 6/12/10)
2010 Jun 13, Japan’s Hayabusa space probe, which scientists hope contains material from the surface of an asteroid returned to Earth, landed in the remote Australian outback following a 7-year journey.
(AFP, 6/13/10)(SFC, 6/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 17, Japanese PM Naoto Kan's ruling party outlined its determination to rebuild the nation's finances and slash its deficit in its new manifesto ahead of elections next month.
(AFP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 21, The Japanese distributor for the “The Cove," a documentary about dolphin hunting in Japan, said the film would be in 6 Japanese theaters on July 3.
(SFC, 6/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 23, Japan placed Paul Watson (59), the Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a US-based anti-whaling organization, on an international wanted list for allegedly masterminding the group's disruption of Japanese whale hunts in the Antarctic Ocean.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 23, South Korean and Japanese activists floated hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon toward the border with North Korea to condemn the country's government amid tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jul 1, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said it's jumping into the battery business for electric vehicles in a development deal with Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
(AFP, 7/1/10)
2010 Jul 4, In Japan Toyota started recalling more than 90,000 luxury Lexus and Crown vehicles over defective engines.
(AP, 7/4/10)
2010 Jul 7, A Tokyo court convicted a New Zealand activist of assault and obstructing Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean, and sentenced him to a suspended prison term. Peter Bethune (45) was also found guilty on three other charges: trespassing, vandalism and possession of a knife. Bethune was deported 2 days later.
(AP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In Japan the center-left government of new PM Naoto Kan lost its majority in parliament's upper house in elections, spelling the threat of legislative paralysis.
(AFP, 7/11/10)
2010 Jul 12, In China a strike began at the Atsumitec Co. in the city of Foshan, with about 90 of the plant's 200 workers stopping work to demand a nearly 60% pay increase. The plant supplied parts for Japan's Honda Motor. On July 14 nearly all of the remaining employees joined the stoppage in response to a threat from factory management to fire the strikers.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 25, In Japan 5 people died when a rescue helicopter sent to help a party of climbers crashed in mountains near Tokyo.
(Reuters, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 27, Japan and China agreed in Tokyo to seek an early conclusion to talks over plans to jointly exploit oil and gas fields in a disputed area of the East China Sea.
(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 28, Japan hanged two convicted killers, including a man who burned six women to death, in the country's first executions in a year. The justice minister said she wants renewed debate on whether to continue the punishment.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, Japan’s Nissan said is new car models will feature air conditioners that pump breathable vitamin C and stress-reducing seats.
(AFP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, In the waters off Oman an explosion damaged an oil tanker carrying 270,000 tons of oil, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said the blast on its tanker M. Star caused one minor injury but did not cause an oil leak. Officials said the damage was caused by a freak wave. Japan's ministry said "A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (Mitsui O.S.K.) believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack." On Aug 4 an obscure al-Qaida-linked group said one of its suicide bombers attacked the Japanese oil tanker, a claim that, if true, would be the first time the terror network has attacked the Japanese. On Aug 6 the Emirates' WAM news agency quoted an unnamed government official as saying the investigation revealed traces of homemade explosives on the hull of the tanker.
(AP, 7/28/10)(Reuters, 7/28/10)(AP, 8/4/10)(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Jul 29, Toyota Motor Corp said it would recall nearly 417,000 high-end passenger cars and SUVs in the United States and Canada to fix steering problems.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 30, It was reported that China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy.
(Reuters, 7/30/10)
2010 Aug 2, In the Philippines the 2010 winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards were announced. Winners included Tadatoshi Akiba, the three-term mayor of Hiroshima, who spearheaded a global campaign for nuclear disarmament, and photographer Huo Daishan (56), who documented river pollution in his native China. The awards are considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Other awardees were physicists Christopher Bernido and wife Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines, who introduced a novel way of teaching science, and Bangladeshi A.H.M. Noman Khan, who set up service-and-training centers for helping persons with disabilities.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 6, The US for the first time attended a ceremony commemorating its atomic bombing of Hiroshima, 65 years after the Japanese city's obliteration rang in the nuclear age.
(AFP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 10, Japan apologized to South Korea for its colonial rule over the country, seeking to strengthen ties between the two countries ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 11, Toyota said it has suspended auto exports to Iran indefinitely in line with global sanctions against Tehran's nuclear program.
(AFP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 16, Mazda Motor Corp announced a recall of 215,000 Mazda 3 and Mazda 5 vehicles sold in the United States because of the risk that they could lose power steering without warning.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 24, Researchers in Japan reported the creation of a highly accurate sensor that can detect smells and gases using genetically engineered frog eggs.
(Reuters, 8/24/10)
2010 Sep 3, Japan imposed new sanctions against Iran, including an assets freeze on people and entities linked to its contentious nuclear program and tighter restrictions on financial transactions.
(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 6, A Japanese court convicted two members of Greenpeace of stealing whale meat they claim was intended for illegal consumption, giving each suspended jail terms. Junichi Sato (33) and Toru Suzuki (43) were found guilty of stealing 50 pounds (23 kg) of whale meat from a delivery service company warehouse in April 2008. The meat came from whales killed during Japan's controversial government-backed research hunts.
(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 7, A Health Ministry official said Japan has confirmed the nation's first case of a new gene in bacteria that allows the microorganisms to become drug-resistant superbugs, detected in a man who had medical treatment in India.
(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 7, A Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands. On Nov 1 Japanese lawmakers said a coast guard video shows a Chinese trawler intentionally ramming Japanese vessels in the incident, which sparked the worst row in years between the Asian powers.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Sep 8, Diplomatic tensions between China and Japan escalated when Beijing called in Japan's ambassador for a second time after a Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 11, Japan launched a rocket carrying a satellite intended to improve global positioning systems.
(AFP, 9/11/10)
2010 Sep 13, Japan freed 14 crew members of a Chinese fishing ship nearly a week after their vessel and two Japanese patrol boats collided near disputed southern islets. But China lashed out at Tokyo's decision to keep the captain in custody.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 17, Japan's PM Naoto Kan named a new cabinet, including a hawkish foreign minister to handle an escalating row with China.
(AFP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 18, In China protesters in several cities marked a politically sensitive anniversary, the start of a brutal Japanese invasion in 1931, with anti-Japan chants and banners, as authorities tried to stop anger over a diplomatic spat between the Asian giants from getting out of control.
(AP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, China said it has suspended high-level contacts with Japan over the extended detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain arrested after a Sep 7 collision near disputed islands.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 22, San Francisco’s Recurrent Energy said it has agreed to be purchased by Sharp Corp., Japan’s biggest solar panel manufacturer for as much as $305 million.
(SFC, 9/23/10, p.D1)
2010 Sep 23, China detained four Japanese citizens for allegedly videotaping at a military installation in Hebei province. 3 of the men were released on Sep 30. The 4th was held as investigations continued. The 4th Japanese contractor was freed on Oct 9.
(SFC, 10/1/10, p.A4)(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Sep 24, Japan said it would free Zhan Qixiong (41), a Chinese fishing boat captain, whose arrest in disputed waters over two weeks ago sparked the worst row in years between the Asian giants.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 25, Japan refused to apologize for detaining a Chinese boat captain, showing no signs of softening in a dispute between the two economic powers after Japan gave ground and released him. China made a second call for an apology and compensation from Tokyo, demanding "practical steps" to resolve the diplomatic row.
(Reuters, 9/25/10)(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 30, Japanese researchers said they had developed a hybrid vehicle motor that is free of rare earths, the minerals that are now almost exclusively produced by China.
(AFP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 4, Japan issued a travel alert for Europe, joining the United States and Britain in warning of a possible terrorist attack by al-Qaida or other groups, but tourists appeared to be taking the mounting warnings in stride.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 4, Tokyo-based Toshiba unveiled the world's first high definition liquid crystal display 3-D television that does not require special glasses, one of the biggest consumer complaints about the technology.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 6, An American and two Japanese scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for finding new ways to bond carbon atoms together, methods now widely used to make medicines and in agriculture and electronics. Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki were honored for their development in the 1960s and '70s of one of the most sophisticated tools available to chemists today, called palladium-catalyzed cross coupling.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Japan residents of Taiji village, notorious for the dolphin hunt documented in the film "The Cove," slaughtered a pod of dolphins but spared the youngest animals.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 16, Thousands of Chinese marched in the streets in sometimes violent protests against Japan and its claim to disputed islands. Thousands of protesters marched through Tokyo to demonstrate against what they called China's invasion of disputed islands that both countries claim. Beijing expressed "deep concern" at anti-China protests by Japanese nationalists over a diplomatic spat centered on a group of disputed islands.
(AP, 10/16/10)(Reuters, 10/16/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said Germany will help Japan gain access to vital rare earth minerals which are being withheld by China in a territorial dispute.
(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 21, Toyota said it is recalling 1.53 million Lexus, Avalon and other models, mostly in the US and Japan, for brake fluid and fuel pump problems, the latest in a string of quality lapses for the world's No. 1 automaker.
(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 25, The leaders of India and Japan signed a broad agreement in Japan aimed at increasing trade and agreed to speed up talks toward a civilian nuclear energy deal despite sensitivity in Japan over India's past atomic test blasts. PM Naoto Kan and PM Manmohan Singh also agreed to speed up talks toward a civilian nuclear cooperation deal that would allow Japanese companies to export nuclear power generation technology and equipment to India.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 27, Japan offered $2 billion in aid to help developing nations reach species-preserving goals that are being debated at a UN conference, a move that could jolt the stalled talks forward.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 29, A feud between China and Japan deepened at the East Asian Summit in Vietnam, as China accused its rival of making false comments and hopes for landmark talks between their leaders evaporated.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Japan representatives to a UN conference on biodiversity agreed to expand protected areas on land and at sea in the hopes of slowing the rate of extinction of the world’s animals and plant. Scientists have estimated that the Earth is losing species at 100 to 1,000 times the historical average.
(SFC, 10/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 31, Japan’s PM Naoto Kan said Vietnam has chosen Japan as a partner to mine rare earth metals and develop nuclear power.
(SFC, 11/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 1, Russia's Pres. Medvedev visited Kunashiri Island in the Pacific Ocean claimed by both Russia and Japan, triggering immediate protests from Tokyo, which is already involved in a heated dispute with China over islands to the south.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 2, Russia said Pres. Medvedev planned more trips to a group of islands seized by the Soviet Union from Japan at the end of World War Two, deepening a serious rift with Tokyo.
(Reuters, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 13, In Japan thousands of demonstrators waving Japanese flags and shouting anti-China slogans marched against Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit for an economic summit that comes as a territorial dispute strains ties between the Asian giants.
(AP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 13, Japan's PM Naoto Kan strongly protested Russian Pres. Medvedev's Nov 1 visit to the disputed island of Kunashiri and said in a meeting on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim leaders' conference that the two nations must build mutual trust. Pres. Obama attended the 2-day APEC summit in Yokohama.
(AP, 11/13/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.48)
2010 Nov 14, Japan and Peru said they have reached an agreement on a free-trade deal. The 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group ended their summit in Japan with pledges to press ahead with moves toward freer trade, with an eventual goal of a region-wide free trade zone.
(AFP, 11/14/10)(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 23, Australia promised to be a future long-tem supplier of rare earths to Japan, after China suspended shipments of the minerals to its neighbor.
(Reuters, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 26, The Japanese parliament passed an extra budget worth 58 billion dollars to cover a new stimulus package aimed at averting the threat of a "double-dip" recession.
(AFP, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 28, In Japan the governor of Okinawa island was reelected and immediately called for the removal of a controversial US military base which has strained ties between Tokyo and Washington.
(AFP, 11/28/10)
2010 Dec 6, The US, South Korea and Japan all urged China to help rein in its ally North Korea and vowed solidarity in defending Seoul from any further attacks from the North.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 8, Japan’s space agency said its “Akatsuki" space probe has hurtled past Venus after failing to enter the planet's orbit as planned, but it voiced hope for a successful rendezvous six years from now.
(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 9, In Japan the 3rd International Pole Dancing Championships concluded. The competition was held in a large arena near the Tokyo Dome, the Japanese capital's main sports stadium, with competitors from countries ranging from Malaysia to Moldova. Japan's Mai Sato defended her title as the women's champion, and Duncan West of Australia won in men's. This year also had a disabled division, which was won by hearing-impaired Eri Kamimoto of Japan.
(AP, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 13, The Oriental Rose, Japanese-operated chemical tanker, was strafed by gunfire from an unidentified vessel off the Somali coast slightly wounding two crew members.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 15, In Japan the city of Tokyo restricted the sale of manga comics and anime films with extreme depictions of rape, incest and other sex crimes, despite industry charges of censorship.
(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, India's Hero Group said it was ending a 26-year-old joint venture with Honda Motor and buying out the Japanese firm's stake in the biggest Indian motorcycle manufacturer by sales.
(AFP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 21, Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay the US government a record $32.4 million in additional fines to settle an investigation into its handling of two recalls at the heart of its safety crisis. The latest settlement, on top of a $16.4 million fine Toyota paid earlier in a related investigation, brought the total penalties levied on the company to $48.8 million.
(AP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 28, Japan postponed the creation of a greenhouse gas emission trading system by a year until after April 2014 in the face of strong resistance from the business lobby.
(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Jeff Kingston authored “Contemporary Japan: History, Politics and Social Change Since the 1980s."
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.68)
2010 Kosuke Motani authored “The Real Face of Deflation," in which he argued that deflation in Japan is a structural problem linked to bad business decisions and demography.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.85)
2010 Japan’s new capital could be built by this time.
(WSJ, 9/24/96, p.B12)
2010 Japan’s nominal GDP of $5.474 trillion in 2010 put it behind China's $5.879 trillion. China first eclipsed Japan in the second quarter.
(AP, 2/14/11)
2010 Japan extended its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) to cover a Japanese-held island claimed by Taiwan.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.34)
2010 Japan’s population was about 127 million. Some 2 million foreigners lived there legally. It was expected to fall to around 100 million by 2050.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.49)(Econ, 7/17/10, p.68)
2011 Jan 1, Japan said it has logged 1.19 million deaths in 2010, the biggest number since 1947 when the health ministry's annual records began. As a result the population contracted by 123,000 people, which was the most ever and the fourth consecutive year of decline.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Japanese whalers shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists, hours after the activists tracked down the hunting fleet in the remote and icy seas off Antarctica.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 5, In Japan a giant bluefin tuna fetched a record 32.49 million yen, or nearly $396,000, in Tokyo, in the first auction of the year at the world's largest wholesale fish market.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 11, Japan said it plans to buy at least a fifth of the initial installment of the bonds being sold to finance Europe's bailout fund, which is aimed at rescuing Ireland.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 17, Japanese researchers said they will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 22, A Japanese rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station lifted off from a remote island on a mission designed to help fill a hole left by the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 26, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. said it was recalling a wide range of models, including the IS and GS Lexus luxury models in North America and the Avensis sedan and station wagon models in Europe for various defects that may cause fuel leakage.
(AP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 27, Standard & Poor's cut Japan's credit rating for the first time since 2002, saying Tokyo had no plan to deal with its mounting debt, a warning that could rattle other heavily indebted rich countries.
(Reuters, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 28, In Cambodia a tribunal statement said Japan has agreed to make a contribution of $11.7 million to the UN-assisted genocide tribunal that is trying former leaders of Cambodia's communist Khmer Rouge. Japan has provided a total of about $67 million to the tribunal, about 49 percent of all contributions.
(AP, 1/28/11)
2011 Jan 31, Japanese ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa was charged over a funding scandal, adding to PM Naoto Kan's woes as he struggles to survive in the face of a divided parliament and sagging support.
(Reuters, 1/31/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Japan a proposed merger was announced between Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, and rival Sumitomo Metals.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.76)
2011 Feb 7, Japan's PM Naoto Kan led a large rally demanding the return of the southern Kuril islands held by Russia since the end of World War II and calling the recent visit there by Russia's president an outrage. Japan has designated Feb. 7 as "Northern Territories Day," saying that a treaty dating back to that day in 1855 supports its claim to the islands.
(AP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 9, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made it clear he will not give up the southern Kuril islands to Japan. In fact, he said Russia will send more weapons to the disputed islands to keep them secure.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 14, A group of Japanese citizens filed a lawsuit challenging a civil law that effectively stops women from keeping their surnames when they marry.
(AP, 2/14/11)
2011 Feb 15, Japanese police sought charges against two senior sumo wrestlers in an alleged gambling scam.
(AP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 16, A government official said Japan, as of Feb 10, has temporarily suspended its annual Antarctic whaling after repeated harassment by a conservationist group.
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 24, In Japan the world's first robot marathon kicked off in Osaka, with five two-legged participants racing on an indoor track. The race was expected to last through Feb 27.
(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 24, Toyota Motor Corp. recalled 2.17 million vehicles in the United States to address accelerator pedals that could become entrapped in floor mats or jammed in driver's side carpeting, prompting federal regulators to close its investigation into the embattled automaker.
(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Japan Nintendo's latest game machine, offering glasses-free 3-D images, went on sale ahead of a global rollout. Analysts said it promises to be the world's first 3-D mass-market product.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Mar 3, Japanese researchers said they have developed a human-shaped mobile phone with a skin-like outer layer that enables users to feel closer to those on the other end.
(AFP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 6, Japan's foreign minister Seiji Maehara suddenly quit for having accepted a political donation from a foreigner, a violation of Japanese law, dealing another blow to the embattled administration of PM Naoto Kan.
(AP, 3/6/11)(SFC, 3/7/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 7, Japan's health ministry halted the use of vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and Sanofi-Aventis SA that prevent meningitis and pneumonia following the recent deaths of four children. The deaths happened between March 2 and March 4.
(Reuters, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 7, Ten Japanese companies said they plan to install electric vehicle chargers at the sites of beverage vending machines across Japan in a cost-cutting tie-up.
(AFP, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 9, Japan's center-left government named as its new foreign minister Takeaki Matsumoto, who hails from a powerful political family but faces tricky relations with the US, China and Russia.
(AFP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 11, A ferocious tsunami spawned by an 8.9 earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, slammed Japan's eastern coast, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control. At least 574 people were killed including 74 elementary school students and 10 teachers at the Okawa primary school. Estimates put the toll as high as 1300. At least 10,000 people were missing. Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of the earthquake. The quake (the fourth-largest recorded since 1900) was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet. The disaster, which became known as 3/11, killed 180 villagers at Ukedo. It killed 15,856 people and left another 2,643 missing.
(AP, 3/11/11)(AP, 3/12/11)(http://tinyurl.com/5sphrbr)(SFC, 1/25/12, p.A3)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.35)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)(Econ, 1/18/14, p.81)
2011 Mar 12, In Japan an explosion at the the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station destroyed a building housing the reactor, but a radiation leak was decreasing despite fears of a meltdown from damage caused by a powerful earthquake and tsunami. Japanese nuclear agency spokesman Shinji Kinjo acknowledged there were still fears of a meltdown.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 13, People across a devastated swath of Japan suffered for a third day without water, electricity and proper food, as the country grappled with the enormity of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than 10,000 people dead in one area alone. Japanese officials raised their estimate of the quake's magnitude to 9.0. Japan also fought to avert a meltdown at three earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors.
(AP, 3/13/11)(Reuters, 3/13/11)
2011 Mar 14, In Japan a second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, devastating the structure housing one reactor and injuring 11 workers. Water levels dropped precipitously at another reactor, completely exposing the fuel rods and raising the threat of a meltdown.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 15, Japan faced a potential catastrophe after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.
(Reuters, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 16, Japanese emergency workers forced to retreat from the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant when radiation levels soared prepared to return tonight after emissions dropped to safer levels. Japan's national news agency, Kyodo, said that 33 percent of the fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were damaged and that the cores of both reactors were believed to have partially melted. Nearly 3,700 people were officially listed as dead. Officials believed the toll will climb over 10,000 since several thousand more were listed as missing.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 17, Japan tried high-pressure water cannons, fire trucks and even helicopters that dropped batches of seawater in increasingly frantic attempts to cool an overheated nuclear complex as US officials warned the situation was deteriorating. More than 5,300 people were officially listed as dead, but officials believed the toll will climb to well over 10,000.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 18, The Japanese government acknowledged that it was overwhelmed by the scale of last week's twin natural disasters. The earthquake and tsunami has now officially left more than 6,900 dead and more than 10,700 missing. Japanese engineers conceded that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release. Authorities raised the rating of the nuclear crisis to a Level 5 from a Level 4 on a seven-point international scale. Radiation at the crippled Fukushima No.2 nuclear reactor was recorded at 500 microsieverts per hour.
(AP, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 18, The US Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada confirmed that they had intervened to cool the soaring yen, in concert with other G7 central banks.
(AFP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 19, One of Japan's six tsunami-crippled nuclear reactors appeared to stabilize but the country suffered another blow after discovering traces of radiation in food and water from near the stricken power plant. Crews fighting to cool reactors managed to connect a power line. Japan halted sales of food products near Fukushima because of contamination by a radioactive element which can pose a short-term health risk. Japan's police agency said 7,348 are dead and 10,947 are missing after last week's earthquake and tsunami.
(AP, 3/19/11)(AFP, 3/19/11)(Reuters, 3/19/11)
2011 Mar 20, Japan’s ministry official Yoshifumi Kaji said that tests found excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens, in addition to spinach. He said the areas where the tainted produce was found included three prefectures that previously had not recorded such contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company said two of the six reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage pools cooled down. The toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst natural disaster in almost a century neared 21,000.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 21, In Japan gray smoke rose from two reactor units, temporarily stalling critical work to reconnect power lines and restore cooling systems to stabilize the Fukushima radiation-leaking nuclear complex. Police officials estimated that the toll from the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami will exceed 18,000 deaths.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 22, Japanese crews connected all six reactors at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant to the electrical grid, a day after smoke triggered an evacuation from the facility. But the plant's operator cautioned that pumps, motors and other equipment must be checked before the power can be turned on. It's likely to be days or weeks before cooling systems can resume functioning. A Japanese nuclear safety official said a pool for storing spent fuel at the crippled nuclear plant is heating up, with temperatures around the boiling point. Police said nearly 9,100 people are dead after an earthquake and tsunami with almost 13,800 are missing.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, Japan said the cost of rebuilding the country after its biggest recorded earthquake could be as much as 25 trillion yen ($309 billion). A spike in radiation levels in Tokyo tap water, twice the level acceptable for infants, spurred new fears about food safety. Rising smoke forced another evacuation of workers trying to stabilize the Fukushima nuclear plant. Police said nearly 9,500 people are dead after an earthquake and tsunami with over 16,000 still missing.
(AFP, 3/23/11)(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 25, Japanese officials said a suspected breach in Unit 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, as PM Naoto Kan called the country's ongoing fight to stabilize the plant "very grave and serious." The official death toll jumped past 10,000. With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing and more than 17,400 listed as missing, the final number of dead was expected to surpass 18,000.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 26, Japanese officials said radiation levels have surged in seawater near the tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Fukushima, as engineers battled to stabilize the plant in hazardous conditions.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 27, In Japan emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity, a spike that officials later apologetically said was inaccurate. Police said the death toll from earthquake and tsunami stood at 10,668, with more than 16,574 people missing. Hundreds of thousands of people remained homeless.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 28, In Japan power company officials said plutonium has been detected in 5 locations in the soil outside of the stricken Fukushima nuclear complex. A TEPCO official said the amounts were very small and were not a risk to public health. TEPCO said highly radioactive water has leaked from the reactor. Environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.
(AP, 3/28/11)(Reuters, 3/28/11)
2011 Mar 30, Japan weighed a series of creative solutions to its unfolding nuclear disaster, from draping reactors with special fabric to sending in military robots to do the risky work. TEPCO said 4 of the 6 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants were damaged beyond repair. UN nuclear agency officials said that readings outside the exclusion zone of the Japan nuclear disaster showed radiation exceeding recommended evacuation levels by the agency.
(AP, 3/30/11)(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 31, Japan said that its crisis-hit nuclear plant must be scrapped, but currently had no plans to evacuate more people, despite calls for a larger exclusion zone around the crippled facility.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, In Japan highly radioactive water spilled into the ocean from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex as PM Naoto Kan surveyed the damage in a town gutted by the wave.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, Workers at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant struggled to stop a radioactive water leak into the Pacific, as the government warned the facility may spread contamination for months. TEPCO workers used a polymer and even newspapers to try to close off pipes through which the water has flowed into a cracked concrete pit, from where it has run into the sea. An earlier attempt to seal the crack with cement failed to stop the leak.
(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 4, Japanese engineers were forced to release radioactive water into the sea while resorting to desperate measures to try to find the source of leaks at a crippled Fukushima nuclear power complex hit by a tsunami on March 11. Tokyo Electric Power said it had found radioactive iodine-131 at 7.5 million times the legal limit in seawater near the facility. Biologists admitted that the contamination could eventually find its way into the ocean food chain.
(Reuters, 4/4/11)(SFC, 4/6/11, p.A3)(SFC, 4/6/11, p.A1)
2011 Apr 4, BP said that it has agreed to sell its ARCO Aluminum unit to a Japanese consortium for $680 million ($421 million) as it seeks to meet the costs of last year's disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
(AFP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 5, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, said it had reduced the flow of highly radioactive water out of a reactor. The government set its first radiation safety standards for fish after the nuclear plant reported radioactive contamination in nearby seawater measuring at several million times the legal limit.
(Reuters, 4/5/11)(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 6, In Japan workers halted a leak of highly radioactive water into the ocean that had raised concerns about the safety of seafood. Officials did not rule out the chance of contaminated water still leaking into the sea from other points. Engineers prepared to inject nitrogen into containment vessels around the cores to deter any hydrogen explosions.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 7, Japan was rattled by a strong 7.1 magnitude aftershock and tsunami warning nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast. At least 4 people died in the aftershock, the worst since the March 11 9.0 quake.
(AP, 4/7/11)(AFP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 11, In Japan a strong 7.0 earthquake rattled the northeast as the government urged more people living near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 11, Australia fined Japan Airlines (JAL) Aus$5.5 million (US$5.8 million) after the carrier admitted its role in a long-running cargo cartel case involving 15 airlines. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said JAL admitted to "making and giving effect to illegal price-fixing understandings with other international airlines" on fuel, insurance and security surcharges.
(AFP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 12, Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater. Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7, the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents.
(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 12, In Japan a powerful 6.0 earthquake struck near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, shaking buildings in Tokyo. No tsunami warning was issued and no damage immediately reported.
(AFP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 13, Japan's government downgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months to reflect last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Wholesale prices rose at the fastest pace in more than two years in an ominous sign for company profit margins.
(Reuters, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 15, Japan's government ordered the embattled operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to offer payouts to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the ongoing crisis.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 16, TEPCO, the Japanese operator of a stricken nuclear plant, said it has started dumping a mineral into the sea that absorbs radioactive substances, aiming to slow down contamination of the ocean.
(AFP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 16, A strong earthquake of magnitude 5.8 hit central Japan.
(AP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 16, A Qatari state-controlled gas producer said it has agreed to send Japan more than 60 extra tanker shipments of liquefied natural gas to help power the Asian nation in the wake of its tsunami disaster.
(AP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 17, TEPCO, the operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant, laid out a blueprint for stopping radiation leaks and stabilizing damaged reactors within the next six to nine months as a first step toward allowing some of the tens of thousands of evacuees to return to the area.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 18, In Japan a pair of thin robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor came back with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 21, A group of Japanese internet service providers started blocking access to child porn websites as part of efforts to crack down on the spread of sexually explicit images of children.
(AFP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 22, Japan announced a $49 billion special budget for areas devastated by last month's quake and tsunami and said it would extend an evacuation zone around a nuclear plant crippled by the disaster.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 23, In Japan former Sony president Norio Ohga (81), died. He served as president from 1982 to 1995 and led the evolution of the electronics manufacturer into a global entertainment empire covering music, movies and computer games. Ohga helped transform the music industry with the development of the compact disc format (1982).
(AFP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 24, In Japan thousands of people marched in Tokyo to demand an end to nuclear power and a switch to alternative energy after the crisis at an atomic plant hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
(AFP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 25, Japan sent nearly 25,000 soldiers to recover bodies killed in last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Some 14,300 were confirmed dead with 12,000 still missing.
(SFC, 4/25/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 26, Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony unveiled its first tablet computers, codenamed S1 and S2, in a direct but belated challenge to Apple's iPad.
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 27, Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on Japan's sovereign debt following last month's quake-tsunami disaster and warned that reconstruction costs could pass $600 billion.
(AFP, 4/27/11)
2011 Apr 29, In Japan senior nuclear advisor Toshiso Kosako resigned saying the government was not adequately protecting the public from radiation.
(SSFC, 5/1/11, p.A7)
2011 May 1, In Japan Sony executives bowed in apology for a security breach in the company's PlayStation Network that caused the loss of personal data of some 77 million accounts on the online service. Sony suspected it was under attack by hackers starting April 17.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 2, Japan's parliament passed a $48 billion tsunami recovery budget that will only start to cover the cost of what was the most expensive disaster ever.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 3, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper said Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has decided to buy Japan's third-largest generic drug company Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry for about $500 million.
(AFP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 4, New computer modeling showed that Japan's many language variants descended from a common ancestor some 2,182 years ago -- coinciding with the major wave of migration from the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 6, Japan's PM Naoto Kan ordered the suspension of operations at an ageing nuclear power plant southwest of Tokyo because it is located close to a dangerous tectonic faultline.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 7, In Japan thousands of people rallied to demand a shift away from nuclear power after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl a quarter-century ago.
(AFP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 9, The operator of Japan's ageing Hamaoka nuclear plant, located near a tectonic faultline southwest of Tokyo, said it would temporarily shut down its last two running reactors.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, Japan’s PM Naoto Kan said Japan will scrap a plan to obtain half of its electricity from nuclear power and will instead promote renewable energy and conservation as a result of its ongoing nuclear crisis. The president of TEPCO submitted a request for Japanese government aid in compensating those affected by its stricken nuclear power plant, as the utility said it faced funding problems.
(AP, 5/10/11)(AFP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 11, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, said it accepted the government-set reorganization plan. TEPCO agreed to drastic restructuring and cost-cutting in exchange for a government plan to support the company in its obligations to compensate people affected by the crisis. The government planned to inject about $62 billion into a fund to help TEPCO compensate victims.
(AP, 5/11/11)(Reuters, 5/11/11)
2011 May 12, In Japan TEPCO officials said one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has been damaged more severely than originally thought, a serious setback for efforts to stabilize the radiation-leaking complex.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 13, Japan announced a plan to help Tokyo Electric Power compensate victims of the crisis at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant without going broke while it struggles to resolve the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
(Reuters, 5/13/11)
2011 May 14, Japan shut down the final working reactor at a nuclear plant near a tectonic faultline as PM Naoto Kan pledged a new law to help compensate victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. A worker at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant died, bringing the death toll at the complex to 3 since a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.
(AFP, 5/14/11)(Reuters, 5/14/11)
2011 May 15, Japan started the first evacuations of homes outside the 20-km government exclusion zone radius from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled one of the country's nuclear power plants.
(AFP, 5/15/11)
2011 May 19, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said it will buy Switzerland's Nycomed for $13.6 billion, giving Japan's biggest drugmaker coveted access to emerging markets.
(AP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 20, Japan's Cabinet approved a plan to join a global child custody treaty, amid foreign pressure on Tokyo to revise policies some say allow Japanese mothers to too easily take their children away from foreign fathers.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, Japan's Tokyo Electric Power posted a record $15 billion loss and Masataka Shimizu, its under-fire president, resigned to take responsibility for the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.
(AFP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, BP said that it had recovered more than $1.0 billion in costs linked to last year's devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill from a US subsidiary of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. MOEX USA Corporation held a 10-percent stake in the Macondo well project.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 21, The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea travelled to Fukushima in a show of solidarity over the ongoing nuclear crisis, visiting evacuees left homeless by the quake and tsunami.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, In Japan the leaders of China and South Korea agreed to bolster efforts to aid disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami nuclear crisis.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 23, In Japan furious parents at the center of the atomic crisis and hundreds of their supporters rallied in Tokyo against revised nuclear safety standards in schools they say are putting children at risk. A new limit allowed exposure of up to 20 millisieverts a year, 20 times the radiation that was permissible before the March 11 tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, In Japan major international mission to investigate the flooded, radiation-leaking nuclear complex began as new information suggested that nuclear fuel had mostly melted in two more reactors in the early days after the March 11 tsunami.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 24, Japan’s Sony Corp. said it discovered a security breach affecting 8,500 user accounts in a music entertainment website in Greece that comes on the heels of a hacker attack which forced its flagship gaming site offline.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 26, Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, detailed a new leak of radioactive water as Greenpeace slammed the country's "inadequate response" to a growing threat to sea water and health.
(Reuters, 5/26/11)
2011 May 27, Japan's PM Naoto Kan used a G8 summit in France to reassure Tokyo's most powerful allies that his country would learn the lessons of its nuclear disaster and recover fully.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, Japan and the EU agreed at a summit meeting to begin negotiations on a free trade agreement that would deepen economic ties between two of the world's largest economies. As a bloc, the EU is the world's largest economy; Japan is number four.
(AP, 5/28/11)
2011 May 30, European anti-trust regulators launched in-depth probes into proposed US takeovers of South Korean and Japanese businesses manufacturing computer hard disk drives (HDD). The planned acquisitions of the hard disk drive operations of South Korean electronics giant Samsung by Seagate Technology, and the storage business of Japan's Hitachi by Western Digital Corporation in a sector with just five manufacturers worldwide have raised concerns. Brussels officials have until October 10 to decide what action if any they will take.
(AFP, 5/30/11)
2011 May 31, In northeastern Japan an oil spill and a small explosion caused limited damage, but no further radiation leaks. TEPCO said damage to a gas cylinder caused a loud noise outside a reactor building at the Fukushima nuclear plant as rubble was being cleared away.
(AP, 5/31/11)(Reuters, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 4, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that Japan has frozen $4.4 billion in assets belonging to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and his entourage under the terms of a UN Security Council resolution.
(AFP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 11, In Japan protesters held mass demonstrations across the country against nuclear power in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left over 23,000 dead.
(SSFC, 6/19/11, p.A7)
2011 Jun 18, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. halted an operation to clean highly contaminated waste water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi facility due to higher-than-expected radiation levels.
(AFP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 19, Japanese game maker Sega said hackers have stolen the personal data of some 1.29 million customers of the, in a theft via a website of its European unit.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 20, RIKEN and Fujitsu took first place on the 37th TOP500 list at the 26th International Supercomputing Conference (ISC'11) held in Hamburg, Germany. This ranking is based on a performance measurement of the "K computer," currently under their joint development.
(www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2011/20110620-02.html)
2011 Jun 21, Japan and the United States agreed to drop a 2014 deadline for building a new airstrip on Okinawa and transferring US Marines from that Japanese island to Guam.
(Reuters, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, Japanese researchers said they had developed a self-propelled remote controlled capsule endoscope that can "swim" through the digestive tract.
(AFP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 22, Japan passed legislation easing the process for non-profit organizations to get favorable tax status.
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.39)
2011 Jun 22, In Japan TEPCO, owner of the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, said it will pay an estimated $1 billion (88 billion yen) to thousands of residents who evacuated homes near the radiation-leaking plant and don't yet know when they can return.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 22, Iraq said it would donate 10 million dollars in disaster relief to Japan and offered oil sales, as Tokyo struggles with the devastation of a March 11 tsunami.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, Japanese inventors were reported to have pushed the frontiers of technology with the ultimate companion for lonely singles, a wired torso-shaped device that you can hug and that hugs you back.
(AFP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 23, In Japan a 6.7 earthquake rattled the northeast, that same area of march 11 quake, which triggered a massive tsunami.
(SFC, 6/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 24, UNESCO added the Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia, Japan's remote Ogasawara Islands and the Kenya Lake System in the Rift Valley province, to its heritage list.
(AFP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 26, In Japan angry parents of children in Fukushima city marched along with hundreds of people to demand protection for their children from radiation more than three months after a massive quake and tsunami triggered the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.
(Reuters, 6/26/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Japan a 7.1 earthquake hit the northeastern coast. There were no reports of immediate damage.
(SSFC, 7/10/11, p.A6)
2011 Jul 11, Japanese scientists were reported to have found a "superbug" strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics. They said it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.
(Reuters, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 13, In Japan radiation fears mounted after news that contaminated beef from a farm just outside the Fukushima nuclear no-go zone has been shipped across the country and probably eaten.
(AFP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 17, Japan’s female soccer team, fourth place finishers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, came from behind twice to beat world-number ones and twice champions the United States 3-1 on penalties in the final of the World Cup in Frankfurt. It was the first football World Cup title for any Asian country.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 29, Yahoo Inc., Japan's Softbank Corp. and the China’s Alibaba Group said they have agreed on a compensation plan involving the Web payment service Alipay.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 31, Japan’s PM Naoto Kan criticized the country's nuclear safety agency for allegedly trying to plant questions aimed at supporting atomic energy at public forums. An estimated 1,700 people rallied in the capital of the Fukushima region, home to a crippled atomic power plant, calling for an end to nuclear energy.
(AP, 7/31/11)(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 2, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its 2nd deadly radiation reading in as many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
(SFC, 8/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 3, Japan’s Parliament passed legislation allowing the use of public money to shore up Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the company operating the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant to help it pay expected billions in compensation claims.
(SFC, 8/4/11, p.A5)
2011 Aug 26, Japanese PM Naoto Kan announced he would resign after almost 15 months in office amid plunging approval ratings over his government's handling of the tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis. He would officially quit as prime minister after the ruling party votes on Aug 29 to pick a new leader, the country's sixth prime minister in five years.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 30, Japan’s Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda (Democratic Party of Japan) became the country’s sixth new prime minister in five years, inheriting an in-tray groaning with disaster recovery, nuclear crisis and economic gloom in the ageing, debt-choked nation.
(AFP, 8/30/11)(SSFC, 9/4/11, p.A4)
2011 Aug 31, Britain's biggest retailer Tesco announced that it is pulling out of Japan after eight years and putting its 129 small supermarkets on sale to focus on other operations in Asia.
(AP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug, in Japan Mitsubishi Heavy was attacked with viruses apparently programmed to breach its computers and servers to gain unauthorized access to protected data. The attack was not made public until September when it was reported that no sensitive information was known to have been lost.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Sep 3, Typhoon Talas cut across western Japan leaving at least two people dead and five missing after heavy rains and fierce winds.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 4, In Japan record rain and mudslides from powerful Typhoon Talas left at least 37 people dead as the storm moved slowly northward past the country's western coast. Over 50 others remained missing.
(AP, 9/4/11)(AFP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 10, Japan's new trade minister, Yoshio Hachiro, resigned over a remark seen as insensitive to nuclear evacuees, dealing a blow to a government that took office just eight days ago in the hopes it could better tackle the daunting tsunami recovery.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 13, Nine North Koreans who spent five days at sea in a small wooden boat were towed to a Japanese port after they were spotted off the coast of central Japan.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 14, Japanese researchers from Hitachi working with university scientists unveiled a headset they say can measure activity in the brain and could be used to improve performance in the classroom or on the sports field.
(AFP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 15, Japan's Fisheries Agency said that its fleet has harvested 49 minke, 95 sei and 50 Bryde's whales and one sperm whale during its three-month Pacific expedition.
(AP, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 19, In Japan Kyodo news agency said websites of some Japanese government agencies were hit by cyberattacks over the weekend, temporarily blocking access to them.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 21, Typhoon Roke slammed into Japan, leaving at least 13 people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged northeast. Over 1.2 million people were evacuated from the area.
(AP, 9/21/11)(SFC, 9/22/11, p.A6)
2011 Sep 28, ANA, a Japanese airline, flew the first commercial Dreamliner into Tokyo.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.42)
2011 Oct 1, The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multi-national agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement, was signed in Tokyo. Ratification by 6 countries was required for the convention to come into force.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement)
2011 Oct 14, Japan's Olympus Corp fired Michael Woodford (51), its CEO and president, blaming the Briton in unusually blunt terms for trying to shake up 92 years of the firm's management culture. The 30-year Olympus veteran only became president in April and CEO this month with glowing reports on his performance.
(Reuters, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 18, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda started a visit to South Korea aimed at smoothing prickly relations, bringing with him a set of historic books seized by his country decades ago.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 25, Japanese officials said computers in the parliament have been found to be infected with a virus.
(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 27, France's nuclear monitor said that the amount of cesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea ever seen.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 31, Japan and Vietnam agreed to move ahead with a plan to export Japanese nuclear technology to build reactors in Vietnam despite Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis. PM Yoshihiko Noda and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung also agreed to jointly mine rare earth minerals in Vietnam.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Nov 1, Japan approved a plan to send a unit of ground troops to South Sudan as part of a UN nation-building force, where they are expected to help construct infrastructure for the fledgling nation.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, Japan restarted its first nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster in March, in a boost to its beleaguered atomic power industry faced with a deeply skeptical public.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 4, Japan agreed to give TEPCO, the operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, $11.5 billion to help it pay compensation to those affected by the worst atomic disaster in 25 years.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 6, Japan's coastguard arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that allegedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 9, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. said it is recalling about 550,000 vehicles worldwide, mostly in the United States, for problems that could make it harder to steer. Toyota has received a total of 79 reports about the defect dating back to 2007, but there have been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the problems.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Japan American scientist John W. Cahn received Japan's annual Kyoto Prize, winning 50 million yen, or about $650,000, for his contributions in materials science that led to the creation of stronger, lighter alloys used in cellphones and many electronic devices. Astrophysicist Rashid Sunyaev (68), a dual citizen of Russia and Germany, was awarded the basic sciences prize for his contributions in astronomy. Tamasaburo Bando V, a Japanese kabuki actor who specializes in female roles, was presented with the arts and philosophy prize.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 19, Japan’s the new Institute of Science and Technology was inaugurated as a graduate university in Okinawa.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.91)
2011 Nov 22, The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) announced a merger with the Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE).
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.87)
2011 Nov 30, Amid fears of a eurozone collapse, central banks of the United States, the eurozone, Britain, Japan, Canada and Switzerland said that they would cut the cost of providing dollars to banks. The move pushed the DJIA up 490 points, its biggest gain since March 2009.
(AFP, 12/1/11)(SFC, 12/1/11, p.D1)
2011 Dec 6, Japan's whaling fleet left port for the country's annual hunt in Antarctica.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said it believes 150 liters (40 US gallons) of waste water including highly harmful strontium, linked with bone cancers, has spread to the open ocean. The announcement came a day after TEPCO said it found 45 tons of waste water pooled around the leaky water-treatment system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. In the weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the plant, TEPCO dumped 10,000 tons of lower-level radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, Japan offered a "heartfelt apology" for the systematic mistreatment of Canadian prisoners during World War Two, helping to heal ties between the two nations.
(Reuters, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Japan Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa and Kenji Yamaoka, the minister for consumer affairs were censured. Ichikawa was slapped down for a series of gaffes that riled the people of Okinawa, reluctant hosts to a large US military presence. Yamaoka was admonished for alleged ties with shady business groups. The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has threatened to boycott parliament from January if the pair stay in place.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, Japanese workers discovered a nuclear plant leak. 1.8 ton of radioactive water leaked from the cooling system at the idled reactor at the Genkai nuclear plant in Saga prefecture in the southern Kyushu region. The leak was contained within the system.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 13, Japanese news reports said Japan's government has selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter to bolster its aging air force and is likely to announce the multibillion-dollar deal by the end of the week.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 16, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda announced that the country's Fukushima Dai-ichi tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has achieved a stable state of "cold shutdown," a crucial step toward the eventual lifting of evacuation orders and closing of the plant.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 20, Japan chose the as-yet unproven F-35 stealth jet for its next-generation mainstay fighter.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, The Japanese government set a 40-year timeline for cleanup of the Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Fukushima.
(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 25, China and Japan announced an agreement to let Japan buy Chinese sovereign debt. No sum or timetable was disclosed.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.59)
2011 Dec 25, Russian and Japanese rescue vessels and a helicopter searched for five people missing in a fierce storm off Russia's east coast after a Cambodia-flagged fishing ship, the Ginga, sank early in the day. 3 bodies were recovered from the icy waters of the La Perouse Strait, between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, Anti-whaling activists intercepted Japan's harpoon fleet far north of Antarctic waters, with the help of a military-style drone.
(AFP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, Sori Yanagi (96), the pioneer of Japan's industrial design, died. His designs for stools and kitchen pots brought the simplicity and purity of Japanese decor into the everyday.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 31, In Japan Makoto Hirata (46), a senior member of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways, surrendered to police. Akemi Saito, also a member of Aum Shinrikyo, was arrested on Jan 10, 2012, for helping him evade police for nearly 17 years. On Jan 20 Hirata was indicted for his role in the abduction and confinement of a follower's relative in 1995.
(AP, 1/10/12)(AP, 1/20/12)
2011 In Japan Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" was first published.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2011 Mark West authored “Lovesick Japan: Sex, Marriage, Romance, Law."
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.92)
2011 In Japan the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s largest, was shut down along with the rest of Japan’s nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident.
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.35)
2011 Japanese accounted for 73 percent of the 1.1 million visitors to Guam in this fiscal year.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2011 Japanese and Dutch scientists said had created a version of bird flu that could be transmitted between mammals by the respiratory route. The announcement prompted the Netherlands to treat the relevant academic papers as sensitive goods subject to export controls.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.20)
2012 Jan 4, Anti-whaling activists claimed a small victory in their Antarctic campaign with the discovery of a Japanese harpoon ship.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 5, In Japan a deep-pocketed restaurateur shelled out nearly $750,000 for a tuna at the Tsukiji fish market, smashing the record price for a single bluefin.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 8, The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said three Australian activists were being held as "prisoners" by the Japanese harpoon fleet after sneaking aboard one of their vessels overnight to protest. The activists were transferred to an Australian customs vessel on Jan 13.
(AFP, 1/8/12)(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 13, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda said the government has yet to decide on whether it will reduce oil imports from Iran in line with US sanctions, saying businesses implications need to be considered.
(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 13, Japanese energy firm Inpex and French giant Total announced a huge $34 billion gas project in Australia, as Tokyo looks for alternatives to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
(AFP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 18, A book titled "My Father, Kim Jong Il and Me," by Tokyo-based journalist Yoji Gomi, went on sale. The author said it is based primarily on email exchanges he had with Kim Jong Nam over many years.
(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 20, In Japan Estonian sumo wrestler Baruto won his first tournament, logging an unbeatable 13th straight victory with only two bouts to go in the New Year basho.
(AFP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 23, Japanese high-tech giant Hitachi said it will stop making televisions by the end of September as intense price competition hurts TV earnings at many electronics manufacturers worldwide.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 25, Japan’s Nissan said it will invest $2 billion in a new auto plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
(SFC, 1/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Jan 28, The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute that has kept the two nations from concluding a peace treaty.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 1, In northern Japan an avalanche killed three bathers at a hot spring in Akita, where heavy snow also paralyzed traffic and forced schools to close.
(AP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 8, Japan and the United States agreed to proceed with plans to transfer thousands of US troops out of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, leaving behind the stalled discussion about closing a major US Marine base there.
(AP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 11, In Japan thousands demonstrated in Tokyo against nuclear power generation, 11 months after a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
(AFP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 21, The Times of India said Tsutomi Omori (49), managing director of Olympus Medical Systems in India, was found hanging from iron railings within his luxury apartment complex in Delhi's satellite city of Gurgaon. Police said Omori appeared to have committed suicide late on Feb 19.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, Anti-whaling campaigners Sea Shepherd attacked a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic Ocean by firing paint bombs at it and trying to jam its propeller with ropes.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, Elpida, a Japanese maker of DRAM memory chips, filed the biggest bankruptcy claim of any Japanese manufacturer sine WWII.
(Econ, 3/3/12, p.84)
2012 Feb 29, In Japan construction of the Tokyo Sky Tree, the world's tallest communications tower and second-highest building, finished. It was two months late because of the earthquake and tsunami that struck last March. Broadcasting was scheduled to begin May 22.
(AFP, 2/29/12)(Econ, 4/28/12, p.45)
2012 Mar 9, Japan said its Antarctic whaling fleet has killed less than a third of the animals it planned to because of sabotage by activists, as it announced the end of the season's hunt. Whalers killed 266 minke whales and one fin whale, well below the approximately 900 they had been aiming for when they left Japan in December.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan said it had won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia's two biggest economies and traditional rivals closer together.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan, the EU and the US brought a case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) alleging that China was exporting too little of tungsten, molybdenum and 17 rare earth elements.
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.86)
2012 Mar 21, Japan's foreign ministry said it would close its embassy in Syria, citing deteriorating security conditions amid a brutal crackdown on anti-government protestors.
(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 29, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, asked the Japanese government for a capital injection of $12 billion in a bid to avoid insolvency.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 29, South Korean activists burned pictures of Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda and scuffled with police in a protest against Tokyo's claims to disputed islands. The demonstration was sparked after Japan's education ministry this week announced the results of its review of a school history book reasserting Japan's claim to islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Apr 3, In Japan a typhoon-strength storm brought travel chaos to the country, as violent winds and rain left least 4 people dead and tens of thousands stranded.
(AFP, 4/3/12)(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 5, Japan passed a 90.3 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) budget, with about half the spending expected to be financed by new bonds that will add to its massive debt mountain.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 9, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported that Sony will cut 10,000 jobs worldwide this year as it attempts to carry out sweeping reforms aimed at reviving the iconic but loss-making Japanese electronics giant.
(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 10, Britain and Japan pledged to expand collaboration on defense equipment as PM David Cameron looked to open Tokyo's potentially lucrative arms market.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 12, Japan’s Sony Corp. said it will slash 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global workforce, and try to turn around its money-losing TV business over the next two years.
(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 12, In Japan 8 people died when an apparently epileptic driver crashed his minivan into a crowd of pedestrians in the temple-spotted ancient capital of Kyoto.
(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 13, A Japanese "black widow" was sentenced to death in a case known by the name of the female spider that eats its partner after mating. Kanae Kijima (37) was convicted of murdering three men, aged 41, 53 and 80, whom she met through Internet dating sites.
(AFP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 17, Japan said it would pledge $60.0 billion to the International Monetary Fund, saying it was a critical part of the organization's bid to boost a global firewall against Europe's debt crisis.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 21, Japan said it will take steps to forgive about 300 billion yen ($3.7 billion) of Myanmar's debt and resume full-fledged development aid as a way to support the country's democratic and economic reforms.
(AP, 4/21/12)
2012 Apr 26, In Japan Ichiro Ozawa (69), the veteran Japanese lawmaker who engineered the ruling party's rise to power, was acquitted in a political funding scandal that has damaged his chances of becoming prime minister.
(AP, 4/26/12)
2012 Apr 29, In Japan a bus carrying dozens of vacationers to Tokyo Disneyland has crashed on a highway, killing 7 passengers.
(AP, 4/29/12)
2012 Apr 30, Pres. Obama met with visiting Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda. Both leaders re-affirmed US-Japan ties.
(SFC, 5/1/12, p.A2)
2012 May 6, A tornado ripped through eastern Japan, killing a teenager, destroying dozens of homes and cutting power to around 20,000 households. Television footage from Tsukuba showed houses swept from their foundations, overturned cars in muddy debris and fallen concrete power poles.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 9, Japan's government approved a plan to take a controlling stake in the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, effectively nationalizing one of the world's largest utilities. Tokyo will inject one trillion yen ($12 billion) as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing the vast regional power monopoly from going bankrupt.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 10, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala wrapped up a three-day visit to Japan, having secured up to $250 million worth of loans for infrastructure projects.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 13, In southwestern Japan 6 people were killed when a fire swept through their hotel in Fukuyama.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 May 13, Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, during their 5th annual trilateral summit, said they will work together to calm tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 13, Japanese artist Mao Sugiyama (22) had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before dishing them out, seasoned and braised, to customers at an event hall. Diners paid 20,000 yen ($250) for the plate with a portion of genitals. Police in Tokyo said they knew of the episode, but added that it had not broken the law as cannibalism was not illegal in Japan.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 May 16, In French Guiana an Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched two Asian telecoms satellites into orbit from the Kourou space center. It placed into orbit two geostationary satellites, the JCSAT-13 for the Japanese SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, and the VINASAT-2 of the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group.
(AFP, 5/16/12)
2012 May 17, Japan and Australia signed an agreement in Tokyo that will allow them to share intelligence as the Asia-Pacific region adapts to the rising power of China.
(AFP, 5/17/12)
2012 May 18, A pair of Japanese whaling vessels left for the northwestern Pacific aiming to catch 260 whales for "scientific research."
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 22, In Japan a new 634-meter (2,080-foot) tower with special technology meant to withstand earthquakes, opened to the public. The Tokyo Skytree became the world's second-tallest structure behind the 828-meter (2,717-foot) Burj Khalifa in Dubai, according to owner Tobu Tower Skytree Co.
(AP, 4/17/12)(AP, 5/22/12)
2012 May 24, In Japan Nicola Furlong (21), an Irish fan of Rapper Nicki Minaj, was found dead in a Tokyo hotel after attending a concert. Police arrested two American men, dancer James Blackston (23) and a musician, 19, as part of an investigation into her death. On June 14 police arrested a 19-year-old American musician on suspicion of murdering Furlong.
(AFP, 6/1/12)(AFP, 6/14/12)
2012 May 25, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of 9 South Koreans who demanded Japanese firms Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel pay them for forced labor from 1941-1945.
(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A2)
2012 May 26, Japan pledged aid worth up to half a billion dollars to Pacific island nations at a summit stressing the importance of maritime law in a region warily eyeing China's growing might at sea. At the close of a two-day meeting on Okinawa, leaders from 16 nations and one territory produced a joint declaration emphasizing the need for international rules to be obeyed on the oceans.
(AFP, 5/26/12)
2012 May 29, Japanese police uncovered the frozen corpse of a woman and arrested Masaichi Yamada, her 80-year-old husband, on suspicion of strangling her and keeping her body in the freezer for up to 10 years.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 29, Japanese film director Kaneto Shindo (100), known for hard-hitting works dealing with human nature and the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, died at his home in Tokyo. Shindo directed nearly 50 films, with his final work, "A Postcard" winning the special jury prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2011.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 30, Japan ordered the Syrian ambassador in Tokyo to leave the country because of concerns about violence against civilians.
(AP, 5/30/12)
2012 Jun 1, China and Japan started direct currency trading as Beijing marked another stage on its journey to foster the yuan's use internationally in line with its growing economic clout.
(AFP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 3, Japanese police arrested Naoko Kikuchi (40), a former member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that released the nerve gas sarin in Tokyo's subways in 1995, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000.
(AP, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 6, Authorities in Oregon confirmed that a 66-foot-long pier, that floated onto a beach near Newport, came from Japan following the tsunami in March 2011.
(SFC, 6/7/12, p.A9)
2012 Jun 7, Japan’s coastguard plucked British adventurer Sarah Outen to safety after she got into trouble in the northern Pacific during her attempt to row solo across the ocean. A patrol boat was also heading towards fellow Briton Charlie Martell, who was separately attempting to row solo across the Pacific when he was also caught in bad weather.
(AFP, 6/8/12)
2012 Jun 15, In Japan Katsuya Takahashi (54), the last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult's deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways in 1995, was caught at a comic book cafe, closing a chapter on Japan's worst terrorist attack.
(AP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 16, Japan started work to put nuclear reactors back online, despite public distrust of the technology after last year's meltdowns at Fukushima.
(AFP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 7, In Japan Govinda Prasad Mainali (45) was released from jail after DNA tests confirmed he could not have committed the killing of a 39-year-old Japanese woman in 1997. The Nepalese migrant worker had served 15 years in a Japanese jail. Mainali was acquitted in April 2000 but remained in prison pending an appeal by prosecutors, who maintained he had robbed and murdered the victim because he was short of cash.
(AFP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 15, PM Noda’s Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) agreed with the main opposition parties to raise the sales tax from 5% to 8% in April, 2014, and to 10% in October, 2015.
(Econ, 6/23/12, p.43)
2012 Jun 15, In Japan Katsuya Takahashi (54), the last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult's deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways in 1995, was caught at a comic book cafe, closing a chapter on Japan's worst terrorist attack.
(AP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 19, Typhoon Guchol cut across Japan's main island of Honshu, as flights were cancelled and evacuations ordered.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 27, TEPCO, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said record amounts of radiation had been detected in the basement of reactor number 1, further hampering clean-up operations.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jun 29, In Japan tens of thousands of people rallied outside PM Noda’s residence in Tokyo in one of the largest demonstrations held against the restart of nuclear reactors.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jul 1, Japanese engineers began refiring an atomic reactor, despite growing public protests in the aftermath of meltdowns at Fukushima, ending nearly two months in which the country was nuclear-free.
(AFP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jul 1, In Japan the governor of Okinawa rejected a US plan to deploy Osprey military aircraft on the sub-tropic island chain amid safety concerns.
(AFP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jul 2, In Japan Ichiro Ozawa (70) and 49 other lawmakers quit the ruling party and said they will likely form their own rival bloc, dealing a blow to PM Yoshihiko Noda. Ozawa has been a vocal critic of Noda's plan to double Japan's sales tax to 10 percent by 2015.
(AP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 5, Japan resumed nuclear operations at its No. 3 reactor in Ohi.
(SFC, 7/6/12, p.A5)
2012 Jul 6, Japan, Norway and their allies blocked a bid to give the UN a greater role in protecting whales, as sought by conservationists frustrated by deep polarization over whaling as the International Whaling Commission closed its latest annual meeting in Panama marred by intense divisions.
(AFP, 7/6/12)
2012 Jul 8, Donor nations meeting in Tokyo pledged $16 billion for Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into turmoil when foreign combat troops depart, but called on Kabul to implement reforms to fight graft. The conference hosted representatives from about 80 nations and international organizations in a gathering aimed at adopting the "Tokyo Declaration," pledging support and cash.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 12, In southern Japan heavy rain triggered flash floods and mudslides, causing at least 20 deaths. At least 6 people remained missing.
(AP, 7/12/12)(AFP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 14, In southwest Japan about 400,000 people were ordered or advised to leave their homes in as heavy rain pounded the area for a third day at least 26 people dead.
(AFP, 7/14/12)(AP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 16, In Japan tens of thousands of people rallied in Tokyo demanding an end to nuclear power, the latest in a series of anti-atomic gatherings following the tsunami-sparked disaster at Fukushima last year.
(AFP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 16, Heavy rain again lashed southwest Japan, triggering fears of more landslides and hampering the clean-up operation after a record deluge that left at least 32 people dead or missing.
(AFP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 21, A Japanese H-IIB rocket blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima to deliver an unmanned supplies vessel to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 7/21/12)
2012 Jul 24, Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp said it will invest more than $100 million to expand Lexus production in Canada.
(Reuters, 7/24/12)
2012 Jul 29, In Japan thousands of people formed "a human chain" around the parliament complex to demand the government abandon nuclear power.
(AP, 7/29/12)
2012 Jul 31, The Japanese operator of the nuclear power plant devastated in last year's disasters received a 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) bailout, putting it under government ownership, while international experts visited another plant that survived the tsunami's impact.
(AP, 7/31/12)
2012 Aug 3, In Japan thousands of people staged a rally in front of the prime minister's office, maintaining anti-nuclear sentiment triggered by last year's atomic crisis at Fukushima.
(AFP, 8/3/12)
2012 Aug 10, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak visited islets, locally called Dokdo, also claimed by Japan, where they are called Takeshima.
(SFC, 8/11/12, p.A3)
2012 Aug 15, Japan made 14 arrests after pro-China activists from Hong Kong landed on Senkaku (aka Diaoyu) island at the center of a bitter territorial dispute. On Aug 17 half of the group were put aboard a commercial airliner in the Okinawan main city of Naha and arrived in Hong Kong. The other half were taken back to their boat in Ishigaki.
(AFP, 8/15/12)(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 15, China and South Korea pressed Japan to face up to its wartime past, as festering territorial disputes flared and Asia marked the anniversary of Tokyo's World War II surrender.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 18, A flotilla of boats carrying Japanese nationalists and lawmakers set sail for islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and as Diaoyu in China, at the heart of a vitriolic diplomatic row with China, despite warnings from Beijing. China demanded that Japan cease actions "harming" its territorial sovereignty.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 19, Japanese nationalists raised flags on an island at the heart of a corrosive territorial row, sparking street protests in China and an angry reaction from Beijing.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 19, Japanese officials said 7 people, most of them elderly women, died after eating pickles contaminated with E. coli in Sapporo. This was the country's deadliest mass food poisoning in 10 years.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 20, In Syria Mika Yamamoto (45), a veteran Japanese war reporter, died after she was shot in the neck when coming under fire from up to 15 apparently pro-government troops in Aleppo.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 26, In Japan Typhoon Bolaven, one of the most powerful typhoons in decades, hit Okinawa, with meteorologists warning it could bring record rain and wind to the southern region and waves of up to 13 meters (43 feet).
(AFP, 8/26/12)
2012 Aug 28, The government-linked Japan Bank for International Cooperation said it would purchase a 26% stake in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corp. (DMIC).
(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 29, Japan and North Korea held their first face-to-face talks in four years, in an attempt to lay the groundwork to overcome decades of mutual distrust.
(AFP, 8/29/12)
2012 Sep 5, Japanese media reports said Japan’s government has agreed to buy three of the five privately owned islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, from the Kurihara family for 2.05 billion yen ($26 million). China responded by calling the reported purchase "illegal and invalid."
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 9, In Japan tens of thousands of people rallied against US plans to deploy 12 MV-22 Osprey aircraft on Okinawa.
(SFC, 9/10/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 10, Japan Airlines (JAL) emerged from bankruptcy (2010) in an initial public offering (IPO) at $8.5 billion.
(Economist, 9/15/12, p.64)
2012 Sep 11, Japan's Cabinet formally announced that the government will purchase several disputed islands from a private Japanese family. China sent two patrol ships to the waters near the disputed islands in a show of its “undisputable sovereignty."
(AP, 9/11/12)(SFC, 9/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Sep 12, In Japan Toru Hashimoto (43), the right-wing populist mayor of Osaka, formally launched his national party, Nihon Ishin no Kai (the Japan Restoration Party, or JRP).
(Economist, 9/15/12, p.14)
2012 Sep 14, A Japanese Cabinet panel called for phasing out of nuclear power over the next three decades in a major shift for Japan as it overhauls energy policy following the Fukushima meltdowns.
(AP, 9/14/12)
2012 Sep 15, In China protests against Japan over its control of disputed islands spread across more than two dozen cities and turned violent at times, with protesters burning Japanese flags and clashing with Chinese paramilitary police at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing before order was restored.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Sep 19, Japan’s government stopped short of formally adopting a goal to phase out nuclear power by 2040, a goal that had been announced a week earlier. The government opened its new Nuclear Regulation Authority, which pledged never to allow another disaster like the Fukushima triple meltdown.
(SFC, 9/20/12, p.A5)(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 8, Scientists from Britain and Japan shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine. John Gurdon (79) of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, Britain, and Shinya Yamanaka (50) of Kyoto University in Japan, discovered ways to create tissue that would act like embryonic cells, without the need to harvest embryos. Dr. Yamanaka called his cells “induced pluripotent stem cells".
(AP, 10/8/12)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.19)
2012 Oct 10, Toyota recalled 7.43 million cars, trucks and SUVs worldwide to fix faulty power window switches that can cause fires. This was the largest recall in Toyota's 75-year history.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 13, In Japan global financial ministers ended their annual IMF meeting with a call for quick and effective action to safeguard faltering economic growth.
(SSFC, 10/14/12, p.A7)
2012 Oct 15, Japanese mobile company Softbank offered a $20 billion deal for a 70 percent stake in US mobile carrier Sprint.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 16, In Japan two US sailors were arrested for the alleged rape of a Japanese woman on Okinawa.
(SFC, 10/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 30, Hitachi won a bid to take over a company building up to six nuclear power plants in Britain, reviving hopes for investment in the UK's ageing energy infrastructure but leaving doubts they will come online in time.
(AP, 10/30/12)
2012 Nov 4, In Japan thousands of people rallied in Tokyo against American deployment of Osprey military aircraft on Okinawa.
(SFC, 11/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 10, Japan’s Inamori Foundation awarded its Kyoto Prizes. The advanced technology prize went to US computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who developed the graphic interface program Sketchpad in 1963. Gayatri Chakrovoty Spivak, an Indian literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the arts and philosophy prize. Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, received the basic sciences prize for his work on autophagy, a cell-recycling system that could be used to help treat neurodegenerative and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 16, Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of parliament, paving the way for elections in which his ruling party will likely give way to a weak coalition government divided over how to solve the nation's myriad problems.
(AP, 11/16/12)
2012 Nov 17, In Japan nationalist Shintaro Ishihara said he is joining the Japan Restoration party formed in September by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto seeking to become a 3rd force in the country’s politics.
(SSFC, 11/18/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 21, Arysta, the Japanese maker of the pesticide methyl iodide, agreed to remove all of its products from the US market and end sales permanently. Exposure to the fumigant was shown to have caused thyroid cancer, miscarriages and nervous system damage on rats and rabbits.
(SFC, 11/22/12, p.A15)
2012 Nov 30, Japan’s space agency said that information on one of its newest rockets was stolen from a desktop computer by someone using a computer virus at the Tsukuba Space Center.
(SFC, 12/1/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 2, In Japan 9 people were killed after about 150 concrete panels fell from a 130-meter stretch of roof of the Sasago Tunnel 80 km (50 miles) outside Tokyo.
(AP, 12/2/12)(SFC, 12/3/12, p.A2)(Econ, 1/12/12, p.64)
2012 Dec 7, A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan’s Miyagi prefecture. This was the same Japanese coast devastated by last year's massive quake and tsunami. There were no reports of deaths or serious damage.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 12, Japan’s Honda Motor Co said it will recall 871,000 vehicles that could roll away after the ignition key has been removed, including 807,000 in the United States.
(Reuters, 12/12/12)
2012 Dec 14, China provided the United Nations with detailed claims to waters in the East China Sea, apparently padding out its legal argument in an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 16, In Japan exit polls showed that the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power in a landslide election victory after three years in opposition. Hawkish former PM Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead the nation after a one-year stint in 2006-2007. The LDP with its new Komeito ally won control of 325 of 480 seats in the lower house of the Diet.
(AP, 12/16/12)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.12)
2012 Dec 26, Shinzo Abe, head of the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), took office as Japan's 7th prime minister in six years and vowed to overcome the deep-rooted economic and diplomatic crises facing his country. Abe unveiled a 19-member cabinet of radical nationalists.
(AP, 12/26/12)(Econ, 1/5/12, p.29)
2012 Michael Woodford authored “Exposure: Inside the Olympus Scandal: How I Went from CEO to Whistleblower."
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.88)
2013 Jan 8, The Japanese government summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near disputed islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 9, British health officials said a new strain of the winter vomiting disease norovirus has spread to France, New Zealand and Japan from Australia and is overtaking all others to become the dominant local strain.
(Reuters, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 15, Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima (b.1932) died at a hospital near Tokyo. His films included “A Town of Love and Hope" (1959), “Cruel Story of Youth" (1960), “Violence At Noon" (1966), “Death by Hanging" (1968), “Three Resurrected Drunkards" (1968), “In the Realm of the Senses" (1976), “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983) and “Taboo" (1999).
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D7)
2013 Jan 16, Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Thailand Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to work together to solve bilateral and regional problems.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Jan 25, A senior japanese envoy handed China's leader, Xi Jinping, a cordial letter from PM Shinzo Abe in the highest-level contact between the sides since tensions spiked in September over an island dispute, though the meeting yielded little beyond commitments to hold further contact.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 31, Australia’s government received confirmation that the Shonan Maru No. 2, a support vessel for the Japanese whaling fleet, had entered Australia's exclusive economic zone near Macquarie Island in the Antarctic Ocean. The Australian embassy in Tokyo protested to the Japanese government.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced a ¥10.3 trillion fiscal stimulus.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.24)
2013 Feb 6, US wildlife conservation group Int’l. Fund for Animal Welfare said Japan has been propping up its whaling industry with nearly $400 million in tax money in recent years.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 20, An anti-whaling activist group accused a Japanese whaling vessel of intentionally ramming two of its ships in waters near Antarctica. Japan's Fisheries Agency, however, insisted the protesters were responsible for the collisions.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 21, Japan’s government unexpectedly announced that it had hanged 3 men for murder.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.40)
2013 Mar 1, In Japan US Seaman Christopher Browning (24), of Athens, Texas, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker (23), of Muskogee, Oklahoma, were found guilty by the Naha District Court of raping and robbing a woman in her 20s in a parking lot in October. Both admitted committing the crime. Browning was sentenced to 10 years and Dozierwalker received nine years.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Japan heavy snow over the weekend killed eight people on Hokkaido island, including a family whose car became buried.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 9, In Japan thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park, demanding an end to atomic power and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 17, Japanese architect Toyo Ito (71) won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 27, In Japan Takafumi Horie, the former chief executive of Internet portal Livedoor, was released from prison. He was jailed in 2011 for fraud. While in prison he gathered almost one million Twitter followers.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.74)
2013 Apr 6, Tokyo Electric Power said almost 32,000 gallons of radioactive water has leaked from a large underground storage pool at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Tepco said emptying the pool could take 5 days and another 12,000 gallons could leak.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A9)
2013 Apr 11, Four Japanese automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp, and Nissan Motor Co., announced a recall of 3.4 million vehicles sold around the world because airbags supplied by Takata Corp are at risk of catching fire or injuring passengers.
(AP, 4/11/13)
2013 Apr 23, Chinese marine surveillance vessels drove away Japanese nationalists who had entered the waters of the Diaoyu Islands.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 28, Japan's All Nippon Airways successfully conducted its first test flight of the Boeing 787 aircraft since battery problems grounded the planes earlier this year.
(AP, 4/28/13)
2013 May 15, The Arctic Council, meeting in Sweden, agreed to expand membership and provide observer status to 6 new nations including China, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council)
2013 May 16, In Cambodia the ceiling of a factory, a Taiwanese-owned operation called Wing Star, collapsed on workers, killing 2 people and injuring 7. The firm made sneakers for Asics, a Japanese sportswear label.
(AP, 5/16/13)
2013 May 23, In Japan a radiation leak took place at the Hadron Experimental Facility in Tokaimura.
(SSFC, 5/26/13, p.A6)
2013 May 26, Myanmar’s Pres. Thein Sein welcomed Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe to Naypyidaw. Abe became the first Japanese PM to visit Myanmar since 1977. He cancelled $1.8 billion of debt and promised another $500 million in aid loans.
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.44)
2013 Jun 1, In Japan officials from 50 African nations gathered for a 3-day talk about trade, growth and other issues. 3.2 trillion yen ($32 billion) in government and private-sector aid was announced.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 2, Japan announced a plan to provide 100 billion yen ($1 billion) in aid over the next five years to northern Africa for economic development and humanitarian efforts, and help with security and counter-terrorism. This was part of the $32 billion package announced a day earlier.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 5, In Japan PM Shinzo Abe announced the “third arrow" (fiscal stimulus) of Abenomics, his plan to pull the country out of its long slump.
(Econ, 6/15/13, p.37)
2013 Jun 12, Jiroeman Kimura (b.1897), the oldest man in the world and the oldest man ever, died in Japan at age 116.
(SFC, 6/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 19, Japan’s nuclear watchdog formally approved a set of new safety requirements for the country’s nuclear plants.
(SFC, 6/20/13, p.A3)
2013 Jul 10, A South Korean court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. of Japan to pay $89,800 to each of four South Korean plaintiffs for forced labor during the colonial from 1910 to 1945.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 15, Nissan launched a new Datsun in India, three decades after shelving the brand that helped win Western acceptance of Japanese autos. The reimagined Datsun, a five-seat hatchback, will go on sale in India next year for under 400,000 rupees (about $6,670).
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition won a majority in the upper house of parliament, giving it control of both chambers and a mandate to press ahead with difficult economic reforms.
(AP, 7/21/13)
2013 Jul 22, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power said its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is probably leaking contaminated water into the sea.
(SFC, 7/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 26, Japan's hawkish new government released a defense paper calling for an increase in the country's military capabilities and a more assertive role in regional security due to increased threats from China and North Korea.
(AP, 7/26/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Manila Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe met with Pres. Benigno Aquino III and pledged support for Philippine maritime forces as both countries confronted China in separate territorial disputes.
(SSFC, 7/28/13, p.A6)
2013 Jul 30, In China Japan's top career diplomat met China's foreign minister in the latest bid to ease strains between Asia's two biggest economies over a bitter territorial row. A Chinese official newspaper said Beijing had ruled out a leaders' summit.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)
2013 Jul 30, A South Korean court ruled that Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries should pay compensation of $71,800 to each of five South Koreans for forced labor during the colonial period that ended with WWII.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 5, Japan's nuclear watchdog said highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain.
(Reuters, 8/5/13)
2013 Aug 5, In Japan a US military helicopter crashed on the southern island of Okinawa. Three of the four crew members involved in the crash were in stable condition. One crew member was not accounted for.
(Reuters, 8/5/13)
2013 Aug 6, Japan unveiled its biggest warship since WWII. The Izumo is officially a destroyer. It was designed to carry 14 helicopters and entered service in 2015.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.35)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.36)
2013 Aug 7, Japanese officials said highly radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was pouring out at a rate of 300 tons a day. PM Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 20, TEPCO, the operator of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant, said that about 300 tons (300,000 liters, 80,000 gallons) of highly radioactive water have leaked from one of the hundreds of storage tanks there — its worst leak yet from such a vessel.
(AP, 8/20/13)
2013 Sep 3, Japan’s government announced that it will spend $470 mikllion on a subterranean ice wall and other steps to stop leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. One of the country’s two remaining working nuclear reactors was taken offline, with the other to be shut down later this month and no restarts in sight amid public hostility to nuclear power.
(SFC, 9/4/13, p.A4)(AFP, 9/3/13)
2013 Sep 6, South Korea extended a ban on Japanese fishery imports to a larger area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant due to growing concerns over radiation contamination.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 7, The International Olympic Committee selected Tokyo for the 2020 Games.
(AP, 9/7/13)
2013 Sep 9, In central Turkey Japanese tourist Mai Kurkiharac (22) was stabbed to death and her friend seriously wounded in an attack in Cappadocia.
(Reuters, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 19, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe ordered the scrapping of two Fukushima nuclear reactors that survived the 2011 tsunami. The write-off threatened to complicate a turnaround plan the operator has presented to creditors.
(Reuters, 9/19/13)
2013 Sep 24, America’s Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron of Japan said they were creating a new semiconductor company worth $29 billion.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.62)
2013 Sep 27, Japan's coastguard searched for six crew of the Eifukumaru No.18 cargo ship that capsized after colliding with a Sierra Leone-registered vessel.
(AFP, 9/27/13)
2013 Oct 1, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe declared that he would raise the consumption tax in Arpil from 5% to 8%.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.43)
2013 Oct 3, The United States and Japan agreed to modernize their defense alliance for the first time in 16 years to address growing concerns about North Korea's nuclear program, global terrorism, cyber intrusions and other 21st century threats.
(Reuters, 10/3/13)
2013 Oct 11, In Japan a fire ripped through a hospital as patients slept killing 10 elderly people. This prompted government demands for safety reviews across the country.
(AFP, 10/11/13)
2013 Oct 16, In Japan Typhoon Wipha caused deadly mudslides that buried people and destroyed homes on Izu Oshima island leaving at least 24 people dead. A woman from Tokyo died after falling into a river and being washed 10 km downriver to Yokohama.
(AP, 10/16/13)(AP, 10/17/13)(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 25, Japanese media said Mizuho Bank will punish more than 30 executives over revelations that the lender made loans to underworld figures in the latest chapter of a headline-grabbing scandal.
(AFP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 27, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe warned China against forcibly changing the regional balance of power, as reports said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.
(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 30, Japan’s financial watchdog said it would inspect the Mizuho Bank and two other big banks for to hunt for loans to yakuza (gangsters).
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.79)
2013 Nov 2, Meeting in Tokyo Japan and Russia held their first joint defense and foreign ministers' meeting and agreed to boost security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific as they both warily watch neighboring China's rising influence. Japan and Russia have never signed a treaty to mark the end of World War II because of a territorial dispute.
(Reuters, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 6, Japan's hotels, restaurants and food shops were being warned over dishonest labelling amid a growing scandal that is threatening to undermine the country's reputation for safe, high-quality produce.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 11, Japan switched on the first turbine at a wind farm 12 miles off the coast of Fukushima, the site of the March, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
(SFC, 11/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 13, Japan's finance minister pledged to crack down on lenders that fail to sever links with organized crime as lawmakers grilled him over mob loans by banks and other financial institutions.
(AP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 13, Fugitive eco-activist Paul Watson (62) said in France that green warriors were being classed as "terrorists" and accused Japan of coercing other countries into making demands for his arrest. The Canadian-born founder of Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation organisation, arrived in California on October 28, more than a year after fleeing arrest in Germany. Watson said he was in talks to seek refuge in France, the only country apart from the United States where he said he expects a fair trial.
(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 15, Japan said it was dramatically scaling back its greenhouse gas reduction target after the Fukushima nuclear accident forced the country to turn to fossil-fuel burning energy sources, a move denounced by climate campaigners.
(AFP, 11/15/13)
2013 Nov 21, In Japan thousands of people protested in Tokyo against a proposed secrets act that critics say would stifle information on issues such as the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
(Reuters, 11/21/13)
2013 Nov 23, China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) bolstering its claim to islands that Japan says it owns. The zone also included a reef know as Ieodo, claimed by China and South Korea. China warned that it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.12)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2013 Nov 24, Japan warned of the danger of "unpredictable events" and South Korea voiced regret following China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over areas claimed by Tokyo and Seoul.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 27, Japan’s Upper House passed into law a Japanese version of the US National Security Council.
(SSFC, 12/1/13, p.A6)
2013 Nov 28, South Korean and Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the US have vowed to ignore.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 29, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe named the country's first ever female aide to the prime minister, just weeks after Caroline Kennedy arrived as the first woman US ambassador to Tokyo.
(AFP, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 3, The US voiced solidarity with Japan against China's claim to airspace over disputed islands, vowing not to tolerate the aggressive move as VP Joe Biden prepared to deliver that message personally to Beijing.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 6, Japan enacted a state-secrets law toughening penalties for leaks, despite public protests and criticism that it will muzzle the media and help cover up official misdeeds.
(Reuters, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 7, Two Japanese whaling ships and a surveillance vessel left for the annual hunt in the Antarctic Sea. The three ships departed from the western port of Shimonoseki to join other ships to hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales through March.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 14, Japan and Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) called for freedom of the air and sea, as China's military assertiveness raises regional tensions.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 17, Japan approved a plan to increase defense spending by 5% over the next five years to purchase its first surveillance drones, more jet fighters and naval destroyers in the face of China's military expansion.
(AP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 19, The Tokyo governor who helped his city secure the 2020 Olympics resigned after revelations that he received 50 million yen ($480,200) from a hospital company.
(AP, 12/19/13)
2013 Dec 22, Australia announced an aerial Customs and Border Protection mission to the Southern Ocean as a showdown looms between Japan's whaling fleet and Sea Shepherd activists, saying it would send a message to both sides that the world was watching.
(AFP, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 26, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe paid his respects at the Yasukuni shrine honoring Japan's war dead in an unexpected visit that drew sharp rebukes from China and South Korea.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 27, In Japan the governor of Okinawa gave the go-ahead for land reclamation to begin for a new US military base, advancing the effort to consolidate the massive US troop presence on the southern Japanese island but also making protests from residents likely.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 In Japan “Yo-kai," a word meaning supernatural spirits, began as a cartoon series. It was later adopted for TV and made into a hit video game after which toy maker Banda Namco won merchandise rights.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.56)
2013 Japan passed an anti-bullying law that required schools to report cases of bullying. This led to a sharp rise in the number of known cases. 224,450 were reported in 2015.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.35)
2014 Jan 13, Japan said it has signed an agreement with Palau to allow Japanese companies to earn carbon credits by helping the small Pacific island cut greenhouse gas emissions.
(Reuters, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, Japanese engineering giant JGC Corp. said it has won a contract to help build a Canadian liquefied natural gas plant in a deal reportedly worth $9.4 billion.
(AFP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 21, Fishermen in Japan began slaughtering dozens of bottlenose dolphins in Taiji, ignoring protesters’ calls to spare the animals and a rare public show of concern by the US government.
(CSM, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 22, The New York Yankees signed Japanese pitching ace Masahiro Tanaka to a $155 million contract.
(SSFC, 1/26/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 23, Japanese fishermen in Taiji killed more than two dozen striped dolphins, as global outrage over the slaughter grew.
(AFP, 1/23/14)
2014 Jan 28, The Vatican library and four Japanese historical institutes agreed to inventory, catalogue and digitize 10,000 documents from a lost Japanese archive detailing the persecution of Christians in Japan in the 17th-19th centuries.
(AP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 30, In Japan about 1,400 people filed a joint lawsuit against three companies that manufactured reactors at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, saying they should be financially liable for damage caused by their 2011 meltdowns.
(AP, 1/30/14)
2014 Jan 30, Nature published two papers by a team led by Haruko Obokata of the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Japan. The team claimed to have found a simple way to reprogram ordinary mouse cells, persuading them to transform themselves into pluripotent cells.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.79)
2014 Jan, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe visited the Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Ethiopia to counter China’s success in building diplomatic support and winning access to raw materials.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.34)
2014 Feb 5, Japanese composer Mamoru Samurogochi (50) confessed that he had employed a ghostwriter since the 1990s to compose most of his music. The ghostwriter then came forward and accused Samurogochi of faking his deafness.
(SFC, 2/7/14, p.A7)
2014 Feb 16, Japanese media said the second heavy snowfall in a week has killed up to a dozen people and injured hundreds over the weekend, while paralyzing traffic and causing power outages. A record 45 inches of snow fell on Yamanashi.
(AP, 2/16/14)(SFC, 2/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 25, Japan’s government published a draft energy plan which put nuclear power at the core.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.43)
2014 Feb 25, The website of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was returning a blank page today. The disappearance of the site follows the Feb 23 resignation of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group seeking legitimacy for the currency, and a withdrawal ban imposed at the exchange earlier this month.
(AP, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 28, Japan-based Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange in Tokyo filed for bankruptcy protection and chief executive Mark Karpeles said 850,000 bitcoins, worth several hundred million dollars, are unaccounted for. On March 11 Mt Gox filed for bankruptcy in the US.
(AP, 2/28/14)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.71)
2014 Mar 1, Hundreds rallied in Tokyo to protest Japanese prosecutors' decision to drop charges over the Fukushima nuclear crisis, with no one yet punished nearly three years after the "man-made" disaster.
(AFP, 3/1/14)
2014 Mar 1, Japan pledged more than $200 million in aid to help the Palestinian Authority, as representatives in Indonesia from 22 nations reiterated their support of the Palestinians' quest for their own state.
(AP, 3/1/14)
2014 Mar 7, Mark Karpeles, head of the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, said 200,000 missing bitcoins, valued at $116 million, were found in old format wallets. Some $378 million of bitcoin currency remained missing.
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.C1)
2014 Mar 9, In Japan thousands of people rallied in Tokyo and marched to parliament to demand an end to nuclear power.
(SFC, 3/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 9, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata (50) assumed command of the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SSFC, 3/16/14, p.A4)
2014 Mar 17, Toyota said it has shut down production at its two auto-assembly plants in India, locking out 6,400 workers amid testy wage negotiations and allegations of threats against management.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 19, The US government announced a $1.2 billion settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. and filed a criminal charge alleging the company defrauded consumers by issuing misleading statements about safety issues in Toyota and Lexus vehicles. From 2010 through 2012, Toyota Motor Corp. paid fines totaling more than $66 million for delays in reporting unintended acceleration problems.
(AP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, The European Union said it has fined two EU and four Japanese companies a total of nearly 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for rigging the market of key components in the car and truck industry at the expense of consumers.
(AP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 20, Japan’s NTT Data Corp. agreed to digitize some 3,000 historical Vatican manuscripts and make them available online.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 24, Japanese and US leaders said Japan will turn over hundreds of kilograms of sensitive atomic material of potential use in bombs to the United States to be downgraded and disposed. This was shortly before leaders from 53 countries, including Obama and Abe, were due to hold a two-day summit at The Hague aimed at preventing al Qaeda-style militant groups from acquiring nuclear bombs.
(Reuters, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 25, In the Netherlands US President Barack Obama, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met to discuss North Korea's security threat.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, Japan’s Shizuoka District Court suspended the death sentence and ordered a retrial for Iwao Hakamada (78). The world's longest-serving death row inmate had been convicted in the 1966 murder of a family and was sentenced to death in 1968. The judge who freed him found that police and prosecutors had fabricated evidence in the original trial.
(AP, 3/27/14)(Econ, 12/5/15, p.39)
2014 Mar 30, Japan and North Korea started high-level government talks for the first time in more than a year that were expected to focus on abductions of Japanese by North Korea decades ago.
(AP, 3/30/14)
2014 Mar 31, The International Court of Justice ordered a temporary halt to Japan's Antarctic whaling program, ruling that it is not for scientific purposes as the Japanese government had claimed.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Apr 1, Japan eased its weapons export restrictions in the first major overhaul of arms transfer policy in nearly half a century.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, Japan raised its sales tax to 8% from 5%, moving to stabilize government finances and reduce soaring debt, but at the risk of undermining a shaky economic recovery.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, People in Japan began their first homecomings in three years to a small area evacuated after the Fukushima disaster.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, Japan’s government-funded Riken Center said data in a widely heralded stem-cell research paper was falsified. Haruko Obokata, the lead researcher accused of the malpractice, denied any wrongdoing.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 7, Japan and Australia clinched a basic trade deal to cut import tariffs. US and Japanese officials stepped up efforts to reach a parallel agreement that would re-energize stalled talks on a broader regional pact.
(Reuters, 4/7/14)
2014 Apr 9, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. said it is recalling 6.39 million vehicles globally for a variety of problems spanning nearly 30 models in Japan, the US, Europe and other places.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 13, Japan’s Agricultural Ministry said two chickens have tested positive for avian influenza at a farm where more than 1,000 chickens have died, marking the country's first case of bird flu in three years.
(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 15, Hundreds of pro-whaling Japanese officials, lawmakers and lobby group members vowed to continue whale hunts despite a world court ruling that ordered the country to halt its Antarctic whaling program.
(AP, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 16, Japanese small-car maker Suzuki Motor Corp said it will introduce an affordable, simplified gas-electric hybrid technology in its cars, joining rivals in the race for fuel efficiency.
(Reuters, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 16, Mt. Gox said the Tokyo District Court decided the company, which was a trading platform and storehouse for the bitcoin virtual currency, would not be able to resurrect itself under a business rehabilitation process filed for in February.
(AP, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 19, A Chinese maritime court in Shanghai seized a ship owned by Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a move that Japan warned could have an adverse impact on its businesses in China. The court said the company had failed to pay compensation stemming from a WWII contractual obligation. On April 24 China said Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd has paid about $29 million for the release of the ship.
(Reuters, 4/21/14)(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe sent a religious offering to a Tokyo shrine that honors the dead, including executed war criminals — long a source of tension with Japan's neighbors China and South Korea.
(AP, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 22, Nearly 150 Japanese lawmakers paid homage at the Yasukuni shrine which honors the nation's war dead, raising the stakes in an already tense region on the eve of US President Barack Obama's visit.
(AFP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, President Barack Obama opened a four-country Asia tour in Japan aimed at reassuring allies in the region that the US remains a committed economic, military and political partner that can serve as a counterweight to China's growing influence.
(AP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 24, Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari said that the US and Japan made progress in trade talks but did not reach a final deal.
(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 25, President Barack Obama wrapped up a state visit to Japan during which he assured America's ally that Washington would come to its defense, but failed to clinch a trade deal key to both his "pivot" to Asia and PM Shinzo Abe's economic reforms.
(Reuters, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 26, A Japanese whaling fleet of four ships left port under tight security in the first hunt since the UN's top court last month ordered Tokyo to stop killing whales in the Antarctic.
(AFP, 4/26/14)
2014 May 11, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Tokyo for a summit with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe at which he is expected to raise the Iranian nuclear talks and economic cooperation.
(AFP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 23, China warned Japan to stay out of a growing dispute with its neighbors over the South China Sea, as the Philippines implicitly accused Beijing of delaying talks aimed at a solution.
(Reuters, 5/23/14)
2014 May 24, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is ready for talks with Japan over disputed Pacific Islands, but Japan may not be ready for negotiations. Japan has imposed a set of measures against Russia for its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.
(Reuters, 5/24/14)
2014 May 29, Japan and North Korea agreed to a deal in which Japan will relax sanctions in return for a North Korean investigation of abductions in the 1970s and 1980s.
(Econ, 6/7/14, p.43)
2014 Jun 5, In Japan billionaire Masayoshi Son's mobile phone company Softbank unveiled a robot dubbed Pepper that can decipher emotions. It will go on sale in Japan in February for 198,000 yen ($1,900). Overseas sales plans are under consideration but undecided.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 11, Japanese and Australian ministers meeting in Tokyo agreed to jointly develop stealth submarine technology. They agreed to begin the research next year.
(AP, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 18, Japan's parliament passed a law which bans possession of child pornography, but excludes sexually explicit depictions of children in comics, animation and computer graphics.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 21, Albie Sachs (79), the South African judge who rose to fame for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle, was awarded the Tang Prize, touted as Asia's version of the Nobels, for his contributions to human rights and justice. Earlier this week, Norwegian ex-premier Gro Harlem Brundtland was named as the first recipient of the prize for her work as the "godmother" of sustainable development, while noted Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih was awarded for his accomplishment in sinology. Immunologists James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan became joint recipients in the biopharmaceutical sciences category for their contributions in the fight against cancer. Named after China's Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), the Asian prize was founded by Taiwanese billionaire Samuel Yin in 2012 with a donation of Tw$3 billion.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 24, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe unveiled a fresh round of reforms, in the latest bid to cement a fragile recovery, his second attempt to fire the "third arrow" of his economic action plan.
(AFP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 29, In Japan a man set himself on fire at a busy intersection in Tokyo in an apparent protest against PM Shinzo Abe's plans to ease limits of the country's pacifist constitution. It was not immediately clear whether the man survived.
(Reuters, 6/29/14)
2014 Jun 30, In Japan thousands of people protested outside the PM Shinzo Abe's office in anticipation his government will reinterpret the constitution to allow Japan's military a larger international role.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jul 1, Japan’s cabinet approved a reinterpretation of the constitution ending a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad since 1945, a victory for PM Shinzo Abe but a move that has riled China and worries many Japanese voters.
(Reuters, 7/1/14)(Econ, 7/5/14, p.34)
2014 Jul 3, Japan eased some sanctions on North Korea in return for its reopening of a probe into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by the reclusive state decades ago, as a fresh report emerged that some of them were alive.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 8, Typhoon Neoguri pounded across the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa, as residents took refuge from destructive winds, towering waves and storm surges.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Australia Japan's PM Shinzo Abe met with Australian PM Tony Abbott to sign agreements bolstering defense and trade ties between the countries.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 17, Japan said it would join forces with Britain to jointly develop missile technology for fighter jets, while also moving to export Japanese-made parts for US surface-to-air missiles.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 25, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe struck a series of energy deals with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the start of a five-country Latin American tour.
(AFP, 7/26/14)
2014 Jul 27, In Japan Aiwa Matsuo (15) was found with her head and left hand severed on a bed in a suspect's apartment A schoolgirl (15) was arrested on suspicion of murdering her classmate and dismembering the body in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture.
(AFP, 7/27/14)
2014 Jul 28, Japan said it is imposing more sanctions against Russia over its support for pro-Moscow rebels in Ukraine who are accused of shooting down a Malaysian jet.
(AP, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 29, Japan announced that it had wrapped up a whale hunt in the Pacific, the second campaign since the UN's top court ordered Tokyo to halt a separate slaughter in the Antarctic. The country's fisheries agency said 115 whales were killed during the two-and-a-half month campaign.
(AFP, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 29, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met with Japan's PM Shinzo Abe, calling for accelerated bilateral trade talks and more investment by the Asian economic powerhouse.
(AFP, 7/30/14)
2014 Jul, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi was arrested after she mailed 3-D data of a kayak in the shape her vagina to supporters. She was interrogated for 23 days and then released. In December Igarashi was arrested again for suspicion of displaying an obscene object. Her trial opened in April, 2015.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megumi_Igarashi)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.41)
2014 Aug 1, Japan named five uninhabited small isles belonging to an island group in the center of a dispute with China as part of efforts to reinforce its claim, a move likely to spark anger from Beijing and another claimant, Taiwan.
(AP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Japan announced that it will give Vietnam six naval gunboats to boost its patrol capacity.
(Econ, 8/16/14, p.33)
2014 Aug 5, Japan unveiled details of financial sanctions against 40 individuals and two groups involved in the annexation of Crimea and destabilization of eastern Ukraine.
(AFP, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 8, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Japan and the United States will jointly develop a fuel-cell powered submarine that can run for a month under the sea on a single charge an unmanned. The 10-meter (33-feet) long sub would be able to chart a pre-programmed course before returning to base.
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 9, Japan and South Korea vowed to "deepen communication" in the future during a rare meeting in Myanmar ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 12, Russia said it has begun military exercises in the Kurile Islands in the Pacific Ocean, a move likely to anger Japan, which also lays claim to them.
(Reuters, 8/12/14)
2014 Aug 15, Japan froze the assets of Ocean Maritime Management, operator of the North Korean ship seized for smuggling arms detained near the Panama Canal a year ago carrying Soviet-era arms.
(Reuters, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 15, A Japanese whaling vessel, the 712-ton Shonan-maru No.2, was ordered into a Russian port after sailing through the Sea of Okhotsk off Sakhalin island without going through the proper procedures.
(AFP, 8/21/14)
2014 Aug 19, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for detaining Haruna Yukawa, a doctor an d a journalist, in Syria in a post on the Internet.
(Reuters, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 20, In Japan more than 50 people, including several children, were killed when landslides triggered by torrential rain slammed into the outskirts of the western city of Hiroshima. 28 people remained missing. On Aug 24 another landslide in the north killed 2 women.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 25, Japan said it is ready to provide a Japanese-developed anti-influenza drug as a possible treatment for the rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 29, Japan executed a mobster and a killer arsonist, bringing to 11 the total number of death sentences carried out since PM Shinzo Abe took power in 2012.
(AFP, 8/29/14)
2014 Aug 30, India’s PM Narendra Modi was welcomed by Japanese PM Shinzo Abe as he began a five-day visit to the country.
(Reuters, 8/30/14)
2014 Sep 1, Japan and India agreed to step up their economic and security cooperation as visiting PM Narendra Modi won pledges of support for his effort to revitalize the lagging Indian economy.
(AP, 9/1/14)
2014 Sep 1, Japan urged local authorities to be on the lookout for further outbreaks of dengue fever, after confirming another 19 cases contracted at a popular local park in downtown Tokyo. The health ministry earlier reported three local cases, the first in nearly 70 years.
(AP, 9/1/14)
2014 Sep 2, Japanese researchers said they have developed a new method to detect the presence of the Ebola virus in 30 minutes, with technology that could allow doctors to quickly diagnose infection.
(AFP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 3, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe picked five women for his Cabinet, matching the past record.
(AP, 9/3/14)
2014 Sep 5, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe won Dhaka's support for Tokyo's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council as he began a visit to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka aimed at offsetting China's mounting influence in South Asia.
(AFP, 9/6/14)
2014 Sep 7, Four Japanese ships left the northern island of Hokkaido to start the seasonal "research" whaling hunt in Pacific coastal waters.
(AFP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 7, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse held talks with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe. The two leaders agreed to forge stronger maritime links between their countries in a move seen as countering China's influence in the region.
(AFP, 9/8/14)
2014 Sep 7, Japanese film idol Yoshiko Yamaguchi (94) died of heart failure. She was known as Rikoran and symbolized Japan's wartime dreams of Asian conquest. Known as Shirley Yamaguchi in the US she was one of biggest Japanese film stars during and after World War II.
(AP, 9/14/14)
2014 Sep 9, Japan released a 12,000-page history of Emperor Hirohito (d.1989). His 62-year reign spanned Japan’s invasion of much of Asia and its post WWII recosntruction.
(SFC, 9/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 10, In southern Japan the Sendai Nuclear Power Station's two reactors won regulators' approval under new safety standards imposed after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, a key step toward becoming the first to restart under the tighter rules.
(AP, 9/10/14)
2014 Sep 16, In Japan the first dolphins of the season were slaughtered in the small town of Taiji.
(AFP, 9/16/14)
2014 Sep 17, Japan agreed to cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as part of moves to protect the endangered species. The agreement with China, South Korea and Taiwan called for reducing eel hauls by 20 percent for one year, beginning in November.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 18, In Slovenia an international whaling conference voted against Japan's highly criticized plans to resume whaling in the Antarctic next year, but Japan vowed to go ahead anyway.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 24, Japan said that it has stepped up sanctions against Russia over the unrest in Ukraine to be in line with other Group of Seven nations before their upcoming meeting in New York.
(AP, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 24, Japan’s economy minister stormed out of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in Washington DC. The TPP involved a dozen countries on a proposed free trade area.
(Econ, 10/4/14, p.47)
2014 Sep 25, Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co said it would cut access to its grid for renewable energy suppliers, the third of Japan's 10 regional monopolies to place limits on their cleaner energy intake because of network limitations.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 27, In central Japan the Mount Ontake volcano erupted in spectacular fashion, catching mountain climbers by surprise. At least 51 people were killed with 63 injured.
(AP, 9/27/14)(Reuters, 10/1/14)(AP, 10/4/14)
2014 Oct 5, In Japan Typhoon Phanfone washed away 3 US Air Force members on Okinawa as it headed for Tokyo.
(AP, 10/5/14)
2014 Oct 6, Typhoon Phanfone lashed Japan with torrential rain after killing at least one person, forcing the cancellation of flights and prompting warnings to more than 200,000 people to evacuate their homes.
(Reuters, 10/6/14)
2014 Oct 7, Two Japanese scientists and a Japanese-born American won the Nobel Prize in physics for inventing blue light-emitting diodes. Isamu Akasaki (85), Hiroshi Amano (54) and naturalized US citizen Shuji Nakamura (54) revolutionized lighting technology two decades ago when they came up with a long-elusive component of the white LED lights.
(AP, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 8, South Korean prosecutors indicted Japanese journalist Tatsuya Kato for defamation of President Park Geun-hye over an article he wrote about her personal life and whereabouts on April 3, the day of a deadly ferry disaster. On Dec 17, 2015, a Seoul court cleared Kato of the charges.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(SFC, 12/19/15, p.A4)
2014 Oct 9, A Japanese judge ordered Google to remove search results of a man's unflattering past in an order the plaintiff's lawyer compared to Europe's "right to be forgotten" ruling.
(AP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Japan at least 35 people were reported injured as Typhoon Vongfong, packing winds of up to 180 km (110 miles) per hour and heavy rain, hit the southern island of Okinawa.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 13, Typhoon Vongfong barreled into Japan's main islands, with at least 2 people killed, one person missing and scores injured while more than 550 flights were grounded.
(AFP, 10/13/14)(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 18, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unveiled first passenger aircraft to be made in Japan in nearly four decades as Mitsubishi pushed into the booming regional jet sector with an eye to taking on industry giants Embraer and Bombardier.
(AFP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 20, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe suffered a double setback with the resignations of two female cabinet ministers over claims they misused political funds, dealing a blow to his proclaimed gender reform drive.
(AFP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 28, Japanese and North Korean officials held talks in Pyongyang for the first time in 10 years, meeting to assess progress into North Korea's investigation into the fates of Japanese citizens who were abducted in the 1970s and '80s.
(AP, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 28, In southwest Japan the town of Satsumasendai became the first to approve the restart of a nuclear power station.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 31, The Bank of Japan unexpectedly announced a new stimulus package to boost the country's struggling economy. The announcement came after economic data showed that Japan's economy remained in the doldrums following a sales tax hike in April.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct, Kenji Goto, a veteran Japanese war correspondent was captured by the militants late this month when he went to Syria seeking the release of Haruna Yukawa. Yukawa was seized by militants in August after going to Syria to launch a security company.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2014 Nov 7, China said it has reached agreement with Japan to ramp up high-level contacts. China and Japan jointly announced that they are seeking to improve relations and set up a system to prevent minor maritime contingencies from escalating into true warfare.
(AP, 11/7/14)(SFC, 11/8/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 8, The foreign ministers of China and Japan held talks ahead of a hoped-for meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe after more than two years of frozen high-level contacts.
(AP, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that he would call an early election to seek a fresh mandate for his economic policies, and postpone an unpopular sales tax rise, a day after data showed the economy had slipped back into recession.
(Reuters, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 18, Japan slashed its whale catch target in the Antarctic by two-thirds in a bid to resume its annual whale hunt, which an international court ruled must stop.
(AP, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 19, In Japan millionair Chisako Kakehi (67) was arrested on suspicion of poisoning her husband with cyanide as it emerged six former partners had already died.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 21, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe dissolved parliament's lower house for a snap election on Dec. 14, seeking a fresh mandate for his struggling "Abenomics" revival strategy.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, Japan's transport ministry said it has ordered air bag maker Takata to conduct an internal investigation after cases of its air bags exploding triggered safety concerns in the US and other countries.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 22, In central Japan a magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck near Nagano city causing at least one building to collapse. At least 50 homes were destroyed in two villages, and 41 people injured across the region.
(AP, 11/22/14)(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 24, In southern California workers at Sony Pictures discovered that its computer system had been beached. They were greeted with an image of a skeleton and a message that said “Hacked by #GOP," a reference to a group calling itself Guardians of Peace.The cyberattack was later expected to cost the studio tens of millions. On Feb 4, 2015, Sony Corp. said it has spent an estimated 15 million in investigating and recovering from the cyberattack.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.D4)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.C3)
2014 Nov 25, Japanese police arrested four South Korean men at a harbor where ferries depart for Busan on suspicion of stealing an ancient Buddha statue. A 5th man was arrested the next day. The stolen "Birth of Buddha" statue dates to sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries.
(AP, 11/25/14)
2014 Nov 27, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. recalled more than 40,000 vehicles as part of a worldwide scare over defective air bags and is investigating a new type of air bag problem that could lead to further recalls.
(AP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, In southern Japan the Mount Aso volcano blasted out chunks of magma in the first such eruption in 22 years, causing flight cancellations and prompting warnings to stay away from its crater.
(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov, Japan’s national debt stood at over 240% of GDP.
(Econ, 11/15/14, p.42)
2014 Dec 1, Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating in response to PM Abe’s moved to delay last month a second rise in the consumption tax, which had been due in 2015.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.41)
2014 Dec 3, A Japanese space explorer took off on a six-year journey to blow a crater in a remote asteroid and bring back rock samples in hopes of gathering clues to the origin of Earth. Hayabusa2, is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018.
(AP, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 10, Japanese prosecutors charged a 68-year-old woman with murder, weeks after she was arrested on suspicion of poisoning her husband, one of at least six men who have died while in a relationship with her over the past 20 years. Chisako Kakehi has denied responsibility for the deaths.
(AP, 12/10/14)
2014 Dec 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition cruised to a big election win, but record low turnout could weaken his claim of a mandate for reflationary policies to revive the economy.
(Reuters, 12/14/14)
2014 Dec 19, Japanese researcher Haruko Obokata said in a statement that she was leaving the Riken Center for Developmental Biology after the lab concluded the stem cells she said she had created probably never existed. The center said it had stopped trying to match Obokata's results.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 24, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was re-elected by parliament to serve another term. He unveiled a new cabinet, appointing as defense chief, Gen Nakatani, whose desire for a stronger pre-emptive strike capability could rile neighbor China.
(Reuters, 12/24/14)(SFC, 12/25/14, p.A9)
2014 Dec 25, Citigroup said it has agreed to sell its retail banking business in Japan to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
(AP, 12/25/14)
2014 Dec 27, Japan's Cabinet approved 3.5 trillion yen ($29 billion) in fresh stimulus for the ailing economy.
(AP, 12/27/14)
2014 David Pilling authored “Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Adversity."
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.81)
2014 Japan-based Aizu Electric installed its first solar farm 125 km west of Fukushima. The company was formed in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.28)
2014 Japan-based Sony Corp. failed to pay a dividend this year for the first time since it bacem listed as a public company in 1958.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.62)
2015 Jan 6, Japan-based Toyota said it will give away thousands of patents for its fuel-cell cars, in an effort to encourage other automakers into the new industry. The cost-free licenses will be allowed "through the initial market introduction period" of fuel cell vehicles (FCV).
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 8, The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has fined Honda $70 million for failing to submit reports of fatal accidents and injuries to the government.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.C3)
2015 Jan 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe pledged $2.5 billion in humanitarian and development aid for the Middle East as he launched a regional tour that includes visits to Jordan and Israel.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe flew into Tel Aviv at the start of a three-day official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 20, The militant group Islamic State released an online video purporting to show two Japanese captives and threatening to kill them unless it received $200 million in ransom. The footage named the men as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 24, Japan strongly criticized a recording purporting to announce the execution of a Japanese citizen held by Islamic State militants and demanded the immediate release of another captive depicted as appearing on the image. The recording appeared to show captive Haruna Yukawa being killed.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 25, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe branded the murder of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa by Islamic State militants as "outrageous and unforgivable" and demanded the immediate release of a second captive, amid a tide of global revulsion.
(AFP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 29, Two pilots soaring over the Pacific traveled farther than the 5,209-mile official world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon. The Two Eagles balloon passed a record set by the Double Eagle in 1981. Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia began their flight from Saga, Japan, on Jan 25. On Jan 30 they surpassed the 1978 duration record by spending over 138 hours in the air.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A8)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 31, Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, prompting PM Shinzo Abe to vow to step up humanitarian aid to the group's opponents in the Middle East and help bring his killers to justice.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 7, Kenji Ekuan (85), Japanese industrial designer, died in Tokyo. His works ranged from a bullet train to the red-capped Kikkoman soy sauce dispenser as familiar as the classic Coca-Cola bottle. A former monk, Ekuan crafted a tabletop bottle for Kikkoman Corp. in 1961, winning international popularity both for the handy, flask-shaped dispenser.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 10, Japan and Mongolia signed a free trade agreement.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 20, The US government said it will fine Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp. $14,000 per day for failing to fully cooperate in a long-running investigation of faulty and potentially dangerous air bag inflators.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 22, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea. The firm said it has shut the gutter to prevent radioactive water from going into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 24, Finmeccanica, Italy’s state-controlled aerospace and defense groups said Japan’s Hitachi will buy its rail businesses.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.58)
2015 Mar 13, Japan and France signed an arms transfer agreement, paving the way to develop drones and other unmanned equipment together as Japan seeks to play a greater international military role.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Japan the governor of Okinawa ordered the suspension of work on a new US airfield at Camp Schwab.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 28, Japan opened what organizers billed as the world's first "Otaku" (geeks) summit, drawing visitors from around the world as the country looks to boost the international fan base for Japanese comic books and anime.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Japan a landmark vote by the assembly of Tokyo's Shibuya ward, the district famous as a mecca for trendy youngsters became the first locale in Japan to recognize same sex partnerships as the "equivalent of a marriage," guaranteeing the identical rights of married couples, including hospital visitations and apartment rentals.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, In Japan Misao Okawa (117), identified as the world’s oldest person, died in Osaka a few weeks after celebrating her birthday.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 9, A Japanese research team said it has developed a field test for Ebola that gives results in just over 11 minutes -- down from the 90-minute test used now.
(AFP, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 10, In Japan frantic rescue efforts saved just 3 dolphins after about 150 mostly melon-headed whales, or blackfish beached themselves and became stranded on a northeastern coast in Hokota.
(AP, 4/10/15)
2015 Apr 14, A Japanese court issued an injunction ordering two nuclear reactors in western Japan to stay offline, rejecting regulators' safety approval of the reactors' planned restart later this year.
(AP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 14, Japan and South Korea held their first high-level security talks in more than five years despite simmering tensions over territorial and historical disputes.
(AFP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 21, Japan’s maglev train set a world speed record during a test run near Mount Fuji, clocking 375 mph.
(SSFC, 4/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Apr 22, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 22, A Japanese court rejected an injunction requested by local residents opposed to resuming operations of two nuclear reactors, giving the go-ahead for their restart as planned this summer.
(AP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 22, Japanese authorities said they were investigating after a small drone laced with traces of radiation was found on the roof of the prime minister's office, sparking concerns about drones and their possible use for terrorist attacks.
(AP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 27, The United States and Japan unveiled new guidelines for defense cooperation, reflecting Japan's willingness to take on a more robust international role amid growing Chinese power and rising concerns about nuclear-armed North Korea. This was the first revision to the guidelines since 1997.
(Reuters, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 28, President Barack Obama welcomed Japanese PM Shinzo Abe with full pomp and ceremony. Trade and security issues topped their agenda.
(AP, 4/28/15)
2015 Apr 29, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe sought support for a trans-Pacific trade pact that has divided US lawmakers as he made the first address by a Japanese leader to a joint meeting of Congress. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would encompass 12 countries in Asia and the Americas and apply to 40% of the world’s economy.
(AP, 4/29/15)(Econ, 10/10/15, p.71)
2015 May 6, Japan-based Toyoto said that eight California dealerships will be the first in the US to ofer the $57,500 Mirai fuel-cell vehicle with deliveries to begin in October.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.C1)
2015 May 13, Japan-based Toyota and Mazda announced an expansion of their partnership and a joint committee to figure out how best to work together.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.C6)
2015 May 14, Japan's cabinet approved a set of bills bolstering the role and scope of the military, as the pacifist country redefines its position in the increasingly roiled Asia-Pacific region.
(AFP, 5/14/15)
2015 May 20, Japan's association of zoos and aquariums said it will stop buying dolphins taken in the controversial hunt at Taiji, possibly raising pressure to halt the annual event said to be a tradition.
(Reuters, 5/20/15)
2015 May 21, In Japan the mayor of the fishing town of Taiji said dolphin hunts will not stop, even after Japan's aquariums decided to stop buying captured dolphins under international pressure sparked by cruelty concerns.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 23, Japan pledged 55 billion yen ($450 million) in aid to Pacific island nations, including Fiji, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands and others, that are battling rising sea levels and natural calamities as a result of global warming.
(AP, 5/23/15)
2015 May 27, In southern Japan a nuclear plan obtained the final permit needed to restart its reactors, paving the way for it to become the first to go back online under new safety standards introduced after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
(AP, 5/27/15)
2015 May 29, Japanese and European leaders agreed to step up defense and economic ties, and expressed concern about rising tensions in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, In Japan Mount Shindake erupted on Kuchinoerabu island spewing out rocks and sending black clouds of ash 9 km (5.6 miles) into the sky.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, A magnitude 8.5 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan, shaking buildings in Tokyo.
(Reuters, 5/30/15)
2015 May, Masayoshi Son, the Japanese founder and CEO of SoftBank, named Nikesh Arora, Google’s former chief business executive, as his successor and gave him the title of president. Mr. Arora’s pay for the first his first six months of work was nearly $140 million.
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.64)
2015 Jun 2, Philippine President Benigno Aquino began a four-day visit to Japan that will see him court investment and seek support for his opposition to China's land reclamation in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 4, Japan and the Philippines agreed to start talks on transferring Japanese military hardware and technology to the Southeast Asian country trying to upgrade its defenses.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 5, Japanese automaker Mazda said it is recalling nearly 540,000 older cars and pickup trucks in the US and Canada, adding to the growing list of models under recall for air bags that potentially can explode with too much force. Last month Takata and the US government agreed to double the number of inflators it recalled to 33.8 million.
(AP, 6/5/15)
2015 Jun 6, Chinese and Japanese finance ministers held talks in Beijing to deepen economic cooperation that had been delayed for about two years over strained relations between the Asian giants.
(AP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 17, Japan’s Diet enacted legislation to lower the voting age to 18 from 20.
(SSFC, 6/21/15, p.A4)
2015 Jun 17, Japan warned China that its extensive land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea does not make ownership a done deal.
(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 18, In Japan Julie Hamp (55), Toyota's highest ranking female executive, was arrested on suspicion of importing oxycodone, a narcotic pain killer. On July 8 Hamp was released from custody without charges. She had resigned from Toyota a week earlier.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jun 25, Mitsubishi said it is recalling about 460,000 cars in the US because the air bags have the potential to push sun visors into passengers and cause injuries in a crash. The company is also recalling about 75,000 later-model Eclipses and Spyders for anti-lock braking problems.
{Japan, USA, Cars}
2015 Jun 25, Subaru said it is recalling about 72 thousand 2015 vehicles to fix a software problem that could cause the automatic braking system to fail.
(AP, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 30, In Japan a man set himself on fire on a high-speed bullet train heading from Tokyo to Osaka, killing himself and another passenger as the coach filled with smoke.
(AP, 6/30/15)
2015 Jun, Freelance Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda was last heard from in Syria. A video released on August 31, 2018, said he was in harsh environment and needed an immediate rescue.
(AP, 8/1/18)
2015 Jul 5, In Japan the world's oldest man, a retired educator, died. Sakari Momoi (112) died from kidney failure at a nursing home in Tokyo.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 5, The UNESCO World Heritage Committee approved a collection of almost two dozen Japanese sites, as a world heritage site, illustrating the country’s industrial revolution during the 1868-1912 era of the Meiji Emperor.
(SFC, 7/6/15, p.A5)
2015 Jul 7, Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co. began loading fuel into a nuclear reactor where operations are scheduled to resume next month in the country's first restart under safety requirements set following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 9, Honda said it is recalling 4.5 million vehicles in Japan and other markets outside North America to replace airbags supplied by Takata. Some 40 million vehicles have been affected in what has become the world’s most extensive auto-safety recall.
(SFC, 7/10/15, p.C3)
2015 Jul 11, In Japan Satoru Iwata (55), head of Nintendo Co., died at Kyoto University Hospital after a lengthy illness. He had led the video game company through years of growth with its Pokemon and Super Mario franchises.
(AP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 15, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling 625,000 Prius hybrid vehicles worldwide because they can stall without warning.
(AP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 17, Japan scrapped the design of the Olympic stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Games because of soaring costs and said it will reopen bidding for a new plan, in a stunning reversal that leaves the 2019 Rugby World Cup without a main venue. The $13.6 billion design by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid was likened to a giant turtle.
(Econ, 6/20/15, p.38)(AP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 17, Powerful Typhoon Nangka lashed Japan, killing at least 2 people and triggering floods.
(AFP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's support rate fell nearly 10 points to 37.7 percent in a poll released today, the first since his ruling bloc pushed forward legislation marking a dramatic shift in the nation's post-war defense policy.
(Reuters, 7/18/15)
2015 Jul 20, In Japan about 10,000 spectators watched the purification rite at the annual Marine Day at the Hamaori Festival in Chigasaki. This also marked the arrival of summer in the Chigasaki region.
(AP, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 21, Japan-based Toshiba Corp. acknowledged a systematic cover-up, which began in 2008. Toshiba's CEO and eight other executives resigned to take responsibility for doctored books that inflated profits at the Japanese technology manufacturer by 152 billion yen ($1.2 billion) over several years. Regulators imposed a record fine of $60 million on the company.
(AP, 7/21/15)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.50)
2015 Jul 22, In Japan an outside director of Mitsubishi Materials said that the company hopes to apologize to former British, Dutch and Australian World War II POWs, and also reach an amicable agreement with Chinese forced laborers, following a landmark apology to American POWs earlier this week.
(AP, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 23, Pearson PLC, the owner of the Financial Times, said it has agreed to sell FT Group to Nikkei Inc. for 844 million pounds ($1.3 billion), payable in cash.
(AP, 7/23/15)
2015 Jul 26, In Japan a small plane crashed into a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, killing the pilot, a passenger and a woman on the ground. Three people were pulled alive from the wreckage.
(AP, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 28, Japan approved an increase in compensation payments for the Fukushima crisis to 7.07 trillion yen ($57.18 billion), as tens of thousands of evacuees remain in temporary housing more than four years after the disaster.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 29, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe outlined the largest increase in the country’s minimum wage since 2002 from ¥780 (about $6.30 an hour) to ¥798,( 6.45/hr).
(Econ, 8/15/15, p.66)
2015 Jul 31, WikiLeaks said the US National Security Agency targeted Japanese politicians, its top central banker and major firms for years, in the latest revelations about Washington's snooping on allies.
(AFP, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 1, Japanese police arrested Mark Karpeles, head of the MtGox Bitcoin exchange, after a series of fraud allegations led to its spectacular collapse and hammered the digital currency's reputation.
(AFP, 8/1/15)
2015 Aug 11, In Japan control rods were lifted from the reactor core at the Sendai nuclear plant, ending a ban on nuclear power following meltdowns at Fukushima.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 19, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched an unmanned transport vehicle that is carrying water, parts and other supplies to the International Space Station.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 22, Japan lodged a protest over Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev's visit to one of four disputed Pacific islands which have strained ties between the two countries since the end of World War Two. The islands are known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles and referred to as the Northern Territories in Japan.
(Reuters, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 28, Japanese lawmakers approved a law requiring large employers to set and publicize targets for hiring or promoting women as managers.
(AP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 30, In Japan tens of thousands of protesters rallied outside parliament to oppose security legislation in one of this summer's biggest protests ahead of its anticipated passage next month.
(AP, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 31, The Hotel Okura, a favored Tokyo lodging for US presidents, movie stars and other celebrities, closed the doors of its landmark main building to make way for a pair of glass towers ahead of the 2020 Olympics. The building had opened in 1962, ahead of the 1964 Games.
(AP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 5, Japan's government lifted a 4 1/2-year-old evacuation order for the northeastern town of Naraha that had sent all of the town's 7,400 residents away following the disaster at the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant.
(AP, 9/5/15)
2015 Sep 10, Central and eastern Japan were doused with unusually heavy rains over the last two days on the heels of Tropical Storm Etau that triggered flooding and landslides. Rising waters of the Kinugawa River broke through a flood berm, sending water gushing into Joso city where 22 people were left missing.
(AP, 9/10/15)
2015 Sep 15, Vietnam agreed with Japan to step up security cooperation, becoming the latest Southeast Asian country to seek closer ties with Tokyo as China maintains an assertive posture in disputed waters in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 9/15/15)
2015 Sep 17, Japan’s police said Jonathan Nakada (30), who threw himself out a second-story window as police pursued him, is being investigated in the slayings of 3 people inside the house and 3 more this week in the neighborhood near Tokyo.
(AP, 9/17/15)
2015 Sep 19, Japan passed security bills that reinterpret the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution and that allow its military to engage in fighting abroad even if Japan is not attacked.
(AP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 24, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe announced an updated plan for reviving the world's third-largest economy, setting a GDP target of 600 trillion yen ($5 trillion).
(AP, 9/24/15)
2015 Oct 5, Irish-born William Campbell (85) and Japan's Satoshi Omura (80) won half of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. China's Tu Youyou (84) was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths.
(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 5, Twelve Pacific rim countries sealed the deal on creating the world's largest free trade area (TPP), delivering President Barack Obama a major policy triumph. The Trans-Pacific Partnership included Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.
(AFP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 6, The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Japanese researcher Takaaki Kajita and Canadian Arthur McDonald for discovering that tiny particles called neutrinos change identities as they whiz through the universe, proving that they have mass.
(AP, 10/6/15)
2015 Oct 15, Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay were elected to the UN Security Council during an uncontested vote for the non-permanent seats.
(AFP, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 21, Japanese Buddhist monk Kogen Kamahori (41) finished a grueling nine-day ritual without eating, drinking, or sleeping as he chanted sutras 100,000 times at Mount Hieizan.
(AFP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 21, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. said it is recalling 6.5 million vehicles worldwide for a defective power window switch that can overheat, melt and lead to fires.
(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 22, US safety regulators said 8 people have died and 98 people have been injured by exploding air bag inflators made by Takata Corp. About 23.4 million Takata driver and passenger air bag inflators have been recalled on 19.2 million US vehicles sold by 12 auto and truck makers.
(AP, 10/22/15)
2015 Oct 22, Masayoshi Son (58), the Japanese founder and CEO of SoftBank, proposed that the artifical intelligence will exceed the human kind by about 2055 in an event call the Singularity.
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.64)
2015 Oct 23, Japan and Turkmenistan signed deals worth over $18 billion on a package of projects in the energy-rich central Asian nation, which has become an important supplier of natural gas to China.
(Reuters, 10/23/15)
2015 Nov 1, The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea pledged to work toward greater economic integration at their first joint meeting in over three years. China and Japan agreed to restart mutual visits of their foreign ministers and hold bilateral high-level economic dialogue early next year in a meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and PM Shinzo Abe in Seoul, South Korea.
(Reuters, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 3, US auto safety regulators fined Japan’s Takata Corp. $70 million for concealing evidence for years that its air bags are prone to explode. The defect was linked to 8 deaths and over 100 injuries worldwide.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.C2)
2015 Nov 6, Toyota said it is investing $1 billion in a research company it's setting up in Silicon Valley to develop artificial intelligence and robotics, underlining the Japanese automaker's determination to lead in futuristic cars that drive themselves and apply the technology to other areas of daily life.
(AP, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 17, Japan sued its southern region of Okinawa over local resistance to a new US military base.
(AFP, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 24, A Japanese rocket lifted off and successfully put the national space program's first commercial satellite into orbit.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Nov 27, Japan said it is investigating nearly a dozen suspicious boats recently found drifting off the country's coastline, some with decaying bodies aboard. At least 11 cases involving wooden boats, some badly damaged, with 20 bodies on board have been reported during October and November. Korean writing was visible on the boats as well as clothes left inside the vessels.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 29, Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd warned Japan against resuming "research" whaling in the Antarctic and called on the Australian government to intervene.
(AFP, 11/29/15)
2015 Dec 1, Japan's whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic to resume a hunt for the mammals after a year-long hiatus.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 9, Japan's space agency said its "Akatsuki" probe had successfully entered into orbit around Venus after an initial attempt at reaching the second planet from the sun failed five years ago.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 12, India and Japan signed agreements in New Delhi that could pave the way for Tokyo to supply New Delhi with military aircraft and high-speed trains, as PM Shinzo Abe promised to fully support India's efforts to become an economic powerhouse.
(AP, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 15, Japan-based SoftBank said SB Energy, a three way joint venture of Japan's SoftBank Group, Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology Co Ltd, has won an order to develop a solar plant in India, marking SoftBank's first foray into renewable energy there.
(Reuters, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 16, Japan's Supreme Court ruled that requiring married couples to have the same surname is constitutional, dealing a blow to a longtime effort for gender equality in choosing names.
(AP, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 18, Japan executed two people by hanging, including one who was convicted in a jury trial for the first time under a new system that began six years ago.
(AP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, In Japan about 20 anti-Christmas protesters calling themselves "Losers with Women" marched through Tokyo's streets, bashing the upcoming holiday as a capitalist ploy that also discriminates against singletons.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 21, Japan’s scandal-plagued manufacturer Toshiba Corp. said it is cutting 6,800 jobs after projecting a net loss of 550 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March 2016.
(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 24, Japan's Cabinet approved a record-high military spending plan, endorsing proposals to purchase pricey US surveillance drones and F-35 fighter jets as Tokyo steps up cooperation with Washington amid China's increasingly assertive activity in regional seas.
(AP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 25, In Japan local authorities on Okinawa sued the central government in an attempt to stop the relocation of a US air base.
(AP, 12/25/15)
2015 Dec 26, Japanese authorities said that for the first time, an armed Chinese coast guard vessel entered its territorial waters off islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 28, South Korea and Japan reached a landmark agreement to resolve the issue of "comfort women", as those who were forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels were euphemistically known.
(Reuters, 12/28/15)
2015 Taggart Murphy authored “Japan and the Shackles of the Past."
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.74)
2015 Susan Southard authored “Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War."
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.74)
2015 Japan’s sovereign debt this year reached 240% of GDP, the highest in the world, and continued to grow.
(Econ, 11/7/15, p.72)
2015 Reporters without Borders ranked Japan in 61st place this year, a fall of 50 places in five years.
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.37)
2015 A record 19.7 million people visited Japan this year, up from 13.4 million in 2014. Travelers from China topped the list.
(SSFC, 1/24/16, p.A4)
2016 Jan 6, A group of elderly Filipino women raped by Japanese troops during World War II called for compensation from Japan, following Tokyo's pledge of $8.3 million for South Korean women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during the war.
(AP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 15, In central Japan an overnight tour bus slid down a mountainside killing at least 14 passengers near Karuizawa.
(SFC, 1/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 28, Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari resigned abruptly to take responsibility for a political funding scandal that has rocked the government, but denied having taken bribes.
(Reuters, 1/28/16)
2016 Jan 29, The Bank of Japan said it will charge lenders that leave too much cash on idle deposit with it, introducing a negative interest rate policy for the first time as it seeks to shore up a stumbling economic recovery.
(AP, 1/29/16)
2016 Jan 30, In South Korea the education ministers of South Korea, Japan and China held the first three-way meeting among the countries that often spar over how their wartime past is described in textbooks.
(AP, 1/30/16)
2016 Feb 2, A Japanese special police unit that deals with alleged espionage arrested an ethnic Korean resident on suspicion of fraud. Kyodo News agency soon reported his name as Pak Chae-Hun.
(AFP, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 5, Japan deported Ric O'Barry, the star of an Oscar-winning documentary that shows how dolphins are hunted in a Japanese village, after Tokyo airport officials barred his entry and he was held in detention for more than two weeks.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 5, Honda Motor Co. said that it would recall 5.7 million cars worldwide in the latest round of recalls involving Takata Corp. air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel into the vehicle.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 10, Japan announced that it will impose new sanctions on North Korea to protest a rocket launch seen as a test of missile technology.
(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 17, A Japanese satellite, developed in collaboration with NASA and various other groups, was launched. It was designed to observe X-rays emanating from black holes and galaxy clusters. On March 27 the director of Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science said the satellite has disappeared.
(AP, 3/28/16)
2016 Feb 18, Panasonic Corp. said it will recognize same-sex marriages in its employment policies in a rare move for a major Japanese manufacturer.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 18, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling nearly 2.9 million sports utility vehicles, including more than 1.1 million in the US, because of seat belts that might fail in a crash.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 21, In Japan thousands of people surrounded parliament to protest against government plans to relocate a US military base on Okinawa island.
(Reuters, 2/21/16)
2016 Feb 29, Japan signed an agreement to supply defense equipment to the Philippines, the first such Japanese defense pact in a region where the US allies have been alarmed by China's advance in disputed territories.
(AP, 2/29/16)
2016 Mar 4, The Japanese government said it had accepted a court-mediated settlement plan to halt construction work related to the relocation of a US airbase on Okinawa and resume talks with local authorities who want the base off the island.
(Reuters, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 7, Japanese telecommunications and Internet company SoftBank Group Corp. said it will reorganize into two new 100 percent-owned subsidiaries, with its global investment business separated from its domestic operations.
(AP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, Japanese police set up a special unit to oversee efforts to stem what they are describing as a full-fledged "war" between rival organized crime groups. The Yamaguchi-gumi gang based in the western city of Kobe has been rocked by internal strife since late last year following the defection of several top leaders who formed a rival splinter group.
(AFP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 8, Japanese women still faced a 100 day wait before they can remarry following legal changes approved by the country’s cabinet, a move condemned as discriminatory by a UN rights group.
(AFP, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 9, A Japanese court issued an unprecedented order for a nuclear reactor near Kyoto to stop operating and ordered a second one to stay offline.
(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 10, Japan-based Honda rolled out a new fuel cell vehicle, the first of its kind to be a five-seater. The zero-emissions Clarity may not sell in big numbers, however, given its price tag of 7.66 million yen ($67,000).
(AP, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 13, In Japan Okinawa police arrested Justin Castellanos (24) a US Navy seaman at Camp Schwab. Police said he is suspected of sexually assaulting a Japanese tourist in her 40s as she slept at her hotel earlier that morning. On July 15 Castellanos was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
(AP, 3/14/16)(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Mar 24, Japan's whaling fleet returned with 333 whales it caught in its first Antarctic harvest since an international court ruling stopped its hunt two years ago.
(AP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 27, In Japan girl (15) escaped from suspect Kabu Terauchi's apartment in downtown Tokyo while he was shopping in Akihabara. She had been held captive for nearly two years. Investigators captured Terauchi in the early hours of March 28 near a forest west of Tokyo.
(AP, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 28, Japan switched on a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of islands disputed by Japan and China, drawing an angry response from Beijing. The new Self Defense Force base is on the island of Yonaguni.
(Reuters, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 28, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe welcomed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe -- the 92-year-old former guerrilla fighter who is widely shunned in the West but frequently courted in Asia.
(AFP, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 29, In Japan a new security law took effect. Several security bills, passed in 2015, loosened constraints on Japan's military that were imposed after WW II and allows its troops to engage in overseas conflicts for reasons other than self-defense. Protesters and opposition politicians asked for the law to be scrapped and for PM Abe's administration to step down.
(AP, 3/29/16)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.35)
2016 Mar 30, Japanese regulators approved the use of a giant refrigeration system to create an unprecedented underground frozen barrier around buildings at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in an attempt to contain leaking radioactive water. The system was switched on the next day.
(AP, 3/30/16)(AP, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 3, A Japanese submarine made a port call in the Philippines, the first in 15 years, in a show of growing military cooperation amid tension triggered by China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 6, A Japanese military jet carrying six airmen disappeared from radar over southern Japan.
(AP, 4/6/16)
2016 Apr 14, In southern Japan an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck 11 km (7 miles) east of Kumamoto, bringing down some buildings. 9 people were killed. More than 100 aftershocks continued to rattle the region.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)(AP, 4/15/16)(AFP, 4/16/16)
2016 Apr 16, In southern Japan a magnitude 7.3 earthquake killed at least 32 people just two days after a 6.2 quake. The death from the two quakes rose to 41 and scores of people were feared buried alive. 11 people remained missing.
(AFP, 4/16/16)(Reuters, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 19, Japan's southern quake-hit area was rattled by a strong aftershock and searchers found a woman's body buried under landslide rubble. The death toll soon rose to 48 from two powerful earthquakes last week. Three people remained missing.
(AP, 4/19/16)(AP, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 20, Japan-based Mitsubishi Motors admitted that it had used improper methods to test the fuel economy of cars sold in Japan for 25 years.
(SFC, 4/27/16, p.C6)(Econ, 4/30/16, p.58)
2016 Apr 20, An earthquake measuring 6.1 magnitude struck off northeastern Japan.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 22, Japanese Transport Minister Keiichi Ishii said he wanted Mitsubishi Motors Corp to respond "with integrity" after revelations that it cheated on test to measure fuel economy, including by possibly buying back the cars in question.
(Reuters, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 23, Japan’s first stealth fighter jet, a prototype called the X-2 built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, took its maiden flight.
(CSM, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 28, In Japan Rina Shimabukuro (20) went missing, after she messaged her boyfriend that she was going for a walk. On May 19 police arrested Kenneth Shinzato, aka Kenneth Franklin Gadson (32), an American working as a computer and electrical contractor on the Kadena Air Base. After he was questioned investigators found the body at a location he provided, a forest in central Okinawa.
(AP, 5/20/16)(http://tinyurl.com/hezwoak)(Econ, 6/25/16, p.35)
2016 Apr 30, China laid out firm conditions for improved ties with Japan, telling Tokyo's visiting foreign minister Fumio Kishida that there could be "no ambiguity or vacillation" in meeting Beijing's demands over historical interpretation, relations with Taiwan and other key matters.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 May 3, The Philippine defense chief said his government has agreed in principle to lease five Japanese surveillance planes to be used in patrolling disputed areas of the South China Sea and in search-and-rescue missions during disasters.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 4, The US government said Japanese-based Takata Corp. will recall another 35-40 million air bag inflators bringing the total recall to as many as 69 million.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.C1)
2016 May 9, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (44), who makes objects shaped like her vagina, was convicted after a high-profile obscenity trial. The Tokyo District Court slapped her with a 400,000 yen ($3,700) fine. The court fined her for distributing digital data of her genitals but said her figurines, decorated with fake fur and glitter, could be considered "pop art".
(AFP, 5/9/16)(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 12, Japan-based Nissan said it is investing $2.2 billion to take a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors.
(SFC, 5/13/16, p.C2)
2016 May 12, French prosecutors said that $2 million tied to Tokyo's winning bid for the 2020 Olympics was apparently paid to an account linked to Papa Massata Diack (50), the son of disgraced former IAAF president Lamine Diack, in the months immediately before and after the Japanese capital won the games.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 13, Japan-based Honda said it would recall millions more cars equipped with airbags made by crisis-hit supplier Takata, in a widening of a scandal that has already led to the biggest auto recall in US history.
(AFP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 15, Japanese banks lost some 1.8 billion yen ($16.5 million) when fake overseas cards were used at convenience store ATMs. Fake cards of a South African bank were used. Police later arrested three suspects.
(AP, 6/7/16)
2016 May 20, In Japan the Group of Seven (G7) major economies showed a united front on fighting terrorist financing and tax evasion in talks that ended today, but shied away from coordinated action on policies to revive stalling growth.
(AP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 26, In Japan Group of Seven (G7) leaders agreed on the need to send a strong message on maritime claims in the western Pacific, where an increasingly assertive China is locked in territorial disputes with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)
2016 May 27, President Barack Obama became the first incumbent US leader to visit Hiroshima, the site of the world's first atomic bombing. Obama paid tribute to the "silent cry" of the 140,000 victims of the atomic bomb dropped 71 years ago on Hiroshima, and called on the world to abandon "the logic of fear" that encourages the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, In Japan G7 countries expressed concern over China's increasingly assertive activity in the East and South China seas, renewing their warnings against one-sided attempts to change the situation, and stressed the importance of peaceful resolutions.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, Britain told the G7 industrial powers meeting in Japan to do more to fight killer superbugs as the United States reported the first case in the country of a patient with bacteria resistant to a last-resort antibiotic.
(Reuters, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted documents detailing recalls by Honda, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari and Mitsubishi. More than 12 million vehicles in the US will be recalled to replace potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 28, The US military announced a 30-day period of mourning at its bases on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, where the killing of a woman has reignited resentment of the heavy US military presence in the region.
(Reuters, 5/28/16)
2016 Jun 1, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. apologized to Chinese workers who were forced to work in its predecessor company’s mines during WWII.
(SFC, 6/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 1, Ford Motor Co. said it is recalling nearly 1.9 million vehicles in North America to replace faulty passenger-side front air bags made by Japanese supplier Takata Corp.
(AP, 6/1/16)
2016 Jun 6, The US Navy banned drinking and restricted off-base activity for its personnel in Japan after a sailor was arrested a day earlier on suspicion of drunken driving in Okinawa.
(SFC, 6/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 9, Japanese automaker Honda said it is recalling 784,000 vehicles in Japan due to faulty Takata Corp. air bag inflators for front passenger seats.
(AP, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 15, In Japan Yoichi Masuzoe, the governor of Tokyo, resigned following a scandal over his use of public funds.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.40)
2016 Jun 17, China’s product quality agency announced that Honda Motor Co.'s Chinese joint venture is recalling 1 million sedans and SUVs to replace possibly faulty air bags made by Takata Corp.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 19, In Japan tens of thousands of people on the island of Okinawa protested against the presence of US military bases there, many wearing black to mourn the rape and killing of a local woman in which an American contractor is a suspect.
(AP, 6/19/16)
2016 Jun 21, In Japan Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose acknowledged that TEPCO’s delayed disclosure of the meltdowns at three reactors was tantamount to a cover-up and apologized for it.
(AP, 6/21/16)
2016 Jun 22, In China a six-nation security forum opened in Beijing as a multilateral forum involving high-level policymakers, defense ministry officials, military officers, and researchers from China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia, and the United States.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 29, Japan-based Toyota announced it is recalling 1.43 million vehicles for defective air bags and another 2.87 million vehicles for faulty fuel emissions controls.
(AP, 6/29/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Japan fourteen inmates in an immigration detention center launched a hunger strike over what they call "inhumane conditions" including poor medical care, drawing fresh attention to the country's detention system.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 5, Japan and the US announced that they will reduce the number of civilians working on American military bases who receive immunity from Japanese prosecution.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 6, Japan’s Nintendo video-gaming firm released Pokemon Go, an app for smart phones, in American, Australia and New Zealand. The Pokemon franchise began as a video game in 1996.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.54)
2016 Jul 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian space capsule was launched beginning a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carried Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA's Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of Japan’s space agency JAXA.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 10, Japan's ruling coalition was a clear winner in parliamentary elections, paving the way for PM Shinzo Abe to push ahead with his economic revival policies. PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party won 56 of 121 upper house seats up for grabs. Coalition parnter Komeito won 14 seats.
(AP, 7/10/16)(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 15, Japanese messaging app Line rocketed in its Tokyo trading debut after an eye-popping jump in NY a day earlier, as investors cheered the year's biggest technology share sale.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 18, It was announced that ARM Holdings, a British Cambridge-based tech company, would be sold to Japan’s SoftBank for £24 billion.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.44)
2016 Jul 26, In Japan Satoshi Uematsu (26) went on a stabbing rampage near Tokyo at the Yamayuri-en facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, killing 19 people. Months earlier he had given a letter to Parliament outlining the bloody plan and saying all disabled people should be put to death. This was Japan's deadliest mass killing in decades. In 2020 a court sentenced Uematsu to hang for the killings.
(AP, 7/26/16)(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, Thai police captured a Japanese lawyer who altered his appearance through plastic surgery to escape arrest for an alleged stock share manipulation scheme more than a decade ago. Yasuo Tsubaki (62) was sought by Japanese authorities for securities fraud amounting to more than 12 billion yen ($116 million) from 2001-2005.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, The United States military said it was preparing for the biggest land return in Okinawa since 1972, as it faces a surge in opposition to its presence following the arrest of one its civilian contractors for the murder of a local woman. The US Army said it would hand back 15 square miles to the Japanese government.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.20)
2016 Jul 31, In Japan veteran politician Yuriko Koike (64), fluent in English and Arabic, was elected as Tokyo's first woman governor.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Aug 2, Japan's Cabinet approved a fresh economic stimulus package worth more than 28 trillion yen ($275 billion), PM Shinzo Abe's latest effort to get the stalling recovery back on track.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 3, The United States and Japan called for the urgent talks after North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile that for the first time landed in Japanese-controlled waters.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 6, Japan issued a new protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 11, The top diplomats from Japan and the Philippines called on China to avoid intimidating actions and follow the rule of law in disputed waters where Beijing has defied an arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive territorial claims.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, A Chinese fishing boat sank after colliding with the Greek-flagged ship off the Japan-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims. Japanese coast guard ships rescued six crew members and searched for another eight missing.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 20, Japan was hit by a strong earthquake (6.0) off the northern coast one day after a magnitude 5.3 hit off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Brazil the curtain descended on two weeks of high drama at the Rio Games as Tokyo took up the baton and promised to go one better in 2020.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Japan Typhoon Mindulle struck near Tokyo, the first in 11 years to come ashore in the densely populated region, temporarily shutting down a major city airport and grounding more than 500 flights nationwide.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Kenya to launch the Tokyo Int’l. Summit on African Development which 35 heads of state are expected to attend.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Kenya Japanese PM Shinzo Abe told African leaders that his country will commit $30 billion in public and private support for infrastructure development, education and healthcare expansion in the continent.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 29, In western Japan a shooting at a small construction company in Wakayama killed one employee and left three others injured. On August 31 suspect Yasuhide Mizobata ended an 18-hour standoff with police by shooting himself in the stomach, and was taken to a hospital where he reportedly died.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 30, In northeastern Japan Typhoon Lionrock made landfall near the city of Ofunato, dumping heavy rain and generating high waves that caused flooding along the Pacific coast.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Japan 9 people were killed when floods inundated an old people's home in the town of Iwaizumi, taking the death toll from Typhoon Lionock battering northern parts of the country to at least 11. As of Sep 2 the death toll reached 14.
(Reuters, 8/31/16)(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin had a rare meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Vladivastok but there was no breakthrough in a territorial dispute that has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their WWII conflict.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 8, China's Ministry of Finance punished at least five car makers, accusing them of cheating its program to subsidize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, receiving roughly 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in illegal subsidies. By the next day it was reported that more than 20 additional car makers, including Nissan and Hyundai, were listed for breaking rules on green car subsidies, widening a scandal over a $4.5 billion annual payout program.
(Reuters, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 15, A local Japanese official said that hundreds of horseshoe crabs -- known as "living fossils" because they are among the Earth's oldest creatures -- have been found dead near Kitakyushu city where they lay their eggs.
(AFP, 9/15/16)
2016 Oct 3, Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi (71) won the 2016 Nobel prize for medicine for ground-breaking experiments with yeast which exposed a key mechanism in the body's defenses where cells degrade and recycle their components.
(Reuters, 10/3/16)(SFC, 10/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 30, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan, bringing astronauts Kate Rubins of NASA, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia back to Earth from a 115-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Nov 17, President-elect Donald Trump met with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe in Trump's first meeting with a world leader since his election last week.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 21, Japanese peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, landed in South Sudan, the first overseas deployment of the country's troops with those expanded powers in nearly 70 years. The 350 Self-Defense Forces will replace a previous contingent of Japanese peacekeepers who served in the UN Mission in South Sudan, but did not have mandate to use force.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 22, Northeastern Japan was jolted by a magnitude-7.4 earthquake, the strongest since a devastating quake and tsunami five years ago. Only moderate tsunami waves reached shore.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov, Russia announced the placement of missile defense systems on Etorofu and Kunashiri islands, part of the lower Kurile island chain also claimed by Japan.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.40)
2016 Dec 6, The US and Japan said that Washington will give nearly 10,000 acres of land on Okinawa back to the Japanese government. The land had been used by Marines for jungle warfare training and the giveback will be completed by Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 9, A Japanese capsule blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with much-needed supplies for the International Space Station, a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 11, Tokyo held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5 billion National Stadium to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 15, Japan and Russia agreed at a hot spring resort in southwest Japan to revive security talks and start discussing economic cooperation on disputed islands at the core of a row that has kept them from signing a peace treaty formally ending WWII.
(Reuters, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Nintendo of Japan released “Super Mario Run," its latest video game.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.69)
2016 Dec 16, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up two days of talks, with numerous economic deals but no big breakthrough on a territorial row that has overshadowed ties since World War Two.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 21, Japan's government announced that it will bolster its coast guard capabilities to defend East China Sea islands that China also claims and regularly patrols.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 22, Japan and the US marked a partial return of the land used by American troops to Okinawa in a ceremony on the southern island, but there was no sign the move was helping to lessen protests against the island's heavy US military presence. Nearly 10,000 acres was returned to Okinawa in exchange for six helipads for Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft being built nearby. Locals protested the ceremony.
(AP, 12/22/16)(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 22, In Japan a huge fire in Itoigawa city spread to about 140 buildings. It was brought under control after authorities called in extra firefighters to fight the blaze.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 26, Officials said Japan and the US have agreed in principle on guidelines for limiting immunity from Japanese prosecution for civilian workers at American military bases, following a murder case this year on a southern Japanese island involving a Marine-turned-contractor.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe stopped at several memorials in Hawaii, one day before he visits the site of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor during a trip intended to show a strong alliance between his country and the United States.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, In Hawaii Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met with President Obama to pay their respects at the site of the surprise Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor over 75 years ago that drew the United States into World War II.
(CSM, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 27, US electric car maker Tesla and Japanese electronics company Panasonic said they plan to begin production of solar cells at a factory in Buffalo, NY.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 28, In Japan government authorities filed papers demanding prosecutorial charges against an unidentified Dentsu employee suspected of driving Matsuri Takahashi (24) to suicide from overwork. Takahashi was clocking 100 hours of overtime a month before she jumped from her company dorm balcony in December 2015.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 The Int’l. Scientific Committee reported that Pacific bluefin tuna stocks were down by 97% from their peak in the early 1960s. Japan disputed the findings.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.39)
2017 Jan 9, Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical said it will buy US cancer drug developer Ariad Pharmaceuticals in a $5.2 billion deal that the companies expect to close by the end of February.
(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 13, The US attorney’s office in Detroit announced that Japan-based Takata has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal charge and will pay $1 billion in fines and restitution for a years-long scheme to conceal a deadly defect in its automotive bag inflators.
(SFC, 1/14/17, p.D1)
2017 Jan 14, The leaders of Australia and Japan agreed to boost cooperation between their militaries, as Japan tries to shore up security ties throughout the Asia-Pacific region amid concern over China's growing military might.
(AP, 1/14/17)
2017 Jan 15, Indonesia and Japan said they have agreed to step up maritime security and start discussions on a major railway project to link the Southeast Asian nation's capital and second-biggest city.
(Reuters, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 16, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe promised Vietnam six new patrol boats during a visit to the Southeast Asian country, which is locked in a dispute with China over the busy South China Sea.
(Reuters, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 22, Masaya Nakamura (91), the "Father of Pac-Man," died in Japan. He founded Namco, part of Bandai Namco, the Japanese video game company behind the hit creature-gobbling game in 1955. Pac-Man, designed by Namco engineer and video game maker Toru Iwatani, went on sale in 1980, at a time when there were few rival games, such as Space Invaders.
(AP, 1/30/17)
2017 Jan 24, Japan successfully launched its first military communications satellite. The Kirameki-2 is designed to upgrade its network in the face of China's increasingly assertive maritime activity and North Korea's missile threat.
(AP, 1/24/17)
2017 Jan 28, President Donald Trump told Japan's PM Shinzo Abe that the United States is committed to ensuring Japan's security.
(Reuters, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 30, General Motors Co (GM) and Honda Motor Co Ltd said they will jointly produce hydrogen fuel cell power systems in the United States from around 2020, to cut costs and ramp up output in the hope of increasing take-up of the zero-emission cars.
(Reuters, 1/30/17)
2017 Feb 5, In Japan about 200 protesters marched through the streets of Tokyo's Shinjuku district carrying banners to protest a hotel chain under fire for books its president wrote denying the Nanjing Massacre in wartime China ever happened. APA group founder and president, Toshio Motoya, has placed books of his revisionist views on history in every room of the company's 400-plus APA Hotels.
(Reuters, 2/5/17)
2017 Feb 6, Cambodian police said they arrested a Japanese man and two Cambodians last week suspected of tricking Cambodian women into working in the sex trade in Japan.
(AP, 2/6/17)
2017 Feb 10, President Donald Trump and PM Shinzo Abe opened two days of talks looking to cement a decades-old alliance between Japan and the United States that has been under strain because of the Republican's positions on trade and security.
(Reuters, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 13, Seijun Suzuki (93), Japanese B-movie director, died. His prolific output from gangster films to fantasies influenced international filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino.
(AFP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 27, In Detroit, Mi., Japanese auto parts maker Takata pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to pay $1 billion in penalties for concealing an air bag defect blamed for at least 16 deaths, most of them in the US.
(SFC, 2/28/17, p.D3)
2017 Feb, Unemployment in Japan fell to 2.8%, the lowest rate since 1994.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.63)
2017 Mar 5, Japan's ruling party approved a change in party rules that could pave the way for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to become the country's longest-serving leader in the post-World War II era.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 5, In central Japan a helicopter conducting a mountain rescue exercise crashed with nine local officials aboard. At least three people were feared dead.
(AFP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 6, North Korea fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew about 1,000 km (620 miles) on average, with three of them landing in waters that Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. The EU condemned North Korea for firing four banned ballistic missiles and said it would consult with Japan and international partners on how to react.
(AP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 10, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced that Japan is ending its peacekeeping mission in troubled South Sudan after five years. Abe said Japan would not renew the mission after the current rotation returns in May.
(AP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 17, Japan’s Maebashi district court held the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) liable for neglecting tsunami safety measures at the Fukushima nuclear plant and ordered them to pay more money to dozens out of the thousands of people who fled radiation released during the March 2011 disaster.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 20, Japan and Russia agreed to step up work toward resolving a longstanding territorial dispute through cooperation in a range of areas.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Japan-based Softbank bought a $300 million stake in WeWork, a trendy office-rental firm.
(Econ, 4/1/17, p.58)
2017 Mar 24, In Japan Le Thi Nhat Linh (9) disappeared on her way to school. Her naked body was found two days later. Autopsy results showed that the Vietnamese girl had been choked to death. On April 14 police arrested real estate salesman Yasumasa Shibuya (46) on suspicion he abandoned the girl's body in Aiko City. He headed a neighborhood initiative to watch over children walking to and from school.
(AP, 4/14/17)
2017 Mar 25, In Japan a Vietnamese man held in an immigration detention center died, drawing fresh attention to conditions in the country's detention system. Van Huan Nguyen (aka Nguyen The Hung) was one of more than 11,000 refugees that the country took in over the three decades to 2005 in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Nguyen had complained of pain throughout his detention for a week before his death. The death was the 13th in Japan's detention system since 2006.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(Reuters, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 27, In central Japan an avalanche killed seven high school students and a teacher who were among a group of almost 50 on mountain climbing training.
(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 29, Westinghouse Electric Co. the US nuclear unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection in NYC.
(SFC, 3/30/17, p.C6)
2017 Mar, In Japan a man (23) died of suicide while working at Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium. In October Japan’s labor standard office ruled that his death stemmed from overwork (karoshi) and that his family was eligible for government compensation. The man had recorded 190 hours of overtime in the month before killing himself.
(SFC, 10/11/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 31, Japan's whaling fleet returned home after killing 333 whales in the Antarctic, achieving its goal for the second year under a revised research whaling program.
(AP, 3/31/17)
2017 Apr 17, Japan started withdrawing its 350 troops from a UN mission in war battered South Sudan, a move coinciding with escalating violence in a conflict where killings have been described as genocide.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 21, A Japanese government panel endorsed Emperor Akihito's apparent desire to abdicate as an exception, but avoided a key question of succession amid a declining royal population.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to discuss a dispute over four islands that has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty ending World War II.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 May 6, Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso said Japan will provide $40 million to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote high-level technology as part of efforts to boost quality infrastructure in Asia.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 6, Japan and China agreed to bolster economic and financial cooperation.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 8, Japan and India affirmed plans to strengthen their military cooperation amid rising tension in the Asian region.
(AP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 20, Softbank, a Japanese telecoms group, along with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and smaller investors including Apple and Sharp, launched the world’s largest technology investment fund, worth nearly $100 billion.
(Econ 5/27/17, p.59)
2017 May 21, Japan and other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreed to pursue their trade deal without the United States. On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific meeting in Hanoi the 11 remaining countries of the TPP agreed to explore how they could move ahead without erstwhile leader the United States.
(Reuters, 5/21/17)
2017 May 22, China confirmed that it is investigating six Japanese citizens, following a Japanese news report that Chinese authorities in March had detained six men possibly for spying.
(AP, 5/21/17)
2017 May 25, The last Japanese troops withdrew from a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 26, In Sicily US President Donald Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe agreed to expand sanctions against North Korea for its continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
(AP, 5/26/17)(Reuters, 5/26/17)
2017 May 28, In Indiana Takuma Sato became the first Japanese driver to win the Indianapolis 500.
(AP, 5/29/17)
2017 May, Son Masayoshi launched his Vision Fund. The fund eventually raised $98.6 billion.
(Econ., 10/17/20, p.14)
2017 Jun 3, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported that Toyota has terminated its tie-up with Tesla and stepped up efforts to develop electric vehicles by itself.
(AFP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 6, Japan and Vietnam agreed to bolster their security ties through Japanese-funded projects including the upgrading of Vietnamese coastal patrol capabilities, defense equipment and technology transfer amid concerns about China's increasingly assertive activity in regional seas.
(AP, 6/6/17)
2017 Jun 6, Five workers at a Japanese nuclear facility that handles plutonium were exposed to high levels of radiation after a bag containing highly radioactive material apparently broke during an equipment inspection.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 May, Police in Japan arrested Masaaki Osaka (67) in Hiroshima, the country’s longest sought fugitive. He had killed a police officer nearly 46 years ago, but was arrested on another charge and identified through DNA testing.
(SFC, 6/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 9, Japan's parliament passed a law allowing Emperor Akihito to become the country's first monarch to abdicate in 200 years, but put off a debate over how to tackle the shrinking royal population and whether to allow women to ascend the throne.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 9, Japanese internet, solar and technology company SoftBank Group Corp. said it is buying robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics from Alphabet Inc., Google's parent. As part of the deal SoftBank is also buying from Alphabet a company called Schaft that develops biped robots. Schaft's roots are in a research lab at the University of Tokyo.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 10, Japanese art collector Yusaku Maezawa (41) announced his purchase of a $110.5 million Basquiat masterpiece, “Untitled" (1982).
(AFP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 14, Japan kicked off a whaling campaign in the northwestern Pacific. Three ships left port on a three-month mission to catch 43 minke whales and 134 sei whales.
(AFP, 6/14/17)
2017 Jun 15, Japan's ruling coalition pushed a contentious bill through parliament that makes it a crime to plan a crime. The government of PM Shinzo Abe said the new law, which criminalizes the planning of 277 serious crimes, is needed to prevent terrorism.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 15, Japan's future king, Crown Prince Naruhito, started a five-day visit to Denmark after the Japanese parliament last week passed a law allowing his father, Emperor Akihito, to become the first monarch to abdicate in 200 years.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 17, US and Japanese vessels and aircraft searched for seven American sailors who were missing after their Navy destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided before dawn with the ACX Crystal, a container ship four times its size, off the coast of Japan. The search for seven US Navy sailors was called on June 18 off after several bodies were found in the ship's flooded compartments, including sleeping quarters.
(AP, 6/17/17)(AP, 6/18/17)
2017 Jun 20, Tokyo's Gov. Yuriko Koike said the giant Tsukiji fish market, popular with tourists, won't be destroyed, although it will be closed for up to five years while it is modernized and turned into a food theme park.
(AP, 6/20/17)
2017 Jun 26, Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo and the US, saying it was the only way it could keep on supplying replacements for faulty air bag inflators linked to the deaths of at least 16 people. Takata sold its surviving operations to Key Safety Systems (KSS), a Michigan-based rival recently acquired by Ningbo Joyson Electronic, a Chinese auto-parts group.
(AP, 6/26/17)(Econ 7/1/17, p.59)
2017 Jul 2, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party suffered an historic defeat in an election in Tokyo. Populist Gov. Yuriko Koike's Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First party) won a thumping victory over the scandal-laden ruling party in a closely watched assembly election that could alter national politics.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)(AP, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 5, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said heavy rain and overflowing rivers have forced the evacuation of almost 400,000 people in southern Japan.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, The EU said it has agreed "in principle" on a free trade deal with Japan that will affect an overwhelming majority of commerce between the two economic giants and will be officially endorsed at a summit of their leaders July 6.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 6, In Japan torrential rains battered the southwest for a second day, killing three people, with 100,000 ordered to evacuate their homes and while thousands of rescuers, some in helicopters, searched for survivors.
(Reuters, 7/6/17)
2017 Jul 7, Japanese rescuers searched for victims of freak rains that have killed at least 11 people and left hundreds cut off from the outside world by landslides. Public broadcaster NHK said 14 people were still unaccounted for.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 8, In southwestern Japan the death toll from several days of freak weather rose to 16 as rescue crews took advantage of a break in the weather on Saturday to search for survivors. At least 14 others remained missing.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)(SSFC, 7/9/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 9, Japan’s tiny landmass of Okinoshima, where women are banned and male visitors must bathe naked in the sea before visiting its shrine, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage.
(http://tinyurl.com/y8y735of)(AP, 7/15/17)
2017 Jul 9, The leaders of Sweden and Japan demanded that North Korea halts missile tests, and pledged increased cooperation in the UN as PM Shinzo Abe met with PM Stefan Lofven in Helsinki.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 10, In Finland Japanese PM Shinzo Abe pledged to increase cooperation with Finland in Arctic issues and on furthering Russian relations, after talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
(AP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 13, Japanese officials said the death toll from heavy rains and flooding in the south has risen to 30, while rescue workers continued their efforts to find survivors.
(AFP, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 13, In Australia an unidentified man (58) became the 18th death worldwide due to exploding Takata air bag inflators. The man died in a crash in a Sydney suburb after he was hit in the neck by a metal fragment after air bags deployed in a crash.
(AP, 7/22/17)
2017 Jul 23, In Japan tens of thousands of people in the northeast were told to evacuate their homes as heavy rain caused major flooding and cut some rail links.
(Reuters, 7/23/17)
2017 Jul 25, Japanese lawmakers questioned PM Shinzo Abe in parliament for a second day about a cronyism scandal, with some opposition members accusing him of testifying falsely a day earlier when he denied using his influence to help a friend.
(AP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 25, Japanese authorities said a local woman has died from SFTS, or severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, a tick-borne virus after being bitten by a stray cat in what is possibly the world's first animal-to-human transmission of the disease.
(AFP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 25, A Sydney lawyer announced a class action lawsuit against Toyota, Honda and Mazda seeking refunds for cars fitted with faulty air bags from Takata that have been linked to 18 deaths around the world.
(AP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 28, Japan said it will freeze the assets of five organizations and nine individuals linked to North Korea, including two Chinese entities.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 28, Japan’s Defense Minister Tomomi Inada resigned saying she accepted responsibility for a cover-up in which her ministry concealed records of the dangers faced by Japanese UN in South Sudan.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 31, Japan said the United States had returned a sliver of land at a controversial US air base on the southern island of Okinawa which has sparked a lengthy and fierce dispute.
(AFP, 7/31/17)
2017 Aug 4, Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. said they plan to spend $1.6 billion to jointly build auto manufacturing plant in the US, a move that will create up to 4,000 jobs.
(AP, 8/4/17)
2017 Aug 10, Sources said Japan's army will give thousands of helicopter parts to keep Philippine military choppers airborne, helping Tokyo gain clout with Manila in a contest with China to secure influence over the strategic South China Sea nation.
(Reuters, 8/10/17)
2017 Aug 26, A Japanese SH-60J anti-submarine warfare helicopter lost contact around 90 km (56 miles) off the coast of Aomori Prefecture. On crew member was soon rescued, but three remained missing.
(Reuters, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 31, Britain and Japan said they would cooperate in countering the threat posed by North Korea, two days after it fired a missile over northern Japan, and will call on China to exert its leverage.
(Reuters, 8/31/17)
2017 Sep 1, Tuna fishing countries reached an agreement to gradually rebuild severely depleted bluefin stocks, while still allowing nations like Japan to catch and consume the fish following a week-long meeting in South Korea.
(SFC, 9/2/17, p.A4)
2017 Sep 12, The private Japan Art Association announced the winners of this year’s Praemium Imperiale arts prizes. Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov and Senegalese music star Youssou N'Dour were among the winners.
(AFP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, The leaders of India and Japan met in Gujarat state and agreed to deepen defense ties and push for more cooperation with Australia and the United States, as they seek to counter growing Chinese influence across Asia. Abe flew to Gujarat to lay the foundation stone of a $17 billion bullet train project, India's first, that was made possible by a huge Japanese loan.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 14, A North Korean state agency threatened to use nuclear weapons to "sink" Japan and reduce the United States to "ashes and darkness" for supporting a UN Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 15, North Korea conducted its longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile, sending an intermediate-range weapon 2,300 miles over US ally Japan into the northern Pacific Ocean in a launch that signals both defiance to its rivals and a big technological advance.
(AP, 9/15/17)(SFC, 9/16/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 20, The board of Japan-based Toshiba signed off on selling its computer chip business to a group led by Bain Capital Private Equity. The deal's future remains unclear as Toshiba's US joint venture partner Western Digital opposes it.
(AP, 9/20/17)
2017 Sep 22, A Japanese court ruled that Tokyo Electric Power Co., not the government, should pay compensation to dozens of former residents of Fukushima for losses to their livelihood caused by reactor meltdowns at a nuclear plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 25, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said he would dissolve parliament's lower house on Sep 28 for a snap election on Oct 22, seeking a mandate to stick to his tough stance toward a volatile North Korea and rebalance the social security system.
(AP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, Japan's government approved a revision of its 30-to-40-year plan to decommission the Fukushima nuclear plant, delaying by three more years the removal of radioactive fuel rods stored at two of the three reactors damaged in the 2011 disaster.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Oct 1, Chinese authorities said Honda will recall more than 245,000 vehicles in China over concerns about airbags made by troubled Japanese giant Takata.
(AP, 10/1/17)
2017 Oct 4, The International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo organizing committee wrapped up a two-day project review vowing to cut costs for the 2020 Games and address concerns over water pollution in Tokyo Bay.
(AP, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, Mitsubishi said it is recalling 66,000 cars for a second time to replace faulty Takata front passenger air bag inflators.
(AP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 6, Japan-based automotive supplier Denso announced plans to invest $1 billion and create more than 1,000 new jobs in its main Tennessee facility to meet growing demand for electric vehicle parts.
(AP, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 13, In Japan a scandal over product inspections data faked by materials and machinery giant Kobe Steel expanded to include products shipped to more than 500 customers.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 17, A Japanese military helicopter carrying four crewmembers lost radar contact while on a nighttime search and rescue flight training mission in central Japan and is feared to have crashed.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, US and Japanese diplomats agreed to maximize pressure on North Korea to resolve tensions over its nuclear program.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 22, Japan’s ruling coalition appeared headed to an impressive win in national elections, in what would represent at least a partial comeback for PM Shinzo Abe.
(AP, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 22, Japan's Ryota Murata beat French champion Hassan N'Dam by technical knockout in Tokyo to capture the World Boxing Association middleweight title.
(AFP, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 22, Typhoon Lan roared towards Japan's main island on election day, killing at least two people, prompting a warning for tens of thousands to evacuate and the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
(Reuters, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 23, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe, buoyed by a huge election win for lawmakers who favor revising the post-war, pacifist constitution, signaled a push towards his long-held goal but will need to convince a divided public to succeed.
(Reuters, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 26, The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said an 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima will jointly accept the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize together with ICAN.
(Reuters, 10/26/17)
2017 Oct 30, In Japan Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won pledges from Japan of help with fighting terrorism and assistance in building the country's crumbling infrastructure, as he met with PM Shinzo Abe during a visit to Tokyo.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct 30, President Donald Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe agreed by phone to work together on steps to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile development, ahead of the US leader's visit to Asia.
(Reuters, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct 30, Japanese police found nine dismembered bodies hidden in coolers in an apartment in Zama southwest of Tokyo. Takahiro Shiraishi (27) was arrested the next day and confessed to cutting them up and hiding them in cold-storage cases.
(AP, 10/31/17)(SFC, 11/2/17, p.A3)
2017 Oct 31, Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi said a tunnel at North Korea's nuclear test site collapsed after Pyongyang's sixth atomic test on September 3, possibly killing more than 200 people.
(Reuters, 10/31/17)
2017 Nov 1, Japan's parliament re-elected Abe as prime minister after his ruling party's resounding victory in a lower house election last month. Abe pledged to compile a 2 trillion yen ($17.5 billion) package of policy measures in early December to tackle Japan's aging and shrinking population.
(AP, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 4, In Japan an artificial intelligence (AI) character, named Shibuya Mirai, was made an official resident of a busy central Tokyo district, with the virtual newcomer resembling a chatty seven-year-old boy.
(AFP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 5, US President Donald Trump praised Japan as a "crucial ally" and warned adversaries not to test America's resolve as he opened a grueling and consequential first trip to Asia.
(AP, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 6, In Japan US Pres. Donald Trump urged Japan to protect itself from nuclear-armed North Korea by buying billions of dollars of US military equipment.
(SFC, 11/7/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 10, Sources said Japan will build four coast guard radar stations on islands in the Sulu Celebes Seas separating the Philippines and Indonesia to help Manila counter a surge in piracy by Islamic insurgents.
(Reuters, 11/10/17)
2017 Nov 11, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe hailed a "fresh start" to the relationship between the countries after a meeting that saw them agree to work more closely on North Korea on the sidelines of APEC in Vietnam.
(AP, 11/11/17)
2017 Nov 19, In Japan a fatal traffic accident occurred when a truck driven by a US Marine collided with a small truck at an intersection, killing Japanese driver Hidemasa Taira (61) in Naha, Okinawa. US serviceman Nicholas James-McLean (21) was arrested for the fatal accident and driving under the influence of alcohol.
(AP, 11/19/17)(Reuters, 11/20/17)(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 23, Eight men were found on Japan's northern coast who said they are from North Korea and washed ashore after their boat broke down. Investigators believed the men are not defectors and wished to return home.
(AP, 11/24/17)
2017 Nov 24, Japan expressed strong regret over San Francisco's decision to give city property status to a statue commemorating Asian women who worked in military brothels for Japanese troops during World War II, with Osaka declaring it will terminate its 60-year sister-city ties. In 2018 Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura sent a letter to Mayor London Breed terminating the sister city relationship due to the "Comfort Women" statue.
(AP, 11/24/17)(SFC, 10/4/18, p.C5)
2017 Nov 27, In Japan eight bodies, which had been reduced partly to skeletons, were found on in a small wooden ship that washed up on a beach in the sea of Japan. The bodies of two males, similarly partly skeletonized, were also found at the weekend on the western shore of the Sea of Japan island of Sado.
(Reuters, 11/27/17)
2017 Dec 1, A Japanese court convicted Kenneth Shinzato, a US military contractor, of murder and rape charges in the May death of an Okinawa woman (20) and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 4, In northern Japan three bodies of people believed to be North Koreans were recovered, two days after authorities found a dilapidated empty boat.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Japan Nagako Tomioka (58), the head priests of the Tomioka Hachimangu shrine in Tokyo, was ambushed and killed with a samurai sword as she got out of her car, apparently by her brother, who then took his own life.
(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 9, Japanese police arrested three crew of a North Korean boat for stealing a generator from a hut on an uninhabited island.
(AP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 13, A Japanese court ruled that the Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime prefecture should not operate because it is too close to the active Mount Aso volcano and could be affected by a major eruption.
(AP, 12/13/17)
2017 Dec 15, Japan froze the assets of 19 companies to step up pressure on North Korea to return Japanese citizens that it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s and to halt its nuclear weapons and missile development.
(AP, 12/15/17)
2017 Dec 19, Japan's Cabinet approved a plan to purchase a set of costly land-based US missile combat systems to increase the country's defense capabilities amid escalating threats from North Korea.
(AP, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 19, The CEO of Japanese automaker Subaru said he and all other executives would return part of their pay until next March following an inspection scandal at the company.
(AP, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 21, Ford and Mazda said they are recalling more than 380,000 older small pickup trucks for a second time to replace Takata air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel. The recalls cover driver and passenger inflators in certain 2004 to 2006 Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series trucks made by Ford.
(AP, 12/21/17)
2017 Dec 22, Japan-based Toshiba Corp.'s energy systems unit unveiled a long telescopic pipe carrying a pan-tilt camera designed to gather crucial information about the situation inside the reactor chambers at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
(AP, 12/22/17)
2017 Dec 23, In Japan the body of Airi Kakimoto (33) was found in a state of extreme malnutrition after her parents reported the death. Police soon arrested the couple whose daughter froze to death on Dec 18 in a tiny room where they had confined her for years because they believed she had a form of mental illness that made her violent.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 28, Japanese authorities indicted the North Korean captain of a boat that drifted to its coast on charges of stealing a generator, appliances and other equipment from an uninhabited island. The captain and his nine crewmembers on a dilapidated boat were rescued near a tiny island off of Hokkaido, in late November.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 30, In Japan Tatsuro Toyoda (88), the former Toyota Motor Corp. president, died. He led the company's climb to become one of the world's top automakers.
(AP, 1/6/18)
2017 Richard McGregor authored “Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of US Power in the Pacific Century."
(Econ, 9/9/17, p.78)
2017 Japanese researcher Yu Yanagisaw at the University of Tokyo developed -- by accident-- a new type of glass that can be repaired simply by pressing it back together after it cracks.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Some 54,000 American servicemen and their families were stationed in Japan. Some 28,500 were stationed in South Korea.
(Econ, 4/22/17, SR p.10)
2018 Jan 1, In Malaysia an unidentified driver died from injuries inflicted by a faulty Takata air bag inflator, raising the worldwide death toll to 22.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 4, Brookfield Business Partners LP acquired Westinghouse Electric, the US nuclear unit of embattled Japanese electronics giant Toshiba, in a deal valued at about out $4.6 billion.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 10, Thailand police arrested Shigeharu Shirai (74) in a province north of Bangkok where he has been hiding for over 10 years to evade murder charges in Japan in connection with the death of a rival gang member. The fugitive was recognized when photos of his full-body tattoos were circulated online.
(AP, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 11, Alabama landed a coveted $1.6 billion joint venture plant by Japanese car giants Toyota and Mazda that will eventually employ 4,000 people.
(AP, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 12, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Estonia kicking off a five-day European tour that will also take him to Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania — becoming the first-ever head of the Asian nation to visit these countries.
(AP, 1/12/18)
2018 Jan 13, Latvia’s PM Maris Kucinskis met with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe. It was reported that Japan has entered into a pact with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to boost economic and political ties.
(http://tinyurl.com/yc79za6p)
2018 Jan 14, In Lithuania Japan's PM Shinzo Abe visited a memorial in Kaunas to Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved 6,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by issuing visas from war-torn Lithuania, in defiance of Tokyo.
(AFP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 15, It was reported that Japan's Softbank is investing 460 million euros ($558 million) in German used car trading platform AUTO1. The Berlin-based company was launched in 2012 and operates in over 30 countries, selling more than 40,000 cars a month on its associated sites.
(AP, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 22, In Japan trade officials gathered for two days of talks to try to forge a trade pact that U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned last year. The member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), also known as TPP 11, reached a basic agreement on the pact in November.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 23, In central Japan 12 people, including eight soldiers, skiing on the slopes of the Mount Kusatsu-Shirane volcano near a famous hot spring resort were injured by flying rocks during a sudden eruption. One soldier later died.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 28, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed hopes for improved relations with China during talks in Beijing that also touched on joint efforts to counter North Korea's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 30, The Japan Prize Foundation announced that Emory pediatrician Dr. Max Cooper and Australian Professor Jacques Miller have been awarded the Japan Prize for research in immunology. A third winner was Japanese inventor Akira Yoshino, recognized for work that is the foundation of the lithium ion battery.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Feb 5, A Japanese military helicopter crashed in southwestern Japan, killing one of its two crewmembers and ripping the top floor off a house and setting it on fire.
(AP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 20, A Thai court granted sole custody of 13 surrogate children to Mitsutoki Shigeta (28) of Japan. He is the son of the founder of Japanese telecom and insurance company Hikari Tsushin and, as a major shareholder, earns millions of dollars a year in dividends.
(AP, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 22, Japan’s Takata Corp. reached a $640 million deal to settle consumer protection claims from 44 US states and the District of Columbia. But only a small fraction will be paid to the air-bag maker’s bankruptcy.
(SFC, 2/23/18, p.C2)
2018 Feb 24, A Japanese surveillance plane spotted the North Korean-flagged tanker "Chon Ma San", designated by the United States as a sanction target, with the Maldivian-flagged tanker "Xin Yuan 18" some 250 km (156 miles) east of Shanghai in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
(Reuters, 2/27/18)
2018 Feb 26, Japanese police said they have found parts of a dismembered body believed to be of a missing woman in the mountains of western Japan. Police reportedly arrested a 26-year-old New Yorker as a suspect.
(AP, 2/26/18)
2018 Mar 8, In Chile 11 nations signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, dropping tariffs and establishing sweeping new rules in markets representing about a seventh of the world's economy. members included Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
(SFC, 3/9/18, p.C5)
2018 Mar 9, Japan’s finance ministry confirmed that an official linked to a scandal involving the wife of Japan's prime minister has been found dead. Finance Minister Taro Aso announced the resignation of National Tax Agency chief Nobuhisa Sagawa, who previously headed a ministry department in charge of state property deals. The scandal involves the questionable sale in 2016 of state land to an ultra-nationalist school operator at one-seventh of its appraised price.
(AP, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 10, US President Donald Trump's trade envoy met with top European Union and Japanese officials who were pushing back against new US steel tariffs that have unleashed fears of a broader trade war.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 12, Japan's Finance Ministry acknowledged that it doctored documents in a widening scandal linked to PM Shinzo Abe's wife that has rattled his government and caused its support ratings to slide.
(AP, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 12, Japan and South Korea agreed that maximum pressure must be maintained on North Korea until it takes concrete action toward addressing concerns about its nuclear weapon and missile programs.
(Reuters, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 13, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates each extended a concession to an offshore oil field they share to a Japanese consortium despite a diplomatic crisis between the two of them tearing at the region.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 25, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, his ratings in a slump amid a suspected cronyism scandal and cover-up, apologized again for causing anxiety and loss of confidence in his government.
(Reuters, 3/25/18)
2018 Mar 28, In Japan SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son announced a $200 billion solar power project in Saudi Arabia, which he described as "the world's biggest solar power generation".
(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 30, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange, agreed to launch a $930 million Indian joint solar energy venture with Chinese firm GCL System Integration Technology Co as part of its India solar investment roadmap.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Mar 31, Japanese whaling vessels returned to port after catching 333 minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean without facing protests by anti-whaling groups.
(AFP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 5, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced a 35 billion yen ($330 million) loan for irrigation projects in Iraq during talks with PM Haider al-Abadi and pledged Japan's continuing support.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 7, Japan activated its first marine unit since World War Two trained to counter invaders occupying Japanese islands along the edge of the East China Sea that Tokyo fears are vulnerable to attack by China.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, In western Japan Yoshitane Yamasaki (73), a father who allegedly confined his mentally ill son, now 42, in a small cage for more than two decades, was arrested.
(AFP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 8, In Cambodia Japan signed a grant and loan agreement with Cambodia totaling over $90 million, despite concerns from the international community over PM Hun Sen's crackdown on government critics ahead of a July general election.
(Reuters, 4/8/18)
2018 Apr 9, In Japan a magnitude 6.1 quake struck 12 km (7 miles) underground near Ohda city, about 800 km (480 miles) west of Tokyo. Five people sustained injuries, but most of them were minor and not life-threatening.
(AP, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 10, In Japan Masazo Nonaka was certified as the world's oldest living man, at age 112 years, 259 days. Nonaka received the certificate from Guinness World Records in a ceremony at his home in Ashoro, on the northern main island of Hokkaido.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Apr 15, Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Kono and his Chinese counterpart pledged in Tokyo to improve ties between their nations and affirmed a commitment to stick with UN resolutions aimed at forcing North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.
(AP, 4/15/18)
2018 Apr 16, Japan and China took another step toward mending their troubled relations, resuming high-level economic talks in Tokyo for the first time in nearly eight years. Foreign Minister Wang Yi led the Chinese delegation, becoming the first foreign minister to visit Japan for bilateral talks since 2009.
(AP, 4/16/18)
2018 Apr 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe headed to US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort for two days of talks.
(AP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 18, Pres. Donald Trump and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe agreed to start talks on a new trade deal at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, but failed to reach a deal that would exempt Japan from US steel and aluminum tariffs.
(SFC, 4/19/18, p.A3)
2018 Apr 19, In southern Japan the Mount Io volcano erupted for the first time in 250 years, spewing steam and ash hundreds of meters into the air, as authorities warned locals not to approach the mountain.
(AFP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 21, In southern Japan Nabi Tajima (117), the world's oldest person, died in the town of Kikai.
(AP, 4/22/18)
2018 May 1, Visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe told Jordan's King Abdullah II that his country hopes to upgrade its ties with the kingdom into a strategic partnership.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 4, Toyota announced it would invest Can$1.4 billion ($1.09 billion) in two factories in central Canada where the Japanese manufacturer plans to build its largest hybrid hub in North America.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 5, Japanese bullfighting organizers said they had lifted a long-standing ban on women entering the sport's "sacred" ring, in a bid to modernize the traditional activity for the #Metoo generation.
(AFP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 8, Japanese drugmaker Takeda announced that it has agreed to buy Ireland-based Shire for 46 billion pounds ($62.4 billion) in cash and stock, one of the biggest deals ever in the pharmaceuticals industry.
(AP, 5/8/18)
2018 May 9, In Japan leaders from China, Japan and South Korea held their first three-way summit in more than two years, demonstrating a spirt of cooperation despite continuing differences over North Korea and other issues. Japan and China agreed on to set up a security hotline to defuse any maritime confrontations between the two Asian powers.
(AP, 5/9/18)(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 14, Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp. said that it is buying a stake in Peanuts Holdings, the company behind Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Sony Music Entertainment signed a deal with DHX Media, based in Nova Scotia, Canada, to acquire 49 percent of the 80 percent stake DHX holds in Peanuts.
(AP, 5/14/18)
2018 May 19, In France "Shoplifters," a heart wrenching family tale by Japanese veteran director Hirokazu Kore-eda, won the Palme d'Or top prize at the 71st Cannes film festival.
(AFP, 5/19/18)
2018 May 21, A Japanese researcher said a survey of women working for Japanese newspapers and TV networks has found 156 cases of alleged sexual misconduct reported by 35 women, about one-third of which involved lawmakers, government officials and law enforcers.
(AP, 5/21/18)
2018 May 22, Japan-based Sony Corp. said it plans to spend $2.3 billion acquiring an additional 60 percent stake in EMI Music Publishing, home to the Motown catalog and contemporary artists like Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Pharrell Williams.
(AP, 5/22/18)
2018 May 24, A Japanese warship spotted a North Korean tanker and another ship with a Korean name apparently transferring fuel on the open seas in violation of UN sanctions.
(AP, 6/1/18)
2018 May 31, The leaders of Japan and Vietnam agreed to bolster cooperation in maritime safety and defense, and expressed shared concerns over China's growing activity in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 May 31, Shares of General Motors posted their largest one-day gain since the company's rebirth from bankruptcy eight years ago, after Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank decided to pump $2.25 billion into GM's autonomous car unit. GM said that it will add $1.1 billion to SoftBank's investment in an effort to speed large-scale deployment of self-driving robotaxis next year.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 Jun 3, In Kazakhstan Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle of the United States and Norishige Kanai of Japan touched down in a Russian Soyuz space capsule on the Kazakh steppe after a 168-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AFP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 4, Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso apologized over the tampering by lower level officials with documents related to a government property sale linked to Akie Aber, the with PM Shinzo Abe. Taro Aso took a voluntary one-year salary cut after 20 officials were penalized for the tampering.
(SFC, 6/5/18, p.A2)
2018 Jun 5, The US Marines said Colonel Mark S. Coppess, the commanding officer at a US Marine base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, has been relieved of duty over a "loss of trust".
(AFP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 5, Professional distance swimmer Ben Lecomte set off from Japan to San Francisco in an attempt to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Scientific teams accompanying Lecomte planned to collect more than 1,000 water samples and study plastic pollution, mammal migration and the effect of extreme endurance events on the human body.
(AP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 7, Honda Motor Co. of Japan and US automaker General Motors Co. agreed to work together in developing batteries for electric vehicles, mainly for the North American market.
(AP, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 9, In Japan police apprehended Ichiro Kojima (22) following a knife attack late today on a bullet train near Tokyo that left one person dead and two injured.
(SFC, 6/11/18, p.A2)
2018 Jun 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met with families of people abducted by North Korea decades ago and pledged to deal directly with the North to resolve the issue.
(AP, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 15, Japan's Cabinet adopted an economic plan that would allow more foreign workers as the rapidly aging country seeks to make up for its declining workforce.
(AP, 6/15/18)
2018 Jun 18, In western Japan residents cleaned up debris after a powerful 6.1 earthquake hit the area around Osaka, the country's second-largest city, killing four people and injuring hundreds while knocking over walls and setting off fires.
(AP, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 26, In northern Japan a knife-wielding man (21) killed an officer in a neighborhood police station, took the man's gun and fatally shot a security guard at the entrance to a nearby elementary school in Toyama. The man was shot by a second policeman and captured after the midafternoon attack.
(AP, 6/26/18)
2018 Jun 27, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrived at an asteroid after a 3 1/2-year journey to undertake a first-ever experiment: blow a crater in the rocky surface to collect samples and bring them back to Earth.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 30, In northern Japan a rocket developed by a Japanese startup company exploded seconds after liftoff, bursting into flames. The MOMO-2 rocket, developed by Interstellar Technologies, was launched in Taiki town on Hokkaido.
(AP, 6/30/18)
2018 Jul 1, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for an early conclusion of a regional trade pact that ensures free and rules-based commerce in the face of an increasingly protectionist US under President Donald Trump. At the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting trade ministers and officials from 16 Asian countries agreed to speed up negotiations on outstanding issues and reach a basic agreement by the end of the year.
(AP, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 5, Japan ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents from the outskirts of its ancient capital of Kyoto after "historic" rains battered its western region, killing a man, with yet more rain forecast.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 6, Japan executed doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara (b.1955) and six of his followers. Their 1995 poison gas attack on rush-hour commuters in Tokyo's subway killed 13 people and sickened more than 6,000.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 6, Dr. Kimishige Ishizaka (1925), an immunologist who identified the antibodies that trigger allergic reactions, died in Japan. His work included the book "History of Allergy" (2014).
(SFC, 7/27/18, p.D2)
2018 Jul 6, In Poland Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono held talks with his Polish counterpart, Jacek Czaputowicz, on global security and on intensifying cooperation in trade, business, science and clean energy.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 7, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said 49 people have been killed and 48 are unaccounted for in western and central Japan as torrential rain pounded the area, with more than 1.6 million evacuated from their homes.
(Reuters, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 7, In Japan a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit outside of Tokyo this evening, swaying buildings in the capital, but no tsunami warning was issued.
(AFP, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Japan the death toll from torrential rain and landslides rose to 81 people, with dozens still missing after more than 2,000, temporarily stranded in the city of Kurashiki, were rescued.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 9, In southwestern Japan rescuers dug up more bodies as they searched for dozens still missing after heavy rains caused severe flooding. More than 100 people were now confirmed dead in the disaster.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 10, Japan's top government spokesman says at least 155 people have been confirmed dead from the recent heavy rains, floods and mudslides that had struck western Japan. More than 50 people were still unaccounted.
(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 10, A Chinese court convicted a Japanese citizen of spying in China. Takahiro Iwase was sentenced to 12 years in prison with forced labor by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang. Iwase was arrested in May 2015 near a military facility in the Zhejiang province on suspicion of spying.
(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 11, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe visited an evacuation center in the city of Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture, where more than 40 of at least 200 victims died.
(AP, 7/11/18)(SFC, 7/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 12, Japanese authorities raided the apartment of nurse Ayumi Kuboki (31), who's in custody on suspicion of fatally poisoning at least two elderly patients at a terminal care hospital. Local media have reported the woman confessed to police she poisoned about 20 patients.
(AP, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 13, Nissan said it is recalling nearly 105,000 small cars to replace Takata passenger air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel at drivers and passengers.
(AP, 7/13/18)
2018 Jul 17, Japan and the US extended their 30-year nuclear pact as Tokyo pledged to work to reduce its plutonium stockpile to address Washington's concern.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 17, The European Union and Japan signed a landmark deal in Tokyo that will eliminate nearly all tariffs on products they trade.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 18, Japan approved its first national legislation banning smoking inside of public facilities, but the watered-down measure excludes many restaurants and bars and is seen as toothless.
(AP, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 20, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe warned the US that higher tariff on auto imports would backfire and harm not only America's jobs and economy but also devastate the global economy.
(AP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 20, Japan's parliament approved a contentious law allowing up to three casino resorts to open in this wealthy nation and possibly lure more foreign visitors.
(AP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 22, In Japan Chiyo Miyako (b.1901), the world's oldest woman, died.
(SFC, 7/28/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 23, Japan recorded its highest temperature ever as a deadly heat wave continued to grip a wide swath of the country and nearby South and North Korea. Over the last two weeks more than 40 people have died in Japan and about 10 in South Korea.
(AP, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 24, Japanese government officials said an "unprecedented" heatwave has killed at least 80 people in Japan over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 25, In Japan a grueling heat wave drove temperatures to records in some areas hit by flooding and landslides, hampering clean-up and recovery efforts. Vegetable prices spiked as much as 65 percent.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 26, In Japan the last six members of a Japanese doomsday cult who remained on death row were executed for a series of crimes in the 1990s including a sarin gas attack on Tokyo subways that killed 13 people.
(AP, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 28, Heavy rain fell on parts of Japan and airlines canceled flights as approaching Typhoon Jongdari threatened to dump more rain on a region devastated by floods and landslides earlier this month.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 29, Tropical Storm Jongdari made landfall early today in central Japan after dumping heavy rain on Tokyo and other parts of eastern Japan the previous day.
(AP, 7/29/18)
2018 Jul 29, In Japan Tiphaine Veron (36), a French teaching assistant, was last seen leaving her lodgings in Nikko.
(AFP, 10/17/18)
2018 Jul 30, Japan said it would spend some $4.2 billion over the next 30 years on installing and operating US radar systems to protect itself against North Korean missile threats.
(AFP, 7/30/18)
2018 Jul 30, Japanese researchers announced the first human trial using a kind of stem cell to treat Parkinson's disease, building on earlier animal trials.
(AFP, 7/30/18)
2018 Jul 31, Japan pledged to reduce its controversial stocks of plutonium, the world's biggest inventory of the highly toxic material held by a state without nuclear weapons, following pressure from the United States, China and other countries.
(Reuters, 7/31/18)
2018 Jul, In Japan Mio Sugita, a lawmaker belonging to PM Shinzo Abe's ruling party, said in a right-wing magazine that the government shouldn't use tax money for LGBT rights because same-sex couples don't produce children and have "no productivity." The comment triggered outrage from sexual minorities as well as others, including the elderly and disabled.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 1, Severe storms forced a French-American long-distance swimmer to suspend his attempt to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Ben Lecomte (51) and the yacht accompanying him returned to a port in Yokohama, Japan, to wait out the weather.
(AP, 8/1/18)
2018 Aug 3, Japan's government urged a medical university to promptly disclose the results of an investigation into its admissions process after reports alleged it had altered the test scores of female applicants for years to deny them entry and ensure fewer women became doctors.
(AP, 8/3/18)
2018 Aug 8, In Japan rain lashed Tokyo and dozens of flights were canceled as Typhoon Shanshan headed toward the capital.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 8, In Japan Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga (67) died of pancreatic cancer. He had led an anti-US military base movement on the southern Japanese island.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 9, Typhoon Shanshan brought rain and strong winds to Japan's northeast coast, but no major damage was reported as the storm did not make landfall.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 10, Japan launched an unprecedented probe into gender discrimination at all the nation's medical universities after a Tokyo medical school admitted to altering the entrance test results of female applicants to exclude them.
(AFP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 10, In Japan a search and rescue helicopter crashed into the central mountains of Gunma prefecture. All nine people aboard were killed.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 11, In Japan tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Okinawa vowing to stop the planned relocation of a US military base on the southern island.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 11, Japan's government said that it is looking into reports that a Japanese citizen was detained this month in North Korea. The man (39) was supposed to return to Japan on August 13 but was reportedly arrested in Nampo city.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 14, People in South Korea and Taiwan unveiled monuments and staged protests to mark Japan's wartime use of "comfort women", a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels.
(Reuters, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 17, Japanese media said several government ministries may have been inflating for decades the number of disabled people they employ in order to meet quotas, even as the government imposes levies on private companies that fail to meet theirs.
(Reuters, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 20, Four Japanese basketball players apologized for bringing "disgrace" to their nation after they were kicked out of the Asian Games for paying prostitutes for sex.
(AFP, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 27, In central Japan four elderly patients at the Y&M Fujikake Daiichi Hospital died over the last 48 hours after the air conditioning failed in their rooms.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 27, Nissan's first electric sedan designed for China began production at the start of a wave of dozens of planned lower-cost electrics being created by global automakers for their biggest market.
(AP, 8/27/18)
2018 Aug 28, Tomoyuki Sugimoto arrived back in Japan after being released by North Korea. Sugimoto, who was arrested in early August, had been in North Korean custody during an investigation into an unspecified crime.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 30, Japanese electronics giant Panasonic became the latest company to announce plans to move its European headquarters out of Britain ahead of Brexit.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Sep 4, Typhoon Jebi slammed into western Japan, causing heavy rain to flood the region's main international airport and strong winds to blow a tanker into a bridge, disrupting land and air travel and leaving thousands stranded. The storm left at least 11 people dead.
(AP, 9/4/18)(AP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 6, In northern Japan a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the island of Hokkaido triggered dozens of landslides that crushed houses under torrents of dirt, rocks and timber, prompting frantic efforts to unearth any survivors. The death toll soon rose to 18. In one small town two dozen people remained unaccounted for after an entire mountainside collapsed on their homes.
(AP, 9/6/18)(AFP, 9/6/18)(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 8, In Japan the Hokkaido government said that 30 people are dead or presumed dead and nine remain missing from the Sept. 6 earthquake. All but three of the victims are in the town of Atsuma, where landslides crushed and buried houses at the foot of steep forested hills.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 8, In New York City Japan's Naomi Osaka (20) defeated Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in the women's final at the US Open in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
(AP, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 9, Japan's agriculture ministry said it had confirmed the country's first outbreak of swine fever in 26 years and suspended exports of pork and wild boar meat. The fever, a different kind from the African swine fever that has broken out in China, was found in a farm in central Japan's Gifu city.
(Reuters, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 9, Japanese authorities said the death toll has hit 39 from the September 6 earthquake that struck the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
(AP, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 14, Japan's determined bid to return to commercial whale hunting was blocked by anti-whaling nations in a tense vote at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Brazil.
(AFP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 17, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (42) said that he plans to blast off on the inaugural private commercial trip around the moon and will invite six to eight creative people on the weeklong journey via the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket scheduled for 2023. Maezawa is the founder of Japan's largest retail website.
(SFC, 9/18/18, p.A5)
2018 Sep 20, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was re-elected as head of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a landslide, paving the way for up to three more years as the nation's leader and a push toward a constitutional revision.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 21, A Japanese spacecraft released two small rovers on an asteroid in a mission that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system. The two Minerva-II-1 rovers were lowered from the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 to the asteroid Ryugu.
(AP, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 28, A US diplomat said the United States, Japan and Australia are cooperating on a domestic internet cable proposal for Papua New Guinea as an alternative to an offer by Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant that the United States regards as a cybersecurity threat.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 30, In Japan Denny Tamaki, who campaigned criticizing the American military presence on the southwestern island of Okinawa, won the election for governor, defeating a ruling party-backed candidate pushing the status quo.
(AP, 9/30/18)
2018 Sep 30, Typhoon Trami ripped through Japan, forcing cancellations of flights and trains, including in the Tokyo area as authorities warned of strong winds and torrential rain.
(AP, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 1, Researchers from the United States and Japan won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that help the body marshal its cellular troops to attack invading cancers. James Allison of the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University will share the 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize for 2018.
(AP, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 3, The Japan Space Exploration Agency said the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT), a German-French observation device, was released from the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 and successfully landed on the asteroid Ryugu.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 3, It was reported that General Motors will partner with Honda in the "large-scale" development of autonomous vehicles.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 6, In Japan Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market, the world's largest fishmarket and a major tourist attraction, held its final tuna auction before a controversial move to a new site next week.
(Reuters, 10/6/18)
2018 Oct 8, In Japan zookeeper Akira Furusho died after he was found bleeding from his neck and lying on the floor inside a tiger cage at Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima following an apparent attack by a white tiger.
(AP, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 11, Tokyo's famous fish market reopened at a new location but retained its most famous tradition: the tuna auction at the waterfront Toyosu facility.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 12, Denny Tamaki, the new governor of Okinawa, said he wants Americans to know that the US and Japanese governments are forcing a relocation of a US Marine base that residents want removed from the southern Japanese island.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling nearly 188,000 pickup trucks, SUVs and cars worldwide because the air bags may not inflate in a crash.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan's space agency said it is delaying a touchdown of its Hayabusa2 spacecraft on the Ryugu asteroid due to a rockier than expected surface.
(SFC, 10/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe renewed his pledge to push for a revision to the country's war-renouncing constitution, in which he wants the military explicitly mentioned.
(AP, 10/14/18)
2018 Oct 17, French Pres. Emmanuel Macron met with visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to prepare next year's summits of the group of developing countries G-20 in Japan and the world's advanced economies G-7 in France.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 19, The Japanese government ordered KYB Corp., a company that falsified quality data for earthquake "shock absorbers" used in hundreds of buildings, to speed up an investigation and fix any problems quickly.
(AP, 10/19/18)
2018 Oct 20, European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit for a joint mission to Mercury. The unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.
(AP, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 23, Japan was informed by Qatar that a man, believed to be journalist Jumpei Yasuda, has been released. Yasuda was last heard from in Syria in 2015. Contact was lost with Yasuda after he sent a message to another Japanese freelancer on June 23, 2015.
(AP, 10/23/18)
2018 Oct 23, Johnson & Johnson said it is paying about $2 billion in cash for the outstanding stake of Ci:z Holdings Co., a Japanese cosmetics and skincare products company.
(AP, 10/23/18)
2018 Oct 25, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Beijing as both countries try to repair ties that have been riven by disputes over territory, military expansion in the Pacific and World War II history.
(AP, 10/25/18)
2018 Oct 26, China and Japan pledged to forge closer ties as both countries stood together at an "historic turning point", signing a broad range of agreements including a $30 billion currency swap pact, amid rising trade tensions with Washington. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said 500 business deals worth $18 billion had been signed between Chinese and Japanese companies during PM Shinzo Abe's visit.
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 28, In Japan visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi met with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe at a resort area near Mount Fuji reaffirming their ties amid growing worries about trade and regional stability.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 28, Japan Airlines pilot Katsutoshi Jitsukawa (42) was arrested after the driver of a Heathrow Airport crew bus smelled alcohol and reported it to security officials. Tests later found the first officer had 189 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood in his system, almost 10 times the 20 milligrams limit for a pilot.
{Britain, Japan, Aviation}
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Oct 30, South Korea's Supreme Court ruled that Nippon Steel should compensate four South Koreans $89,000 for forced labor during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said the ruling violated a 1965 treaty between Seoul and Tokyo that was accompanied by Japanese payments to restore diplomatic ties.
(AP, 10/30/18)(SFC, 2/14/19, p.A5)
2018 Nov 4, Japanese author Haruki Murakami (69) announced that he is working to set up a library that will showcase his works and also serve as a meeting place for research and international exchanges.
(AP, 11/4/18)
2018 Nov 5, A Chinese trawler suspected of poaching off Japan's southern coast sailed away with Japanese inspectors on board. The inspectors returned to their own ship after its half-day chase of the trawler, with the help of Japanese coast guard. The incident surfaced more than 50 days after it occurred when Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga responded to a reporter's question following a news report.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Nov 7, Japan's Tokyo Medical University, that acknowledged systematically discriminating against female applicants, announced plans to accept more than 60 who were unfairly rejected over the past two years.
(AP, 11/7/18)
2018 Nov 14, Meeting in Singapore Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe agreed to step up the pace of talks to end a decades-old territorial dispute.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, In Australia Shinzo Abe became the first prime minister of Japan to visit Darwin since the northern city was bombed by Japanese forces in World War II, as he and PM Scott Morrison spoke of strengthening defense and other ties between their countries ahead of the APEC meeting in Papua New Guinea.
(AP, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 16, A senior North Korean official on a visit to South Korea called for Japan to apologize for the wartime forced labor of thousands of Koreans.
(AP, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 18, At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Papua New Guinea, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the US and Papua New Guinea signed an electrification agreement to bring electricity to 70 percent of Papua New Guinea's people by 2030.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 19, Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan over allegations of financial misconduct and faced being fired this week, in a stunning fall from grace for one of the world's best-known businessmen.
(AFP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 19, Japan's coast guard said that a Chinese fishing boat sank off a southern Japanese island and five of its crewmembers were missing. Three others were rescued.
(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 21, South Korea said it will dissolve a foundation funded by Japan to compensate South Korean women who were forced to work in Japan's World War II military brothels. The widely expected decision, if carried out, would effectively kill a controversial 2015 agreement to settle a decades-long impasse over the sexual slavery issue. Japan still hasn't acknowledged legal responsibility for atrocities during its colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 22, In Japan Nissan board members voted unanimously to sack Carlos Ghosn as chairman, a spectacular fall from grace for the once-revered boss who was stripped of the role while languishing in a Japanese jail. Ghosn stood accused of under-reporting his income by millions of dollars and a host of other financial irregularities.
(AFP, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 23, The 170 member states of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions chose Japan's Osaka to host the 2025 World Expo, beating out cities in Russia and Azerbaijan for an event expected to draw millions of visitors.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 25, French economy minister Bruno Le Maire said Renault had launched an internal audit into Ghosn's pay. Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn has denied allegations of financial misconduct, claiming he had no intention of making false reports.
(AFP, 11/25/18)
2018 Nov 26, Japanese police said they found six bodies believed to be members of a family in a farmhouse in a remote mountain village, and the body of a seventh person who jumped or fell from a nearby bridge.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 29, South Korea's top court ordered Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to financially compensate 10 Koreans for forced labor during Tokyo's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, in the second such ruling in a month that again drew quick, vehement protests from Japan.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Nov 30, A Japanese court approved a 10-day extension of the detention of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn.
(AP, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 6, A US F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet and a KC-130 Hercules refueling aircraft collided during training off Japan's coast. One of two crew members recovered was dead and five others remain missing.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 8, Japanese lawmakers approved government-proposed legislation allowing hundreds of thousands of foreign laborers to live and work in a country that has long resisted accepting outsiders.
(AP, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 10, Prosecutors in Japan charged Nissan Motor Co.'s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, executive Greg Kelly and the automaker itself for allegedly violating financial laws by underreporting income.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 11, A Tokyo court ruled that Nissan Motor Co.'s former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, and another executive will remain in custody through Dec. 20, more than a month after their arrest. Their detention could continue for months more under the Japanese legal system.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 13, Japan's space agency says more than 200 photos taken by the two small Minerva II-1 rovers on Ryugu asteroid show no signs of a smooth area for the planned touchdown of a spacecraft early next year.
(AP, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 14, Japan's central government started main reclamation work at a disputed US military base relocation site on the southern island of Okinawa despite fierce local opposition.
(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 16, In northern Japan 42 people were injured in an explosion at a bar in Sapporo.
(Reuters, 12/16/18)
2018 Dec 19, SoftBank Group Corp.'s Japanese mobile subsidiary suffered a bitter debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, slumping 15 percent, hurt by a recent service outage and concerns about the use of parts from Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
(AP, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 21, Japan's Cabinet approved a record 5.26 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget as the country seeks to bolster its arms capability by increasingly buying advanced US weapons.
(AP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, Prosecutors in Japan accused Carlos Ghosn of a breach of trust causing Nissan a financial loss of more than 1.8 billion yen ($16 million).
(AP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 23, A Japanese court approved prosecutors' request to keep Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn in detention for another 10 days.
(AP, 12/23/18)
2018 Dec 25, In Japan Nissan Motor Co. executive Greg Kelly was released from detention after being granted bail over the alleged underreporting of his boss Carlos Ghosn's pay.
(AP, 12/25/18)
2018 Dec 26, Japan announced that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Richard Lloyd Parry authored “Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone."
(Econ, 8/19/17, p.70)
2018 In Japan the 108-km Sanko Line closed this spring after operating for 88 years. The rail line had snaked through the municipalities in Shimane and Hiroshima prefectures.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.32)
2019 Jan 1, In Japan a minivan slammed into pedestrians early today on a street where people had gathered for New Year's festivities in downtown Tokyo. A ninth person was injured after the suspect got out of the car and punched him. Kazuhiro Kusakabe (21) was arrested.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 5, In Japan a 612-pound (278-kg) bluefin tuna sold for a record 333.6 million yen ($3 million) at the first auction of 2019, after Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market was moved to a new site on the city's waterfront.
(AP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 8, A South Korean court approved a request by plaintiffs in a wartime forced labor case to seize part of the local assets of Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp.
(Reuters, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 9, Nepal and Japan agreed to allow state-run Nepal Airlines to resume flights between the two Asian nations at the beginning of a two-day visit to Nepal by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 11, In Japan Nissan's ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn was charged with breach of trust, making the star executive's release unlikely for months to come. Greg Kelly, another Nissan executive; and Nissan as a legal entity also were charged with additional underreporting of income, from 2015 through mid-2018.
(AP, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 11, A French judicial source said the president of Japan's Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, is under formal investigation in France for suspected corruption related to Japan's successful bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.
(Reuters, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 12, Japan-based Nissan confirmed that Chief Performance Officer Jose Munoz, who took a leave of absence a week ago, has resigned, the first high-profile departure at the Japanese automaker publicly acknowledged as related to the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
(AP, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 14, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov threw cold water on Tokyo's hopes for a quick return of disputed islands in the Pacific, warning Japan that it must recognize them as part of Russia's territory as a starting point for talks.
(AP, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 17, Japan-based Hitachi said it has suspended work on a major new nuclear power station, the Horizon Project, located in Wylfa, on the Welsh island of Anglesey, because it had been unable to agree on financing with the UK government. Hitachi said it will also suspend work on another site located in England.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 19, In Japan representatives from a Pacific Rim trade bloc geared up to roll out and expand the market-opening initiative as they met in Tokyo, reaffirming their commitment to open and free trade and inviting new membership.
(AP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 20, Masazo Nonaka (113), the world's oldest man, died early today while sleeping at home in Ashoro on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido.
(AP, 1/20/19)
2019 Jan 22, A Tokyo court rejected former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn's latest request for bail, more than two months after his arrest.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 22, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin met with Japan's PM Shinzo Abe in the Kremlin for the latest round of talks on the dispute over a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Police detained 11 people protesting against territorial concessions outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow.
(Reuters, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 25, Japan's Supreme Court upheld a law that effectively requires transgender people to be sterilized before they can have their gender changed on official documents. The 2004 law states that people wishing to register a gender change must have their original reproductive organs, including testes or ovaries, removed and have a body that "appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs" of the gender they want to register.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, It was announced that Japanese brewer Asahi is buying the beer business of Britain's Fuller Smith & Turner's for 250 million pounds ($327 million), in a deal that includes its flagship London Pride.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 28, In Japan Toshiba Corp. unveiled a remote-controlled robot with tongs that it hopes will be able to probe the inside of one of the three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant and grip chunks of highly radioactive melted fuel.
(AP, 1/28/19)
2019 Feb 3, Japan-based Nissan announced it has cancelled plans to make its X-Trail SUV in the UK. That reverses a decision in late 2016 to build the SUV at Nissan's Sunderland plant in northern England, which employs 7,000 workers.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 4, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that he and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel share a responsibility to work towards global peace and prosperity, with both hoping for a prompt, democratic solution to Venezuela's leadership crisis.
(Reuters, 2/4/19)
2019 Feb 14, In Japan thirteen gay couples filed the country's first lawsuit challenging the rejection of same-sex marriage, arguing the denial violates their constitutional right to equality.
(AP, 2/14/19)
2019 Feb 22, A Japanese probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid 300 million km away for clues about the origin of life and the solar system landed successfully. Hayabusa2 touched down briefly on the Ryugu asteroid, fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection and blasted back to its holding position.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 24, In Japan the people of Okinawa voted on a plan for a US military base relocation to Henoko in a referendum that will send a message on how they feel about housing American troops in Japan. Residents rejected the relocation plan in the non-binding referendum.
(AP, 2/24/19)(SFC, 2/26/19, p.A2)
2019 Mar 5, Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, credited with bringing together the East and West in his innovative designs, was awarded this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize, known internationally as the highest honor in the field.
(AP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, A Tokyo court approved the release of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn on 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) bail, rejecting an appeal by prosecutors to keep him jailed. The former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance has been detained since he was arrested on Nov.
(AP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 9, In southwest Japan the Guinness World Records officially recognized Kane Tanaka (116) in a ceremony at the nursing home where she lives in Fukuoka.
(AP, 3/9/19)
2019 Mar 14, Japan followed other countries on multiple continents in banning the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 aircraft from its airspace following the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines' crash.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 14, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. announced it is investing an additional $750 million at five US plants that will bring nearly 600 new jobs, including the production of two hybrid vehicles for the first time at its Kentucky facility.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 19, Tsunekazu Takeda (71) said he is stepping down as the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee amid a vote-buying scandal that French investigators suspect helped Tokyo land next year's Olympics. He again denied corruption allegations against him.
(AP, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 20, Japanese police arrested an American man on suspicion of fatally stabbing his Japanese wife at a court where they were to settle a divorce at the entrance to Tokyo Family Court.
(AP, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 27, In Japan a Nissan committee set up to strengthen corporate governance after the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn said an investigation found he had wielded too much power and recommended the scandal-hit automaker add more independent outside directors to its board and better oversee compensation and auditing.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Apr 1, Japan's government said the era of Japan's next emperor, which begins May 1, will be named "Reiwa," connoting pursuit of harmony, after selecting the phrase from ancient Japanese poetry instead of Chinese classics as PM Shinzo Abe promotes national pride.
(AP, 4/1/19)
2019 Apr 4, Tokyo prosecutors arrested Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn for a fourth time, on fresh allegations that cut short his brief time outside detention.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 5, A Japanese court approved the detention of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn through April 14 after his latest arrest over financial misconduct allegations, a move that has raised questions among legal experts.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 5, Japan's space agency said an explosive dropped from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 8, In Japan Nissan's shareholders ousted the automaker's former chairman Carlos Ghosn from its board, seeking to shut the door on an era capped by scandal.
(AP, 4/8/19)
2019 Apr 9, A Japanese F-35A fighter jet with one pilot disappeared from radar during a flight exercise in northern Japan.
(AP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 10, Japan partially lifted an evacuation order in one of the two hometowns of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant for the first time since the 2011 disaster. The action allows people to return to about 40 percent of Okuma.
(AP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 10, Japan grounded its F-35A fighter jets, built by US-based Lockheed Martin, following the crash of a Japanese F-35 in the Pacific Ocean a day earlier.
(Reuters, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 11, In Japan a Catholic Bishops' Conference in Tokyo said it has established a committee in each diocese to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against minors by its priests.
(SFC, 4/12/19, p.A2)
2019 Apr 12, A Tokyo court approved the detention of Nissan's former Chairman Carlos Ghosn through April 22, allowing prosecutors to interrogate him daily on fresh allegations of financial misconduct.
(AP, 4/12/19)
2019 Apr 13, In Japan a US Navy serviceman fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself in Okinawa.
(AP, 4/13/19)
2019 Apr 15, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, began removing fuel from a cooling pool at one of three reactors that melted down in the 2011 disaster, a milestone in what will be a decades-long process to decommission the facility.
(AP, 4/15/19)
2019 Apr 19, In Japan a car driven by an 87-year-old man smashed into pedestrians at a Tokyo intersection, killing a woman and a girl on a bicycle and overturning a garbage truck. Eight other people were injured. The driver was taken to a hospital.
(AP, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 22, Japanese prosecutors said they have indicted Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn on fresh breach of trust charges that expand their allegations of financial misconduct outside Japan.
(AP, 4/22/19)
2019 Apr 24, Japan's government apologized to tens of thousands of people who were forcibly sterilized (1948-1996) under a now-defunct Eugenics Protection Law which was designed to "prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants," and promised to pay them compensation. The parliament earlier today enacted legislation to provide redress, including 3.2 million yen ($28,600) in compensation for each victim.
(AP, 4/24/19)
2019 Apr 25, In Japan former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn emerged from his Tokyo detention center late today after accepting bail of $4.5 million under strict conditions including restrictions on seeing his wife.
(AFP, 4/25/19)
2019 Apr 26, President Donald Trump expressed confidence that a bilateral trade deal between the US and Japan can be reached quickly despite ongoing differences over tariffs as he opened talks with PM Shinzo Abe at the White House.
(AP, 4/27/19)
2019 Apr 30, Japanese Emperor Akihito (85) announced his abdication at a palace ceremony in his final address, as the nation embraced the end of his reign with reminiscence and hope for a new era.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 May 1, In Japan Emperor Naruhito inherited the sacred sword and jewel that signaled his succession and pledged in his first public address to follow his father's example by devoting himself to peace and sharing the people's joys and sorrows.
(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 4, Interstellar Technology Inc., a Japanese aerospace startup funded by a former internet maverick, successfully launched a small rocket into space, making it the first commercially developed Japanese rocket to reach orbit.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, The Japanese government said the nation's child population has declined for the 38th year in a row and is now at a record low.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 8, In western Japan a car slammed into a group of 16 mostly kindergarten children who were strolling on a sidewalk in the lakeside city of Otsu, leaving two dead.
(AP, 5/08/19)
2019 May 8, Japanese telecoms company Softbank Corp. said that it will spend 456.5 billion yen ($4 billion) to increase its stake in Yahoo Japan to nearly 45%.
(AP, 5/08/19)
2019 May 15, Takafumi Horie, founder of Japan's Interstellar Technology Inc., said his company plans to provide low-cost rocket services and compete with American rivals such as SpaceX.
(SFC, 5/16/19, p.A2)
2019 May 17, Japan and China agreed to boost their relations ahead of a planned visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Japan in June, his first since coming to power in 2013.
(AP, 5/17/19)
2019 May 22, It was reported that a smartphone app developed by Japanese police is being widely downloaded by women trying to protect themselves from gropers on packed rush-hour trains. The "Digi Police" app was originally issued by Tokyo police three years ago, but a function to scare off molesters was only added a few months ago.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 22, British and Japanese mobile phone companies said that they're putting on hold plans to sell new devices from Huawei, in the latest fallout from US tech restrictions aimed at the Chinese company.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 25, President Donald Trump needled Japan over the US-Japan trade imbalance as he kicked off a state visit to the country that's been tailor-made to his whims and ego.
(AP, 5/25/19)
2019 May 26, President Donald Trump presented a special US-made trophy to the winner of a sumo tournament as he got a taste of one of Japan's most treasured cultural institutions.
(AP, 5/26/19)
2019 May 26, President Donald Trump downplayed recent North Korean missile tests, tweeting from Tokyo that they're not a concern for him in comments sure to unnerve Japanese leaders.
(AP, 5/26/19)
2019 May 27, President Donald Trump said he is not "personally" bothered by recent short-range North Korean missile tests and doesn't believe they violated UN Security Council resolutions, breaking with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is hosting the president on a four-day state visit full of pageantry and pomp.
(AP, 5/27/19)
2019 May 28, In Japan knife-wielding man slashed at a group of schoolgirls at a bus stop in Kawasaki city, killing one girl and an adult. 16 other girls and a woman were injured. The attacker died later of a self-inflicted wound.
(AP, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Japan announced 132.6 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in aid to Bangladesh for economic development, a high-speed railway and other projects.
(AP, 5/29/19)
2019 May 29, A Japanese man (45) was arrested in Kitakyushu for using a stun gun to discipline his three children.
(Reuters, 5/29/19)
2019 May 29, In Japan veteran Chinese dissident Wang Dan urged Western nations to restore the link between human rights and trade with China in a speech just days ahead of the 30th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on student pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
(AP, 5/29/19)
2019 May 30, Speaking at a conference in Tokyo Malaysia’s PM Mahathir Mohamad said his country will continue using Huawei products "as much as possible," bucking a global trend prompted by security concerns and a US ban on the Chinese firm.
(AFP, 5/30/19)
2019 Jun 1, Tokyo police arrested Hideaki Kumazawa (76), a former top Japanese government official, on suspicion of stabbing to death his 44-year-old son Eiichiro.
(AP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 5, Japanese authorities said they have arrested seven Chinese men over the weekend on suspicion of smuggling what is believed to be a record amount of stimulants.
(AP, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 5, Japan's health minister said in response to a petition seeking a ban on requiring women to wear high heels at work that such dress code expectations are "necessary and appropriate" in the workplace.
(Reuters, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 8, In Japan financial leaders of the Group of 20 gathered to brainstorm ways to adapt global finance to an age of trade turmoil and digital disruptions. G20 finance officials agreed there was an urgent need to find a global system to tax internet giants like Google and Facebook but clashed on the best way to do it.
(AP, 6/8/19)(AFP, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 9, In Japan finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies wrapped up a meeting with a pledge to use all the policies they can to protect global growth from disruptions due to trade and other tensions. G20 policymakers also tackled economic issues relating to ageing and shrinking birthrates.
(AP, 6/9/19)(AFP, 6/9/19)
2019 Jun 12, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe held talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran during a rare diplomatic mission aimed at defusing tensions between the Islamic republic and Tokyo's ally Washington.
(AFP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 16, In Japan the Group of 20 major economies said they agreed a deal to reduce plastic waste that is choking the seas. G20 member countries committed to reducing plastic waste but gave little detail on how that would be done.
(AFP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 16, Japan's Foreign Ministry lodged a protest with Beijing after a Chinese maritime research ship was seen dropping a wire-like object into the water off the northwestern coast of Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands.
(AP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 18, The Japanese coast guard said than 300 North Korean boats have been forced out of Japan's exclusive economic zone near Yamatotai since May.
(AP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 21, In Japan Mitsubishi Motors Corp. shareholders approved the ouster of Carlos Ghosn, who was pivotal in the Japanese automaker's three-way partnership with Nissan and Renault until he was arrested on financial misconduct charges last year.
(AP, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 24, In Japan a Nigerian man died in an immigration detention center, bringing to an end a hunger strike an activist group said was intended to protest against his being held for more than three years. This was the 15th death since 2006 in a system widely criticized over medical standards, the monitoring of detainees and how guards respond to a medical emergency.
(Reuters, 6/27/19)
2019 Jun 25, In Japan scandal-battered Nissan won its shareholders' approval for a new system of committees to oversee governance and for keeping Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa on its board.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 25, Canadian aerospace company Bombardier announced the sale of its regional jet program to Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. for $550 million.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 26, In Japan French President Emmanuel Macron said he and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have agreed to bolster naval defense ties in the Indo-Pacific region and shared concerns about growing tensions in the Middle East.
(AP, 6/26/19)
2019 Jun 27, China's Pres. Xi Jinping arrived in Osaka to attend the G20 summit that PM Shinzo Abe will chair over the next two days.
(AP, 6/27/19)
2019 Jun 27, President Donald Trump arrived in Japan for a summit of the Group of 20 major economies. He was due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 29 as the G-20 meetings conclude. Trump kicked off meetings with international leaders with a working dinner with Australian PM Scott Morrison.
(AP, 6/27/19)
2019 Jun 28, In Japan a two-day G20 summit opened in Osaka. World leaders grappled with profound tensions over trade, globalization and the collapsing nuclear deal with Iran.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 28, A Japanese court ordered the government to pay 370 million yen ($3.4 million) in damages to the relatives of former leprosy patients over a segregation policy that severed family ties and caused long-lasting prejudice. The court ruled that the government failed to stop the segregation until 1996, decades after leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, became curable in the late 1940s.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 29, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin announced new initiatives to further expand economic ties and tourist exchanges between the two nations, but have made no visible progress on a decades-long territorial dispute.
(AP, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 29, In Japan President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping agreed to a cease-fire in their nations' yearlong trade war. Trump told the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at a G20 summit in Japan that building concentration camps to “re-educate" Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province was the right thing to do. This was made public by John Bolton in 2020 as he promoted a new book.
(AP, 6/29/19)(The Independent, 6/18/20)
2019 Jun 30, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe praised Saudi Arabia's efforts to reduce its dependence on oil and promised Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Japan will help the kingdom with a sweeping reform plan.
(Reuters, 6/30/19)
2019 Jun, In Japan Ishikawa Yumi submitted a petition to the government with 18,800 signatures calling for a ban on employers requiring women to wear high heel shoes.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.28)
2019 Jul 1, Japan imposed restrictions on exports used by South Korea's chip and smartphone companies, ramping up long-simmering tensions between the US allies over the use of forced labor during World War Two. Seoul quickly hit back, saying the measures violated international law and threatening to raise the issue at the World Trade Organization.
(AFP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 1, Japanese whalers returned to port with their first catch after resuming commercial whaling for the first time in 31 years, achieving the long-cherished goal of traditionalists that is seen as largely a lost cause amid slowing demand for the meat. This was the first commercial hunt since 1988.
(Reuters, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 18, In Japan a man shouted "die" as he doused an animation studio in Kyoto with fuel and set it ablaze, killing at least 33 people in the nation's worst mass murder in nearly two decades. The suspect allegedly told police that the studio had “stolen a novel" he had written. Arson suspect Shinji Aoba (41) was hospitalized for heavy burns.
(Reuters, 7/18/19)(The Telegraph, 7/19/19)(Reuters, 7/20/19)
2019 Jul 18, Yukiya Amano (72), the Japanese diplomat who led the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for a decade, died. He was extensively involved in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program and the cleanup of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(AP, 7/22/19)
2019 Jul 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe claimed victory in today’s upper house election, saying the vote showed acceptance for his plans to raise the sales tax and open debate on making the first revisions to the country’s pacifist constitution. His coalition and its other allies fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to push ahead with revising the pacifist constitution.
(Reuters, 7/21/19)
2019 Jul 24, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said it will decommission four more reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ni plant in addition to those already being scrapped at the nearby Fukushima Dai-ichi, wrecked by a 2011 earthquake. The process was expected to take decades.
(SFC, 7/25/19, p.A5)
2019 Jul, US President Donald Trump asked Japan to quadruple annual payments for US forces stationed there to around $8 billion, part of Washington's efforts to press its allies to increase their defense spending.
(Reuters, 11/16/19)
2019 Aug 2, The trade row between Japan and South Korea escalated when Japan removed South Korea from a favored trading nations list, prompting Seoul to warn it would not be defeated again by its neighbor, laying bare decades-old war time animosity.
(Reuters, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 3, In Japan a controversial statue symbolizing "comfort women" was withdrawn from an art exhibition after organizers received security threats. "Statue of a Girl Of Peace" attracted a flood of complaints since Aichi Triennale, an international art exhibition being held in central Japan, opened just three days ago.
(Reuters, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 12, South Korea said it plans to drop Japan from its "white list" of countries with fast-track trade status from September, a tit-for-tat move that deepens a diplomatic and trade rift between the two countries. Japan announced earlier this month that it was removing South Korea from its own "white list" of countries that have enjoyed minimum trade restrictions.
(Reuters, 8/12/19)
2019 Aug 14, Japan advised more than 300,000 people to evacuate their homes and airlines cancelled hundreds of scheduled flights as tropical storm Krosa bore down on the archipelago.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 14, It was reported that a research team at Japan’s Keio University has built a robotic tail they say could help unsteady elderly people keep their balance.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 14, Thousands of South Koreans protested outside Japan's embassy in Seoul and city officials unveiled a new memorial to wartime 'comfort women' at the center of a row over the two countries' shared history.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 21, Japan and South Korea agreed on the need for dialogue to resolve a feud over compensating Korean wartime workers that has spilled into trade, and put a deep chill on ties between Washington's two biggest Asian allies.
(Reuters, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 22, South Korea said it will terminate its military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan amid intensifying trade and diplomatic disputes with Tokyo.
(The Telegraph, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 23, South Korea said it will share military intelligence with Japan through the United States after terminating a pact that enabled the two key Washington allies to exchange such information directly.
(AFP, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 23, The US and Japan agreed on a broad framework for a trade deal that will keep US tariffs on Japanese automobiles in place for now, while removing barriers to beef and pork exports to Japan.
(Bloomberg, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 25, President Donald Trump said he and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe had agreed on the principles of a trade deal that would probably be signed next month in New York.
(Reuters, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 27, Washington approved the $3.3 billion sale of anti-ballistic missiles to Japan, following close behind a series of new ballistic missile tests by North Korea that could threaten the US ally.
(AFP, 8/27/19)
2019 Aug 28, Japanese companies Tokyo Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, Hitachi and Toshiba said they have agreed to consider cooperating on their nuclear plant businesses.
(Reuters, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 29, It was reported that Japan has approved shipment of hydrogen fluoride used in making computer chips to South Korea for the first time since imposing tighter export controls in July.
(Reuters, 8/29/19)
2019 Sep 2, Japan's nuclear policy-setting body adopted a report saying the country is entering an era of major nuclear plant decommissioning.
(SFC, 9/3/19, p.A5)
2019 Sep 5, Japan-based Nissan Motor Co was embroiled in another scandal over executive pay after Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa admitted to being overpaid in violation of internal procedures under a scheme designed by ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
(Reuters, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 8, Japan braced for Typhoon Faxai cancelling trains and flights in Tokyo with destructive winds of up to 216 kph (134 mph) and heavy rain expected to hit the region overnight.
(Reuters, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 9, Typhoon Faxai barreled through Japan's Tokyo region early today with record-breaking winds, killing one woman and leaving more than 900,000 homes without power.
(The Telegraph, 9/9/19)
2019 Sep 14, Japanese officials culled 753 pigs in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo after detecting an outbreak of swine fever.
(Reuters, 9/15/19)
2019 Sep 15, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported that the government agreed to phase out tariffs on US wine imports as part of a bilateral trade deal expected to be signed at the end of the month.
(Reuters, 9/15/19)
2019 Sep 20, Japan-based Mitsubishi Corp said a trader at its Singapore-based unit had lost $320 million through unauthorized transactions in crude oil derivatives, and the matter had been reported to the police.
(Reuters, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 25, US President Donald Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced initial details of an emerging trade deal between the two countries.
(Reuters, 9/25/19)
2019 Oct 7, The US and Japan signed a limited trade deal that opens markets for American farmers and brings Tokyo a degree of assurance that President Donald Trump won’t impose new tariffs on auto imports for now.
(Bloomberg, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 8, Japan-based Nissan Motor Co named Senior Vice President Makoto Uchida, the head of its Chinese business, as its next CEO. The executive is known for close ties to top shareholder Renault and for a frank, straight-talking manner that has marked him as an outsider. Uchida to over as CEO in December.
(Reuters, 10/8/19)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.58)
2019 Oct 9, The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to American John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham of Britain and Akira Yoshino of Japan for the development of lithium-ion batteries.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, Japan-based Nissan said it will begin making the next-generation Juke vehicle at Britain’s biggest car plant on Oct. 14, just over two weeks before a possible no-deal Brexit which the industry has warned could bring production to a halt. Nissan warned that a no-deal Brexit tariffs of 10% on vehicles would be unsustainable for Nissan in Europe, where it runs Britain's biggest car factory.
(Reuters, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 12, Typhoon Hagibis paralyzed Tokyo, leaving millions confined indoors and streets deserted as fierce rain and wind killed two, flooded rivers and threatened widespread damage.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, North Korea's foreign ministry "strongly demanded" that Japan pay compensation for a fishing boat that sank when it collided with a Japanese patrol boat earlier this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 13, Japan sent tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history. At least 63 people were killed by Typhoon Hagibis with 11 others presumed dead.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)(SFC, 10/14/19, p.A4)(SFC, 10/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 13, In Japan a Panama-registered cargo ship was found sunk in waters near Tokyo after authorities lost track of it as Typhoon Hagibis lashed the country. A newspaper said at least five of the 12 crew were killed.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 22, Japan's Emperor Naruhito formally declared his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the nation's 126th emperor.
(SFC, 10/23/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 22, Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp agreed to spend more than $10 billion to take over WeWork, doubling down on an ill-fated investment and paying off its co-founder Adam Neumann to relinquish control.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, Sadako Ogata (b.1927), leader of the UN refugee agency from 1991-2000, died. She was one of the first Japanese to hold a top job at an international organization.
(AP, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 25, Torrential rains battered parts of eastern Japan, killing at least four people, causing rivers to overflow and prompting evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands two weeks after the areas were hit by floods and high winds from Typhoon Hagibis.
(Reuters, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 31, Japan's justice minister Katsuyuki Kawai resigned over election payment allegations involving his wife, also a lawmaker, and about his own reported gift-giving.
(SFC, 11/1/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 4, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe had an 11-minute conversation on the sidelines of an international conference in Bangkok, the first time they had met in more than a year. They reaffirmed the principle of resolving pending bilateral issues through dialogue.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)(SFC, 11/15/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 4, Australia, Japan and the US announced their "Blue Dot Network" an alternative to China's Bridge and Road Initiative (BRI).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dot_Network)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.33)
2019 Nov 7, Chinese electric car maker BYD Co Ltd and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp said they planned to set up a joint venture to design and develop battery electric cars as they ramp up efforts to produce zero emissions vehicles.
(Reuters, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 18, Japan's first ever fully fledged arms show opened, creating a forum that Japan's government hopes will help it tap technology it needs to counter threats posed by China and North Korean.
(Reuters, 11/18/19)
2019 Nov 22, South Korea made a last-minute decision to stick with its critical intelligence-sharing deal with Japan, a dramatic reversal after months of frigid relations complicated by painful, wartime history.
(Reuters, 11/22/19)
2019 Nov 23, Pope Francis (82) arrived in Japan, the second leg of a week-long Asian trip whose main aim is to bring an anti-nuclear message to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the world's only cities to suffer atomic bombing.
(Reuters, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 24, In Japan Pope Francis brought his campaign to abolish nuclear weapons to the only two cities ever hit by atomic bombs, calling their possession indefensibly perverse and immoral and their use a crime against mankind and nature.
(Reuters, 11/24/19)
2019 Nov 25, In Japan Pope Francis appealed to world leaders to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again, a day after he visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only cities ever to be hit by atomic bombs.
(Reuters, 11/25/19)
2019 Nov 29, Yasuhiro Nakasone (b.1918), former prime minister of Japan (1982-1987), died in Tokyo.
(SSFC, 12/1/19, p.B9)
2019 Dec 3, In Afghanistan Japanese humanitarian Dr Tetsu Nakamura (73) was among six people killed when their vehicle was ambushed by unknown gunmen in the eastern border province of Nangarhar. In 2003 Dr Nakamura was awarded Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize for his aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(The Telegraph, 12/4/19)
2019 Dec 18, Sweden's Volvo AB agreed to sell its Japan-based UD Trucks business to Isuzu Motors and share technology to help cut costs.
(Reuters, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 20, Hassan Rouhani paid the first visit by an Iranian president to Japan in 19 years, just as the US strengthens enforcement of its sanctions in a standoff over nuclear development.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 20, The US Food and Drug Administration said it had approved Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd and AstraZeneca Plc's drug to treat an advanced form of breast cancer, four months ahead of schedule.
(Reuters, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 22, Japan-based drugmaker Eisai Co's US subsidiary announced that it had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for Dayvigo, its insomnia treatment in adult patients.
(AP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 24, The leaders of Japan and South Korea signaled they wouldn’t let relations spin out of control even as they made little progress in resolving disputes that have plunged relations to new depths. The two began their 45-minute meeting on the sidelines of a trilateral summit hosted by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Chengdu.
(AP, 12/24/19)
2019 Dec 26, Japan executed its first foreigner in 10 years, a Chinese man convicted in the 2003 murder and robbery of a family of four.
(SFC, 12/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 27, Japan approved a contentious plan to send its naval troops to the Middle East to ensure the safety of Japanese ships transporting oil to the energy-poor country that heavily depends on imports from the region.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 28, Japanese police found the remains of at least five people in a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on Sado Island in Niigata prefecture. Police found the heads of two persons, as well as five bodies. The wrecked boat was found a day earlier.
(The Telegraph, 12/28/19)(AP, 12/29/19)
2019 Dec 31, Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, announced that he is now in Lebanon, despite being ordered by Japanese courts not to leave the country while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges.
(The Week, 12/31/19)
2019 Dec, Japanese carmaker Mazda shifted production of its SUVs from Thailand to Japan.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2019 The number of Muslims in Japan doubled over the past decade, from 110,000 to 230,000 at the end of this year. This included foreign workers, students and as many as 50,000 Japanese converts.
(Econ., 1/9/21, p.33)
2020 Jan 2, Interpol issued a wanted notice for former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon.
(SFC, 1/3/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 16, Japan recorded its first case of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.28)
2020 Jan 22, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp said it is recalling 361,000 older vehicles worldwide for potentially defective air bag inflators. A day earlier Honda Motor Co said it will recall 2.7 million older US vehicles in North America for the same type of Takata inflator that Toyota is also recalling.
(AP, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 25, Japan said it has confirmed a third case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 26, Japan confirmed a fourth case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 30, Tokyo prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who skipped bail while awaiting trial in Japan. Prosecutors also issued arest wrrants for three Americans they say planned and helped Ghosn escape.
(SFC, 1/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 1, Japan moved to contain the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak originating in China as strict new measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus, including targeting foreign visitors, came into effect. Japan had 17 confirmed cases as of Jan. 31, including some without symptoms.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 4, The US Treasury said the United States and Japan have signed an agreement to jointly encourage more private investment in energy and infrastructure projects.
(Reuters, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, It was reported that at least 10 people aboard a cruise ship moored in Japan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Diamond Princess will remain under quarantine in Yokohama with everyone on board for at least 14 days. Three more cruise ship passengers were soon diagnosed with the virus in Japan for a total of 64 on board the ship.
(Good Morning America, 2/5/20)(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 10, Japan launched a second complaint at the World Trade Organization over support South Korea gives its shipbuilding industry, intensifying a wider dispute between the two Asian countries.
(Reuters, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 11 Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp unannounced commitments from customers to buy hundreds of its SpaceJet M100 regional jets, but its first focus is on certifying its larger introductory model, the M90.
(Reuters, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 12, Japanese police confirmed the arrest of a mother-and-son duo for allegedly making more than 3,200 no-show hotel cancellations, costing the hotels $1 million while collecting reward points worth $22,000.
(AFP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, It was reported that automaker Nissan it is suing former chair and CEO Carlos Ghosn in Japan for 10 billion yen, or $90 million, saying it's seeking to recover damages from his alleged financial misconduct and fraud.
(The Week, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, Chitetsu Watanabe, a Japanese man with a sweet tooth who believes in smiles, become the world's oldest male at 112 years and 344 days old. The oldest living person is also Japanese, Kane Tanaka, a 117-year-old woman.
(AP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 13, Japan announced its first death from a new virus from China, hours after confirming 44 more cases on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo as fears of the spreading disease mount in the country. The Diamond Princess, which is still carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew members, now has 218 people infected with the virus out of 713 tested since it entered Yokohama Port on Feb. 3.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 17, Japanese officials confirmed 99 more people were infected by the new virus aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 454.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 18, Japan, announced that 88 more cases of the virus were confirmed aboard a quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 542 among the 3,700 initially on board.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Japan a third passenger from the virus-infected Diamond Princess cruise ship died. Japan's health ministry announced 57 more cases of infections from the ship, including 55 crew members still on board and two passengers who had infected roommates and are in a prolonged quarantine at a government facility. Japan has confirmed a total of 838 cases and four deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 25, Japan's ANA Holdings Inc said it will buy 15 Boeing Co 787 Dreamliners worth $5 billion at list prices, the first commercial order announcement for the US plane maker this year as it wrestles with the grounding of the smaller 737 MAX.
(Reuters, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as domestic cases of coronavirus increased to 175.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 27, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe told all schools to close until April to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 3/7/20, p.36)
2020 Feb 27, A Japanese woman tested positive for coronavirus for a second time as the number of confirmed cases in Japan, excluding the 704 on the quarantined cruise liner, rose above 190. The death toll rose to eight after another death was reported in Hokkaido.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 29, In Japan a man in his 70s died on the northernmost island of Hokkaido late today after testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The man's death marked the sixth fatality from COVID-19 in Japan, excluding six deaths among those aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 2, Five more cases were confirmed in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, taking the island's total tally to 77.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 3, Japan’s tally of coronavirus cases approached the 1,000 mark.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, Japan's government opened part of Futaba, the last town that had been off limits due to radiation since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
(SFC, 3/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 5, In Japan confirmed infections of coronavirus rose to 1,036.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 6, Japanese carmaker Nissan said it is pushing on with plans to build its new Qashqai sports utility vehicle at its British factory despite warnings over Brexit. Nissan announced a 52-million pound investment in a new press line at the site.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Japan confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 1,057.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Japan total coronavirus infections rose to 1,380.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Japan the number of coronavirus infections rose to 1,484, increasing by a faster pace than the previous day. The total number of infections included 697 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 returnees on charter flights from China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 16, Japan's health ministry said it has identified 15 clusters of coronavirus infections around the country.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, In Japan Kyushu Electric Power Co., the opeator of a nuclear power plant in Kagoshima, was forced to shut a down one of its reactors because of failure to meet a deadline for adding anti-terror safety measures.
(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 22, Japan's Oita prefecture confirmed two new coronavirus infections at a medical center, bringing the total at the facility to 14 and making it a suspected cluster.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Japan's Olympics organizers were reported to be drawing up plans for possible delay, even as the government says a postponement is not an option.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp said it would suspend production on one of its vehicle production lines at a plant near its headquarters through March 25, after a second plant worker tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Canadian Olympic Committee said it won't send athletes to the Tokyo Games unless they're postponed for a year.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe suggested that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo might need to be postponed, hours after Canada and Australia threatened to boycott the Games.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, Japan’s NHK public television reported that PM Shinzo Abe will propose a one-year postponement for the Tokyo Olympics during talks with IOC President Thomas Bach.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee joined growing demands to postpone the Tokyo Olympics.
(NY Times, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Japan new coronavirus infections in Tokyo rose by more than 60, the biggest daily increase yet.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, Tokyo confirmed 68 new coronavirus cases, a record daily increase. Popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura (70) died from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 30, Japanese organizers announced that the opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo has been rescheduled for July 23, 2021.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Apr 1, Japan reported 65 new cases of coronavirus. Nationwide Japan has about 2,300 confirmed cases and 67 deaths.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 2, Japan has more than 3,000 cases of coronavirus and 71 deaths. Tokyo reported 97 new cases.
(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 4, Japan reported that some 118 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo bringing the number of confirmed cases there to 891.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 5, Tokyo reported more than 130 new coronavirus infections, bringing the number of cases in the Japanese capital to more than 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 6, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections. At least 3,654 people in Japan have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 85 of them have died.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(ABC News, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections.
(Bloomberg, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 8, Rakuten, a Japananese technology company, launched the first full-scale 5G virtualized network. In October Rakuten Mobile launched the world's first 5G network based on Openran, a new technology seen as an alternative to products by Ericsson, Nokia and China's Huawei.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.47)(Econ., 11/7/20, p.16)
2020 Apr 9, Japan for the first time reported more than 500 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus. Over 100 people in Japan have died from the disease so far, including 11 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
(ABC News, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 11, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for citizens across Japan to avoid evening spots like bars and restaurants. SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan from May after reaching a deal with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, which has also started producing masks.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Japan Ssuzuki Naomichi, the mayor of Hokaido, reimposed a state of emergency that had been lifted on March 18.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 13, Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi warned that the Paris climate accord could face death if steps to fight global warming were put on the backburner to facilitate the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 16, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe expanded a state of emergency to include the entire country and said the government was considering cash payouts for all.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe urged the international community to rally around the World Health Organization and said the body’s problems should be addressed once the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Japan 181 new cases were found in Tokyo. Cases in Japan exceeded 10,000. It was reported that hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that more than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 25, Tokyo reported 103 new cases of coronavirus infections. The latest figures bring total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 3,836 cases. The total number of coronavirus infections in Japan reached nearly 13,000 cases, with 345 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, Tokyo recorded 72 coronavirus cases, the first time in 13 days it was below 100.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 27, Metropolitan Tokyo confirmed 39 more coronavirus cases, the fewest since March 30 and the second consecutive day of new cases below triple digits.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 May 9, Tokyo reported 36 new cases of coronavirus infections, three less than a day earlier and the seventh consecutive day that new infections have remained below 100. This brought the total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 4,846 cases.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 10, In Japan about 5,000 people in Tokyo were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, representing nearly one-third of Japan's total infections of around 16,000.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced the lifting of a coronavirus state of emergency ahead of schedule in most of the country except for eight high-risk areas. It remains in effect in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hokkaido.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 20, Authorities in Massachusetts arrested two men who allegedly helped ex-Nissan chair Carlos Ghosn flee Japan ahead of his trial. Former US Green Beret Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, were set to appear before a judge through video conference. They were being held for possible extradition to Japan.
(The Week, 5/20/20)
2020 May 25, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas, ending nationwide restrictions as businesses began to reopen.
(SFC, 5/26/19, p.A4)
2020 May 27, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's cabinet approved a new $1.1 trillion stimulus package that includes significant direct spending, to stop the coronavirus pandemic pushing the world's third-largest economy deeper into recession.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, It was reported that Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd will be allowed to keep a drug used to treat bowel disease because changes in the market have removed the need to sell it to allay EU antitrust concerns over last year's acquisition of Shire plc.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Japan-based Nissan Motor Co outlined a new plan to become a smaller, more efficient carmaker after the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated a slide in profitability that culminated in its first annual loss in 11 years.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 29, It was reported that AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu helped patients with three different types of cancer live longer in trials, pointing to potential broader use of the breast cancer treatment.
(Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020 Jun 1, In Japan anti-harassment legislation went into effect requiring firms to have clear policies in palce and to create internal systems for reporting and verifying claims of abuse. Complaints of power harassment, aka pawahara, had been growing in recent years.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.53)
2020 Jun 2, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike issued a coronavirus alert after 34 new cases were reported in the city, where infections had slowed to a few per day in late May.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Japan approved saliva-based tests for the coronavirus, offering a safer, simpler way to diagnose infection than nasal swabs as it looks to boost its testing rates.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 3, It was reported that researchers at Japan's Shinshu Univ. have successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen using light and newly developed catalysts that achieve almost 100% efficiency.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybxrxo6s)
2020 Jun 5, Japan-based Toyota announced a joint venture with several Chinese carmakers to develop fuel-cell technology.
(Econ., 7/4/20, p.70)
2020 Jun 10, Japanese biotech AnGes Inc said it expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 14, In Japan hundreds of people marched peacefully in Tokyo, highlighting the outrage over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
(AP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 15, Japan's Defense Ministry said that it has decided to stop unpopular plans to deploy two costly Aegis Ashore systems US missile defense systems aimed at bolstering the country’s capability against threats from North Korea.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 17, Japanese researchers confirmed the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater plants, a finding that could serve as a signal for future outbreaks. The findings mirror similar studies in Australia, the United States, and Europe.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that his country needs to bolster its security posture amid threats from North Korea and should consider acquiring preemptive strike capability after having to scrap the planned deployment of two new land-based missile defense systems.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, In Japan former justice minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his wife, Anri Kawai, were arrested over allegations they engaged in vote buying during last year's election.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 25, Japan's National Security Council endorsed plans to cancel the deployment of two $4.1 billion land-based US missile defense systems. The Aegis Ashore systems had been aimed at bolstering Japan's capability against threats from North Korea.
(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 26, Japan recorded more than 100 new infections for the first time since May 9, hitting its highest daily total since it eased a lockdown.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, It was reported that Japanese startup Donut Robotics has developed an internet-connected "smart mask" that can transmit messages and translate from Japanese into eight other languages.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jul 3, Tokyo reported 124 new cases, up from 107 the day before, partly due to increased testing among nightlife workers in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro districts.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 4, In southern Japan heavy rain triggered flooding and mudslides along the Kuma River. After several days of flooding at least 58 people died.
(AP, 7/4/20)(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 4, Tokyo confirmed 131 new cases, exceeding 100 for the third day in a row and hitting a new two-month high, prompting Governor Yuriko Koike to ask residents to avoid nonessential out-of-town visits.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s ruling party adopted a resolution urging the government to cancel a visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping following Beijing's imposition of a new national security law for Hong Kong.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 10, Record-breaking rains this week in the south of Japan have killed 62 people in floods and landslides. The extreme weather is highlighting the vulnerability of nursing homes: Floodwaters killed 14 seniors in one nursing home.
(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Japan reported 243 new cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo as businesses have largely returned to normal.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 11, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said dozens of US Marines at two bases on the southern Japanese island have been infected with the coronavirus in what is feared to be a massive outbreak. The next day officials reported 61 cases – 38 at Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma and another 23 at Camp Hansen.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 13, The Japan Federation of Medical Worker's Unions said about a third of Japanese medical institutions are cutting summer bonuses to staff, as many hospitals and clinics face a cash crunch, having had to delay routine treatments to make room for coronavirus patients.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 17, Tokyo confirmed 293 coronavirus cases, a single-day record for a 2nd straight day.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 20, Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co said it aims to boost production capacity for its potential coronavirus vaccine to produce enough for 30 million people annually by the end of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, A United Arab Emirates spacecraft began its journey to Mars following blastoff from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center. The probe, named Amal (Hope), is expected to reach Mars in February 2021.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that Japan's health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalized patients.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 23, Tokyo announced a record 366 new daily coronavirus cases . Tokyo now has 10,420 confirmed cases including 327 deaths.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 25, The Japanese ship MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius and its crew was evacuated. The large bulk carrier later began leaking tons of fuel into the surrounding waters. The ship was empty when it ran aground, but had some 4,000 tons of fuel aboard. On August 7 PM Pravind Jugnauth declared a state of emergency. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines later said the accident occurred after the ship shifted its course two miles closer to shore than planned so its crewmembers could get cellphone signals.
(AP, 8/8/20)(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Jul 27, Pres. Donald Trump the United States has awarded a $265 million contract to a Texas facility of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp to step up production of a coronavirus vaccine candidate. Last week, Fujifilm Diosynth, a drug ingredient subsidiary of the Japanese firm, said it would make bulk drug substances for Novavax Inc.'s virus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 29, The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance led by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it has completed test supplies of a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, but pending regulator approval will likely prevent clinical trials from meeting a July start date.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 31, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they have agreed to supply Japan with 120 million doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccine in the first half of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Aug 15, Officials said grounded Japanese ship that leaked tons of oil near protected areas off the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius has split apart, with remaining fuel spreading into the turquoise waters.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 24, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it would sell its Japanese consumer healthcare business to US buyout fund Blackstone Group, as it aims to focus on developing drugs for unmet medical needs and rare diseases.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 26, Japanese researchers said that low concentrations of ozone can neutralize coronavirus particles, potentially providing a way for hospitals to disinfect examination rooms and waiting areas.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that archeologists in Japan have dug up the remains of more than 1,500 people who were buried in a 19th century mass grave in Osaka. An epidemic of syphilis was suspected as a possible cause. The area is being excavated for a city development project.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 28, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign because of illness, just days after becoming the country’s longest-serving leader. A biography of Mr. Abe, "The Iconoclast" by Tobias Harris, was soon published.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.73)
2020 Sep 2, A livestock ship carrying 42 crew members sank during rough weather off a southern Japanese island. One Filipino crew member was rescued. The 11,947-ton Gulf Livestock 1 ship was carrying 5,800 cows west of Amami Oshima in the East China Sea when it sent a distress call early today in seas roughened by Typhoon Maysak.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge ruled that two American men accused of smuggling Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan while he was awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges can be extradited. The final decision rests with the State Department.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 6, Typhoon Haishen, the second powerful typhoon to slam Japan in a week, unleashed fierce winds and rain on southern islands, blowing off rooftops and leaving homes without power as it edged northward into an area vulnerable to flooding and mudslides.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 11, Japan suspended imports of pork and live pigs from Germany after a case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed in a wild boar in eastern Germany.
(Reuters, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 11, The Japanese operator of the MV Wakashio, a bulk carrier that strayed off course and caused a major oil spill off the coast of Mauritius, said it will provide 1 billion yen ($9 million) to fund environmental projects and support the local fishing community.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A1)
2020 Sep 11, Britain announced its first major post-Brexit trade agreement -- a deal with Japan -- as its negotiations with the European Union become increasingly fractious.
(AFP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 14, Yoshihide Suga (71) was elected as the new head of Japan’s ruling party, all but assuring that he will become the country's new prime minister when a parliamentary election is held later in the week.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 16, Japan's parliament elected Yoshihide Suga as the country's 99th prime minister.
(The Week, 9/16/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.36)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Japanese researchers have developed a blood test they say appears to serve as an early warning system for serious cases of COVID-19, and deployed 500 prototype machines to trial its effectiveness nationwide.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 26, It was reported that Japan-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp will seek voluntary retirement from 500 to 600 employees, mostly in management, from mid-November to cut costs.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 28, SoftBank's robotics arm said it will bring a food service robot developed by California-based Bear Robotics to Japan as restaurants grapple with labor shortages and a new socially distanced norm as a result of the novel coronavirus. The robot named Servi will act as a sort of waiter.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, Newly elected Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he wants to settle their territorial dispute and sign a peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, In Japan a high court held the government responsible for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster ruling that the state and the plant's operator must pay about $9.5 million in damages to survivors.
(SFC, 10/1/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 30, Japan's defence ministry unveiled a record $52-billion budget request in a push to maintain military readiness under pressure from China and North Korea.
(AFP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 30, In Japan Takahiro Shiraishi (29), dubbed the "Twitter killer" for luring his victims on social media, admitted in court to murdering nine people. Shiraishi is also accused of dismembering his victims and storing body parts in coolboxes. Lawyers for Shiraishi argued that charges should be reduced because the victims had expressed suicidal thoughts and gave their consent to be killed.
(The Telegraph, 10/1/20)
2020 Sep, Telefonica, a Spanish multinational telecommunications company, teamed with Japan-based Rakuten to deploy Openran more widely in its 5G networks by 2025.
(Econ., 11/7/20, p.16)
2020 Oct 4, Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada (81), better known as Kenzo, who created his label in Paris in the 1970s, died of complications linked to COVID-19 at the American Hospital of Paris.
(Reuters, 10/4/20)
2020 Oct 9, Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said an alliance of drug makers it spearheads has enrolled its first patient in a global clinical trial of a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 after months of regulatory delays.
(Reuters, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 12, Japan vowed to bolster its missile deterrence capability to respond to threats by North Korean weapons that are becoming “more diverse and complex," as displayed during a military parade held by the North over the weekend.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co-led group, that is developing a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, has started manufacturing while the late-stage trial to determine whether it works is ongoing.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 13, Japan launched its latest three-yearly energy policy review, with the country grappling with a need to cut greenhouse gas emissions even as the public remains wary over nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster.
(Reuters, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 15, In Japan sexual minority groups and human rights activists started a petition calling for an LGBT equality law in hopes that it can be enacted next year.
(SFC, 10/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 15, The European-Japanese probe BepiColombo took a black-and-white snapshot of Venus from a distance of 17,000 km (10,560 miles), as it used Earth's neighbor to adjust its course on the way to Mercury, the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet.
(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, Japan-based Fujifilm Holdings Corp said it was seeking approval for its flu drug Avigan as a treatment for COVID-19 in Japan, a move that comes after a late-stage study showed reduced recovery time for patients with non-severe symptoms.
(Reuters, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 20, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE announced the start in Japan of combined Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of their mRNA vaccine candidate against the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 26, Japan said it will not sign a UN treaty that bans nuclear weapons and does not welcome its entry into force next year, rejecting the wishes of atomic bomb survivors in Japan who are urging the government to join and work for a nuclear-free world. PM Suga Yoshihide promised to reduce Japan's net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050.
(AP, 10/26/20)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.36)
2020 Oct 27, Japan's cabinet approved a plan to use public funds to provide novel coronavirus vaccines to the public for free.
(Reuters, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 29, Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it would import and distribute 50 million doses of Moderna Inc's novel coronavirus vaccine candidate.
(Reuters, 10/29/20)
2020 Oct 29, In Japan total confirmed cases of COVID-19 exceeded the 100,000 mark, as the number of daily infections has crept up in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 10/29/20)
2020 Nov 2, Japan's Sosei Group Corp said t is allying with a US biotech run by former Novartis AG executives to commercialize a neurological drug pipeline.
(Reuters, 11/2/20)
2020 Nov 4, Government officials said Japan's Kagawa prefecture will cull 330,000 chickens at a farm after the country's first bird flu outbreak in poultry in more than two years.
(Reuters, 11/4/20)
2020 Nov 10, In Japan data showed that the number of suicides in the country rose in October for the fourth month in a row to the highest level in more than five years. Preliminary police data showed that the total number of suicides for October was 2,153, an increase of more than 300 from the previous month and the highest monthly tally since May 2015.
(Reuters, 11/10/20)
2020 Nov 17, The leaders of Australia and Japan reached an agreement on a bilateral defense pact that would allow their troops to work more closely.
(SFC, 11/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 18, Coronavirus infections in Tokyo hit a record daily high of 493 cases, as local media reported the Japanese capital was preparing to raise its alert level for infections to the highest of four stages.
(Reuters, 11/18/20)
2020 Nov 19, Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert to the highest level as its daily tally of new infections rose to a record 534 and its governor called for maximum caution as the year-end party season approaches. Japan's nationwide tally also hit a new high of 2,259.
(Reuters, 11/19/20)
2020 Nov 20, Japan's Kagawa prefecture said it will cull 850,000 chickens at two poultry farms after the country detected a bird flu outbreak earlier this month. These will be the sixth and seventh cases of the avian flu in western Kagawa prefecture and the biggest culling to be done at one time since the country's first bird flu outbreak in more than two years was found in the poultry this month.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 25, China's top diplomat told Japan's leader that Beijing wants the two Asian powers to have good relations and cooperate in fighting the coronavirus and reviving their pandemic-hit economies, but the two sides remained at odds over an island dispute.
(AP, 11/25/20)
2020 Nov 28, In Japan daily cases of the coronavirus reached a record of 2,680.
(Econ., 12/5/20, p.43)
2020 Dec 3, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said Japan's Kaneka Corp has entered into a deal to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
(Reuters, 12/3/20)
2020 Dec 4, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga pledged a 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) fund to promote ecological businesses and innovation to achieve his goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.
(AP, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 6, Japan retrieved a capsule of asteroid dust from Australia's remote outback after a six-year mission that may help uncover more about the origins of the planets and water. The capsule lit up on re-entry into the atmosphere early today and landed in the Woomera restricted area, about 460 km (285 miles) north of Adelaide.
(Reuters, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 6, In Japan Shoko Arai, the only female assembly member in the town of Kusatsu, was voted out of office in a recall election orchestrated by the mayor and other assembly members. Last November she had accused mayor Nobutada Kuroiva of forcing her into sexual relation in 2015.
(SFC, 12/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 7, Japan's agriculture ministry said bird flu has been detected in a fifth Japanese prefecture, as a wave of infections at poultry farms sparks the Japan's worst outbreak in more than four years.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 10, A bird flu outbreak in Japan worsened with farms in two more prefectures slaughtering chicken in a record cull of poultry as the government ordered the disinfection of all chicken farms.
(Reuters, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 10, Biogen said it has filed for regulatory approval in Japan for an Alzheimer's disease drug it developed with local partner Eisai Co.
(Reuters, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 12, Japan saw more than 3,000 new infections of the novel coronavirus for the first time in one day, as the number of cases continues to rise in the winter.
(Reuters, 12/12/20)
2020 Dec 13, In Japan 3,030 new coronavirus cases, including 621 in Tokyo, took the national tally to 177,287 with 2,562 deaths.
(AP, 12/13/20)
2020 Dec 14, Japan selected the "mitsu" kanji character, meaning "congested" or "dense" and used to encourage social distancing, as its defining symbol for 2020.
(Reuters, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Japan said its worst bird flu outbreak on record has spread to new farms and now affects more than 20% of the country's 47 prefectures, with officials ordering cullings after more poultry deaths.
(Reuters, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 15, A Japanese court sentenced Takahiro Shiraishi (30), known as the "Twitter killer," to death for killing and dismembering nine people, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. Police arrested Shiraishi in 2017 after finding the bodies of eight females and one male in cold-storage cases in his apartment.
(AP, 12/15/20)
2020 Dec 18, Japan’s Cabinet adopted a plan to enhance the country's missile deterrence, including development of new cruise missiles, to counter potential threats from China and North Korea.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 20, In Japan Harley Davidson bikers dressed in Santa Claus costumes rode through the streets of central Tokyo for their annual parade against child abuse.
(Reuters, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 21, Japan's national associations of doctors, nurses and seven other medical groups declared a state of medical emergency, urging the government to support the nation's medical system creaking under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 12/21/20)
2020 Dec 23, Japan's highest court upheld a ruling granting a retrial to Iwao Hakamada (84), a man described as the world's longest-serving death row inmate. He was convicted of robbing and murdering his boss, the man's wife, and their two teenaged children. Mr Hakamada had confessed to the crime but later recanted in court citing his allegedly brutal police interrogation and planted evidence.
(The Telegraph, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 26, Japan registered a record 3,881 infections including a new record for the capital, Tokyo, of 949.
(BBC, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 28, It was reported that "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train," the animated tale of a boy fighting human-eating demons that murdered his family, has shattered a nearly two-decade record to become Japan's top-grossing movie. The old record was held by "Spirited Away."
(Reuters, 12/28/20)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.29)
2020 Matt Alt authored "Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World."
(Econ., 1/23/21, p.30)
2020 In Japan, 6,976 women took their lives this year, nearly 15 percent more than in 2019. It was the first year-over-year increase in more than a decade.
(NY Times, 2/22/21)
2021 Jan 6, Tokyo reported a daily record of 1,591 coronavirus cases. Japan has confirmed more than 250,000 cases including over 3,700 deaths.
(SFC, 1/7/21, p.A4)
2021 Jan 8, A South Korean court ordered Japan to compensate 12 South Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese troops during WWII. Compensation was set at $91,360 for each of the 12 women, seven of whom have died while waiting for the ruling. Japan immediately protested the ruling saying all compensation issues were resolved under a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties.
(SFC, 1/9/21, p.A3)
2021 Jan 9, Osaka and its surrounding prefectures asked Japan to expand a state of emergency to the western cities in an effort to contain the latest COVID-19 outbreak. Tokyo's new daily infections kept above 2,000 cases.
(Reuters, 1/9/21)
2021 Jan 11, Young people in Yokohama marked Japan's Coming of Age Day, even though the city is under a state of emergency. The ceremonies were cancelled in many cities and parties were discouraged to stem a rise in COVID-19 infections.
(Reuters, 1/11/21)
2021 Jan 14, In Japan an executive at the Nissan carmaker told a Tokyo court at a trial of Nissan executive Greg Kelly that Carlos Ghosn hid part of his compensation because he feared the French government would force him out of Renault if it discovered how much he earned. Kelly is charged with helping Ghosn hide 9.3 billion yen ($89 million) in compensation over eight years through deferred payments after Japan introduced new rules requiring executives to disclose payments above 1 billion yen.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, It was reported that Toyota Motor Corp has settled a lengthy US Justice Department civil probe into its delayed filing of emissions-related defect reports for $180 million, the government said in a court filing.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 16, It was reported that suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people.
(Reuters, 1/16/21)
2021 Jan 19, Japan's health minister watched a demonstration of a prototype automated COVID-19 testing machine that uses a robotic arm to take a sample from a person's nose and can deliver the results in about 80 minutes.
(Reuters, 1/19/21)
2021 Jan 22, Japanese carmaker Nissan confirmed that it will maintain its operations in Britain in the wake of the post-Brexit trade deal between the country and the European Union.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 26, Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co SAID IT has sold the development and marketing rights for a COVID-19 treatment to California-based biotech BioAge Labs Inc. The drug, known as BGE-175, was developed to treat allergic rhinitis.
(Reuters, 1/26/21)
2021 Feb 4, It was reported that the number of people infected by the novel coronavirus in Tokyo may have increased nine-fold since last summer, antibody tests showed, as Japan tries to rein in the country's third and most lethal wave of the pandemic ahead of the Olympics in July.
(Reuters, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 8, Royal Dutch Shell and renewables firm Eneco, owned by Japan's Mitsubishi Corp, said they will provide Amazon.com Inc's European facilities with electricity from an offshore wind farm off the Dutch coast.
(Reuters, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 11, Japan reported its worst one-day death toll for the pandemic. 21 people died from COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours.
(SFC, 2/12/21, p.A6)
2021 Feb 11, In Japan thousands of people from Myanmar sang songs and waved glow sticks as they gathered in Tokyo to protest the military coup in their home country.
(AP, 2/11/21)
2021 Feb 13, In eastern Japan a magnitude 7.3 earthquake off the coast of Fukushima shook a broad area late today, leaving nearly a million households without power. More than 100 people were injured.
(NY Times, 2/14/21)(SFC, 2/15/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 13, The US Supreme Court cleared the way for the extradition of an American father and son wanted by Japan in the escape of former Nissan Motor Co. boss Carlos Ghosn.
(AP, 2/13/21)
2021 Feb 14, Japan's Health Ministry said it has officially approved Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, the first such approval in the country as it steps up efforts to tame a third wave of infections in the run-up to the Summer Olympic Games.
(Reuters, 2/14/21)
2021 Feb 15, Japan's Nikkei share average rose above the 30,000 level for the first time in more than 30 years, as it regained the ground lost during decades of economic stagnation.
(Reuters, 2/15/21)
2021 Feb 17, Japan launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign.
(SFC, 2/18/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 19, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said cooling water levels have fallen in two reactors at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant since a powerful earthquake hit the area last weekend, indicating possible additional damage.
(AP, 2/19/21)
2021 Feb 21, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported that Fujifilm Holdings Corp will restart a clinical trial in Japan of its antiviral drug Avigan for the treatment of COVID-19. A health ministry panel said in December that trial data was inconclusive.
(Reuters, 2/21/21)
2021 Feb 26, The record-breaking Japanese anime film "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" carried over its box-office buzz to the United States, captivating Florida fans in its first screening. The film has grossed over $350 million at theaters in Japan.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Mar 1, Toko Shinoda, one of the foremost Japanese artists of the 20th century, died at a hospital in Tokyo. Her work married the ancient serenity of calligraphy with the modernist urgency of Abstract Expressionism.
(NY Times, 3/3/21)
2021 Mar 1, An American father and son wanted by Japan for aiding former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn escape from the country in a box were handed over to Japanese custody, ending their months-long battle to stay in the US.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 2, Sri Lanka's government said it will allow India and Japan to develop a new container terminal at the country's main port, several weeks after scrapping a deal with the two countries to develop one of the key terminals at the same port.
(AP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 5, Japan's PM Yoshihide Suga announced an extension of the state of emergency in the Tokyo region for another two weeks because medical systems there are still strained by COVID-19 patients.
(SFC, 3/6/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 9, Japan-based Nissan said it is recalling more than 854,000 cars in the US and Canada because the brake lights might not come on when the driver presses on the pedal.
(AP, 3/9/21)
2021 Mar 12, It was reported that Myanmar's first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, while Japan's space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 17, A Japanese court for the first time ruled that same-sex marriage should be allowed under the country's constitution, a moral victory that does not have any immediate legal consequence but could bolster efforts for legalization.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 20, The International Olympic Committee and local organizers announced that foreign spectators will not be allowed at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to begin July 23, because of coronavirus restrictions.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 20, A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off northern Japan, shaking buildings even in Tokyo and triggering a tsunami advisory for a part of the northern coast. No major damage was reported.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 22, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co said it has won a contract from Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo Inc to supply 5G network equipment, as the company positions itself as a challenger in the telecoms gear business.
(Reuters, 3/22/21)
2021 Mar 24, Japanese automakers Toyota, Isuzu and Hino said they are setting up a partnership in commercial vehicles to work together in electric, hydrogen, connected and autonomous driving technologies.
(SFC, 3/25/21, p.B2)
2021 Mar 25, The Olympic torch relay started in Japan, though questions linger about whether the Games should go ahead.
(NY Times, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 27, Japan-based Honda said it has agreed to sell its only British car plant at Swindon in southern England to logistics giant Panattoni, as the new owner reportedly plans to make a large investment at the sprawling site.
(Reuters, 3/27/21)
2021 Mar 29, The Japanese government said it has decided to temporarily halt its use of popular messaging app Line, owned by SoftBank Corp's Z Holdings, to handle sensitive information. This followed domestic media reports this month that four engineers at a Line affiliate in Shanghai were allowed to access servers in Japan from 2018 that contained the names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of users.
(Reuters, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 30, Japan-based Lexus, a luxury auto brand owned by Toyota Motor Corp, said it plans to introduce 20 new or improved models by 2025, of which more than 10 will be electric.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 31, Data firm IHS Markit said a recent fire at a Japanese semiconductor factory and severe weather in parts of the United States in February have exacerbated an ongoing chip shortage plaguing the global auto industry. The chip-making factory owned by Renesas Electronics Corp accounts for 30% of the global market for microcontroller units used in cars.
(Reuters, 3/31/21)
2021 Apr 1, Japan designated Osaka and two other areas for new virus control steps as infections there rise less than four months before the Tokyo Olympics.
(SFC, 4/2/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 2, In Japan 446 new infections were reported in Tokyo. In Osaka, a record 666 cases were reported.
(Reuters, 4/3/21)
2021 Apr 4, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said around 70% of coronavirus patients tested at a Tokyo hospital last month carried a mutation known for reducing vaccine protection. The E484K mutation, nicknamed "Eek" by some scientists, was found in 10 of 14 people who tested positive for the virus at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital in March.
(Reuters, 4/4/21)
2021 Apr 5, Japan's Subaru Corp said that the automaker will shut its Yajima plant between April 10 and 27 due to a chip shortage, affecting 10,000 vehicles.
(Reuters, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 6, It was reported that Japan has extended its own sanctions against North Korea for another two years as Pyongyang continues to develop its nuclear weapons without any progress in resolving the abductions of Japanese nationals.
(AP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 7, Doctors in Japan performed the world's first successful transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a patient with severe lung damage from COVID-19.
(SFC, 4/9/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 12, Japan said it had decided to gradually release tons of treated wastewater from the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the ocean.
(SFC, 4/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Apr 14, The UAE-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center said it is partnering with Japan’s ispace company to send a rover to the moon on an unmanned spacecraft by 2022, rather than 2024. The “Rashid" rover, named after Dubai’s ruling family, will deploy to the moon using ispace's lunar lander.
(AP, 4/14/21)
2021 Apr 15, Nissan Motor Co said it will slash production at several factories in Japan next month due to a global shortage of semiconductors.
(AP, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, President Biden welcomed Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga at the White House, his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader and a clear signal to an increasingly aggressive China about the shared commitment to strategic cooperation between the US and Japan.
(LA Times, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 21, A South Korean court rejected a claim by victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery and their relatives who sought compensation from Japan's government.
(SFC, 4/22/21, p.A2)
2021 Apr 26, In Japan private sector advisers to PM Yoshihide Suga warned that Japan's birth rate is declining at a faster pace amid the coronavirus crisis, saying that society should have a "sense of crisis" about it.
(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 27, Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings said it has acquired the self-driving division of American ride-hailing company Lyft for $550 million.
(SFC, 4/28/21, p.B2)
2021 May 7, Novavax Inc said the distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine in Japan is expected to begin in late 2021 or early 2022 and continue for the near-term, predicting the need for protection against variants in the future. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, Japan's biggest drugmaker, is helping bring the vaccine to the domestic market.
(Reuters, 5/7/21)
2021 May 14, Japan further expanded a coronavirus state of emergency from six areas, including Tokyo, to nine, as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga repeated his determination to hold the Olympics in just over two months.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 24, Japan mobilized military doctors and nurses to give elderly people vaccine shots in Tokyo and Osaka, two months before hosting the Olympics.
(SFC, 5/25/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 2, Japan's PM Yoshihide Suga announced an additional $800 million contribution to the UN-backed initiative to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries, a four-fold increase of Japanese funding for the COVAX program.
(AP, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 7, In Japan the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa began closing schools to contain coronavirus infections. Gov. Denny Tamaki said primary and secondary schools will be closed until June 20.
(SFC, 6/8/21, p.A5)
2021 Jun 14, In Japan an American father and son pleaded guilty in Japan to helping Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan chief facing fraud charges, to flee that country in 2019. Michael Taylor (60), a former Green Beret, and his son Peter Maxwell Taylor (28), appeared in the same Tokyo courthouse where Mr. Ghosn had been expected to stand trial before his daring escape to Lebanon in December 2019.
(NY Times, 6/14/21)
2021 Jun 15, Winners were announced for the annual Goldman Environmental Prize. The six winners included: Sharon Lavigne (68) of Louisiana, who successfully fought the opening of a Chinese chemical plant in St. James Parish; Liz Chicaje Churay (38) of Peru, for helping establish a new national park; Maida Bilal (39) of Bosnia-Herzegovina, for creating an environmental group to protest proposed hydropower dams on the Kruscica River; Kimiko Hirata of Japan, for fighting off construction of new coal power plants following the country's 2011 earthquake and nuclear plant meltdown; Gloria Majiga-Kamoto (30) of Malawi, for bringing pressure on the government to uphold a ban on thin plastics; and Thai Van Nguyen (39) of Vietnam, for work to protect pangolins, trafficked for use in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine.
(SFC, 6/15/21, p.B5)
2021 Jun 19, A member of Uganda's Olympic squad became the first to test positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Japan for the competition due to start on 23 July. The unnamed Ugandan was part of a nine-member squad that had been fully vaccinated.
(BBC, 6/20/21)
2021 Jun 20, Tokyo reported 376 cases of Covid and one death, 72 more than a week ago.
(BBC, 6/20/21)
2021 Jun 21, Thailand's health minister said Japan's government would donate some AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as the Southeast Asian country seeks to shore-up supplies after some early delays in its vaccinations.
(Reuters, 6/21/21)
2021 Jun 23, Tokyo reported 619 new coronavirus cases, up from the last seven-day average of 405. Japan has hit the remarkable benchmark of 1 million vaccines a day. But with the Olympics set to start in less than a month only a small portion of the country has been vaccinated.
(AP, 6/24/21)
2060 Japan’s population was expected to drop to about 87 million by this time from 127 million in 2015.
(Econ, 6/27/15, p.33)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Japan
End of file
Return to home
A: thru 1940
B: 1941-1979
C: 1980-2000
D: 2001-2005
E: 2006-2021
2006 Jan 3, In Japan Yoshie Sato (56) was killed near the Yokosuka base. Japanese media later reported that a US serviceman (21) had admitted to US military authorities to killing her. In June 2 the soldier was sentenced by a Japanese court to life in prison.
(AFP, 1/6/06)(WSJ, 6/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Jan 4, The world’s largest bank, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (MUFG), opened for business with $1.6 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.64)
2006 Jan 7, Japanese police arrested William Oliver Reese (21), an American sailor, on charges of robbing and beating a Japanese woman to death. Reese was accused of robbing Yoshie Sato (56) of $129.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, Environmentalists continued attempts to thwart Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, as both sides accused each other of underhand tactics in the high-seas struggle.
(AFP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 8, Greenpeace claimed a Japanese whaling ship deliberately rammed its ship Arctic Sunrise, denting the ship's bow but causing no injuries. Greenpeace said it would continue hounding Japan's whaling fleet in Antarctic waters despite the damaging collision.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, The death toll from snowstorms that have blasted northern and central Japan since early December rose to 71 after three people died while clearing snow.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 9, China and Japan agreed to hold new talks to resolve a dispute over gas deposits in the East China Sea that could help ease their increasingly strained relations.
(AP, 1/9/06)
2006 Jan 14, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said the death toll from heavy snow reached 87 as relatively mild weather over the weekend sparked several avalanches.
(AFP, 1/14/06)
2006 Jan 18, Japan's main stock market index tumbled for a second day led by a sell-off in technology shares in a session that was halted 20 minutes early because of heavy trading volume amid a widening criminal investigation of the Internet startup Livedoor. Technical glitches forced an emergency closing for the 1st time in the exchanges 57-year history.
(AP, 1/18/06)(WSJ, 1/19/06, p.A1)(Econ, 1/21/06, p.64)
2006 Jan 19, In Germany environmentalists positioned a 55-foot dead whale in front of the Japanese Embassy in Berlin to protest against Japanese whale-hunting.
(AP, 1/19/06)
2006 Jan 20, Japan halted imports of US beef just a month after lifting a ban, following the discovery of spinal material in a shipment that should have been removed due to the risk of mad cow disease.
(AP, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 20, Greenpeace said that its two vessels shadowing the Japanese whaling fleet in the icy Southern Ocean were ending their protests because their fuel and food were running short.
(Reuters, 1/20/06)
2006 Jan 23, Takafumi Horie, chief executive of Japanese Internet portal Livedoor, was arrested for alleged securities law violations in a scandal that has caused a week of turmoil in Japan's stock market. On Jan 25 Horie resigned from the board of Livedoor.
(AP, 1/23/06)(Econ, 1/28/06, p.60)
2006 Jan 24, Japan launched the leading rocket in its space program for the first time in nearly a year, putting into orbit one of the world's largest land observation satellites to monitor natural disasters.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 28, China’s state-owned CNOOC began gas production at the Chunxiao field near the disputed border region with Japan.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.A13)
2006 Jan 31, Japan said it will begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in March and complete the pullout by May, ending its largest military mission since the end of World War II.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Jan, A Toyota engineer died of ischemic heart disease one day before leaving for an auto show in the US. In 2008 a Japanese labor bureau ruled that the man died from working too many hours (karoshi), a phenomena recognized by the Health Ministry since 1987.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.C3)
2006 Feb 3, Japan’s parliament enacted a law awarding compensation to former leprosy sufferers who were forced into isolated leper colonies in Taiwan and Korea by Japan's imperial government decades ago.
(AP, 2/3/06)
2006 Feb 6, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said that it was buying nuclear plant builder Westinghouse Electric Co., the US-based unit of the British government's British Nuclear Fuels PLC, for $5.4 billion.
(AP, 2/6/06)
2006 Feb 8, Japan and North Korea ended five days of high-level talks aimed at establishing diplomatic relations without any agreements, citing major differences on the North's abduction of Japanese nationals and its nuclear program.
(AP, 2/8/06)
2006 Feb 9, Japanese officials said 45 cows at a farm in northern Japan were suspected of having mad cow disease and will be destroyed.
(AP, 2/9/06)
2006 Feb 10, A leading marine conservation organization said Japan's stock of whale meat from hunting for scientific research is so large that the country has begun selling it as dog food.
(Reuters, 2/10/06)
2006 Feb 14, Sanyo and Nokia announced they will set up a joint venture to make advanced cell phones, underlining the ambitions of the Japanese and Finnish manufacturers to grow globally in the competitive mobile market.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 17, In western Japan 2 young children were found stabbed on a roadside, one dead and the other seriously injured.
(AP, 2/17/06)
2006 Feb 21, Japan's trade minister arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the highest-level contact between the two countries since relations soured last October.
(AP, 2/21/06)
2006 Feb 22, A Tokyo court convicted and sentenced Fusako Shigenobu (60), a founder of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group, to 20 years in prison for kidnapping and attempted murder in a 1974 attack on the French Embassy in the Hague.
(AP, 2/23/06)
2006 Feb 23, Japan's Shizuka Arakawa stunned favorites Sasha Cohen of the United States and Irina Slutskaya of Russia to claim the women's figure skating gold medal at the Turin Winter Olympics.
(AP, 2/23/07)
2006 Feb 24, Japan suspended all French poultry imports and threatened a similar ban on the Netherlands following reported cases of H5N1 bird flu.
(Reuters, 2/25/06)
2006 Feb 26, Shizuka Arakawa won a gold medal for Japan in figure skating at the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.
(SFC, 2/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 27, Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Japan's second biggest sheet glass maker, said that it will pay about $3 billion for the remaining 80 percent stake in Britain's Pilkington PLC, which makes glass for cars and buildings.
(AP, 2/27/06)
2006 Mar 1, It was reported that Japan was on the verge of a shift in monetary policy. An end to a policy of easy money, begun in 2001 to spur spending, was expected to have a major effect on global financial markets as interest rates got forced up.
(WSJ, 3/1/06, p.A1)
2006 Mar 5, In Japan thousands of protesters gathered on the southern island of Okinawa to rally against plans to relocate the Futenma US air base there, with reports saying the protesters numbered as many as 35,000.
(AP, 3/5/06)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.46)
2006 Mar 8-2006 Mar 9, In Japan 9 people in two groups were found asphyxiated in sealed cars, apparently the latest cases of group suicides that have surged there. A record 91 people died in 34 Internet-linked suicide cases last year, up from 55 people in 19 cases in 2004.
(AP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 9, The Bank of Japan abandoned the super-easy monetary policy it has kept for five years, saying it will gradually raise interest rates and start to cut the excess cash in the banking system amid signs of economic recovery.
(AP, 3/9/06)
2006 Mar 10, Japan, the second largest contributor to the UN, called for minimum dues for permanent members of the Security Council, forcing China and Russia to pay more or lose their seats.
(AFP, 3/10/06)
2006 Mar 12, Residents of Iwakuni, a southern Japanese city, voted no in an unprecedented non-binding referendum on whether to host the relocation of an additional US naval air wing.
(AFP, 3/12/06)
2006 Mar 13, The Tokyo Stock Exchange said shares of disgraced Japanese Internet startup Livedoor Co. will be delisted from the exchange next month over alleged securities law violations.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 15, It was reported that Japanese scientists had unveiled a robotic fish that could one day be used to observe fish in the ocean or survey oil platforms for damage.
(Reuters, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 15, In Japan 4 people suspected of committing group suicide were found dead inside a parked car.
(AP, 3/15/06)
2006 Mar 17, Officials in Japan said they have confirmed the country's first case of mad cow disease in cattle raised to provide meat.
(AP, 3/17/06)
2006 Mar 20, In San Diego, Ca., Japan’s baseball team beat Cuba 10-6 in the World Baseball Classic. The US team was embarrassingly knocked out in the second of the four rounds.
(http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SPORT/03/21/baseball.japan.ap/)
2006 Mar 21, Japanese police found three bodies inside a parked van in what is believed to be the latest example of a recent trend of group suicides.
(AP, 3/21/06)
2006 Mar 24, A Japanese court ordered the shutdown of Japan's second-largest nuclear reactor in response to a lawsuit by residents who feared it could leak dangerous radiation during a powerful earthquake.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 24, In Japan Naha District Court official Tatsuhiko Toguchi said a US military civilian employee was sentenced to nine years in prison for two rapes on Okinawa. Dag A. Thompson (36) was sentenced for the rapes which took place in 1998 and 2004.
(AP, 3/24/06)
2006 Mar 27, Japan's parliament passed the nation's most austere budget in 8 years, marking another achievement for PM Junichiro Koizumi and his efforts to cut the huge public debt.
(AP, 3/27/06)
2006 Mar 30, Japan and the US pledged to work together to defend intellectual property rights amid concern in both countries about piracy in rapidly growing China.
(AFP, 3/30/06)
2006 Mar 31, Japan's opposition party suffered a fresh humiliation when its leadership resigned en masse over a fake e-mail scandal, handing PM Junichiro Koizumi an uncontested grip on power in his last six months in office.
(AP, 3/31/06)
2006 Apr 6, Japan said it would launch free trade talks with six Gulf kingdoms that provide three-quarters of its oil imports, during a visit by a Saudi crown prince aimed at expanding business ties.
(AP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 6, At least 28 people received medical attention after suspected pickpockets used pepper-spray to escape police at a Tokyo train station. Media reports said the suspects are believed to be members of a South Korean organized pickpocket gang which has preyed on Japan's train system.
(AFP, 4/6/06)
2006 Apr 7, Japan’s health and welfare ministry said the nation’s population shrank in the year through November 2005, the first annual decrease on record, confirming an earlier government prediction.
(AP, 4/7/06)
2006 Apr 19, Japan defied South Korean protests and dispatched two ships to begin a maritime survey near disputed islets between the two nations, raising the stakes in the territorial standoff.
(AP, 4/19/06)
2006 Apr 22, Japan and South Korea defused a tense standoff over disputed waters, with Japan withdrawing a plan to survey the area and South Korea delaying plans to submit name proposals for underwater features.
(AP, 4/22/06)
2006 Apr 23, Japan agreed to pay $6 billion of the $10 billion cost in transferring 8,000 US Marines from Okinawa to Guam.
(SFC, 4/24/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 25, US Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Richard Lawless estimated that Tokyo will pay some $26 billion for the realignment of the US military in Japan. The number shocked Japanese officials.
(AP, 4/27/06)(Econ, 5/13/06, p.26)
2006 Apr 30, In Ethiopia visiting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he backed plans for an expanded United Nations Security Council, adding that he would present his country's position at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa.
(AFP, 4/30/06)
2006 Apr 24, IKEA opened its first store in Japan.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.69)(http://global.japandesign.ne.jp/EXPRESS/060426/)
2006 May 16, Electronics giant Sony Corp said it will launch the world's first notebook personal computer equipped with a next-generation Blu-ray optical disk drive on June 24.
(AFP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 25, India and Japan pledged to step up military cooperation, as Tokyo tries to move closer to the South Asian nation which is seeking to modernize its armed forces.
(AFP, 5/25/06)
2006 Jun 2, A Japanese court convicted a US sailor of killing a Japanese woman during a Jan 3 robbery near Tokyo and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 6/2/06)(WSJ, 6/3/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 5, In Japan investment manager Yoshiaki Murakami admitted that he had violated insider trading laws and said he would resign from his fund. He was arrested later in the day.
(AP, 6/5/06)
2006 Jun 9, Leonard Herzenberg, Stanford geneticist and immunologist, was named a winner of the Kyoto Prize for his work in developing the Fluorescence Activated Cell Sorter (FACS).
(SFC, 6/9/06, p.B3)
2006 Jun 13, Toshihiko Fukui, Japan’s central bank governor, admitted that he was an early investor in the Murakami Fund. On June 5 Murakami admitted that he had violated insider trading laws.
(Econ, 6/17/06, p.47)
2006 Jun 16, Japan's parliament enacted a bill that would impose sanctions on North Korea if it fails to cooperate in clearing up details of its past abductions of Japanese citizens.
(AP, 6/16/06)
2006 Jun 20, Japan ordered the withdrawal of its ground troops from Iraq, declaring the humanitarian mission a success and ending a groundbreaking dispatch that tested the limits of its pacifist postwar constitution.
(AP, 6/20/06)
2006 Jun 21, Japan agreed to lift its ban on US beef imports, pending planned inspections of US meat processing plants.
(AP, 6/21/06)
2006 Jun 23, Japan and Washington agreed to strengthen cooperation on missile defense amid concerns of a possible long-range rocket launch by North Korea.
(AP, 6/23/06)
2006 Jun 26, An official said Japan hopes to slash greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming with a revolutionary plan to pump 200 million tons of carbon dioxide into underground storage reservoirs by 2020 instead of releasing it into the atmosphere.
(AP, 6/26/06)(WSJ, 6/27/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 26, Officials said Tokyo and Washington will deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles in Japan for the first time, amid concerns North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 26, A new survey said Moscow has eclipsed Tokyo as the world's most expensive city. The Russian capital moved up 3 spots from a year ago thanks to a recent property boom. South Korea's Seoul ranked second on the list, up from fifth last year.
(AP, 6/26/06)
2006 Jun 27, A Japanese government white paper on youth said the number of child abuse cases reported in the year to March 2005 surged to 33,408 from 26,569 the year before, a rise of 25.7 percent.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 29, President George W. Bush welcomed PM Junichiro Koizumi as a good friend and thanked Japan for support in Iraq and handling common threats like terrorism and North Korea.
(Reuters, 6/29/06)
2006 Jun 29, An official said Japan’s government will require all new cars to be able to run on a blend of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline by 2010.
(WSJ, 6/30/06, p.A8)
2006 Jun, In Japan a new traffic law went into effect that gave local police the authority to outsource control of illegal parking.
(Econ, 1/6/07, p.36)
2006 Jul 1, Ryutaro Hashimoto (68), former Japanese PM (1996-1998), died. He had stood up to the US in trade negotiations and helped diffuse tensions over US military bases in Japan.
(AP, 7/1/06)
2006 Jul 3, Nissan Motor Co. approved opening talks with General Motors Corp. over a possible alliance.
(AP, 7/3/06)
2006 Jul 4, Japan initiated new rules that tightened 89 existing laws covering the financial industry. It doubled the maximum jail sentence for fraud to 10 years and gave extra power and broader authority to the Financial Services Agency (FSA).
(Econ, 7/8/06, p.67)
2006 Jul 5, Japan, the United States and Britain readied a UN Security Council resolution demanding that nations withhold all funds, goods and technology that could be used for North Korea's missile program.
(AP, 7/5/06)
2006 Jul 7, The first batch of Japanese troops began pulling out of Iraq.
(AP, 7/7/06)
2006 Jul 7, The UN General Assembly unanimously approved a series of reforms that were welcomed by the US as a long overdue step toward greater efficiency and accountability. A two-week UN conference reviewing efforts to fight the illegal weapons trade ended in failure, with nations too divided on too many contentious issues to agree on the best way to combat a scourge that fuels conflict worldwide. Japan introduced a draft UN Security Council resolution to sanction North Korea for test-launching a series of missiles. The Council unanimously adopted a compromise resolution on July 15.
(AP, 7/8/06)(AP, 7/7/07)
2006 Jul 14, Japan’s central bank raised a key interest rate for the first time in six years, ending an unorthodox experiment meant to jump-start the country after a decade of economic doldrums. The rate increased from zero to .25%.
(AP, 7/14/06)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.65)
2006 Jul 22, Japan's death toll from floods and mudslides triggered by this week's torrential rain rose to 19 as an evacuation warning was issued in the country's southwest. Heavy rains caused mudslides and flooding killed four people in southern Japan. About 100,000 people were urged to flee their homes.
(AFP, 7/22/06)(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Jul 23, The 654-foot Singapore-flagged Cougar Ace, a cargo ship carrying 4,813 cars from Japan to Canada, began tilting to its port side late at night hundreds of miles off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. 23 crew members were rescued the next day. The ship was owned by Tokyo-based Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and listed on its side for several weeks before being righted. 4,703 of the cars were new Mazdas valued at about $100 million. After a year of planning Mazda scheduled all the cars for complete reduction to scrap in Portland, Ore.
(AP, 7/25/06)(SFC, 7/25/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 4/29/08, p.A9)
2006 Jul 27, Japan said it will allow US beef imports, suspended for the past six months, to restart from all but one of 35 US beef processing plants authorized by the US government as suppliers to Japan.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul, In Japan fans of pachinko slot machines queued up to play the latest Hokuto-no-ken (North-star Fist) game. It was estimated that Japanese spent $260 billion playing pachinko and pachislot slot machines. Parlors gave non-cash prizes, but shops nearby allowed winners to trade their prizes for cash.
(Econ, 7/29/06, p.60)
2006 Aug 3, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso arrived in Baghdad on a surprise visit, bringing with him a loan of 3.3 billion yen ($29 million) to jump-start Iraq's economic development.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 10, Yasuo Takei, Japan’s richest man, died. Forbes listed his assets at $5.4 billion. In 1966 he founded Fuji Shoji, a consumer loan company. In 1974 it was renamed Takefuji and grew to become a leader in Japan’s loan industry. In 2004 he was convicted for ordering an illegal wiretapping of a reported who criticized his company.
(SFC, 8/14/06, p.B8)
2006 Aug 14, A Japanese tanker spilled about 1.4 million gallons of crude oil in the eastern Indian Ocean following a collision with a cargo ship. The spill, which would be about 4,500 tons, may be the largest ever involving a Japanese tanker. The tanker was carrying about 77.6 million gallons, or 250,000 tons, of crude. It had left port in Oman bound for Japan.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 15, Japan’s PM Junichiro Koizumi made a pilgrimage to a Tokyo war shrine reviled by critics as a symbol of militarism, triggering a further erosion in Japan's ties with its neighbors just a month before he leaves office.
(AP, 8/15/06)
2006 Aug 16, A Russian patrol boat opened fire on a Japanese vessel in disputed waters, killing a fisherman and prompting a strong protest from Tokyo. Moscow urged Japanese boats to stay out of its waters. 3 fishermen were detained.
(AP, 8/16/06)(AP, 8/17/06)
2006 Aug 19, Russia handed over the body of a Japanese fisherman killed by a Russian patrol boat that opened fire in disputed waters, sparking a diplomatic feud.
(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 25, Japanese officials said Kazusaku Tezuka, the president of precision instrument maker Mitutoyo Corp., was arrested along with four other Mitutoyo executives and employees for the alleged export to Malaysia of equipment that can be used in making nuclear weapons.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 30, Russia released two Japanese fishermen held since their boat was seized for allegedly fishing in Russian waters in a confrontation in which a crewman was killed.
(AP, 8/30/06)
2006 Sep 1, Shinzo Abe, the front-runner to be Japan's next prime minister, announced his candidacy, promising to defend Japan's interests and maintain the security alliance with the US.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 1, Greece beat the Americans 101-95 in the semifinals of the world championships in Saitama, Japan.
(AP, 9/1/06)
2006 Sep 2, The former Stella Polaris, a historic ocean liner (1927-1970), sank overnight off Japan's southeastern coast. The Swedish company Petro-Fast AB had planned to operate the ship, renamed the Scandinavia, as a hotel-restaurant in Stockholm.
(AP, 9/2/06)
2006 Sep 6, Japan's Princess Kiko gave birth to the royal family's first male heir in four decades. The male heir was named Hisahito, meaning "virtuous, calm and everlasting"
(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 9/12/06)
2006 Sep 6, Andy Ross, owner of Cody’s bookstore in Berkeley, Ca., announced that the store had been sold to Yohan Inc., a book company based in Tokyo.
(SFC, 9/7/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 14, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo held talks in Tokyo on the start of a trans-Pacific trip.
(AP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 17, A strong typhoon swept toward southwestern Japan with fierce winds and heavy rains, leaving at least 8 people dead or missing and injuring dozens more.
(AFP, 9/17/06)
2006 Sep 19, Australia and Japan imposed financial sanctions on 11 North Korean companies, a Swiss company and its president, based on allegations they helped the communist nation's weapons programs.
(AP, 9/19/06)
2006 Sep 20, Nationalist candidate Shinzo Abe won the race for Japan's ruling party leader, all but clinching next week's election as prime minister and pledging to make his country a more robust force on the world stage.
(AP, 9/20/06)
2006 Sep 21, A Japanese court ruled that an order forcing Tokyo teachers to stand before Japan's flag and sing an anthem to the emperor violated the constitution, a rare victory for the country's waning pacifist movement.
(AP, 9/21/06)
2006 Sep 26, In Japan nationalist Shinzo Abe, a proponent of a robust alliance with the US and a more assertive military, easily won election in parliament to become the country’s youngest postwar prime minister. Abe faced a government debt equivalent to 170% of GDP. Junichiro Koizumi formally stepped down as prime minister. His achievements included changing the way politics was carried out, advancing big economic reforms, and extending Japan’s role in foreign affairs.
(AP, 9/26/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.14)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.44)
2006 Sep 26, Officials said a cow in northern Japan is suspected of having the country's 29th case of mad cow disease.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 29, A press report said Japan has decided to stop financial support for the development of Iran's largest onshore oil field if the Islamic republic continues uranium enrichment. The move means Japan's virtual withdrawal from its two billion-dollar contract to develop the Azadegan field. The contract was signed in 2004 by Inpex Corp., a Japanese oil exploration company that is supported by the government but also has private stakeholders.
(AP, 9/29/06)
2006 Sep, Japan’s government approved measures to block the transfer of funds to North Korea. The rules went into effect on Jan 4, 2007.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.39)
2006 Oct 6, The Panamanian-registered Giant Step ran ashore after catching fire in rough seas off Kashima in eastern Japan, killing one crewman and injuring two others. Of the remaining crew, 13 were rescued but nine are missing.
(AP, 10/7/06)
2006 Oct 8, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe visited Beijing and held talks with Pres. Hu Jintao and PM Wen Jiabao. Abe said Japan and China agree that a North Korea nuclear test "cannot be tolerated" and that Pyongyang should return unconditionally to six-party negotiations on its nuclear programs.
(AP, 10/8/06)(Econ, 10/7/06, p.29)
2006 Oct 11, North Korea threatened more nuclear tests saying additional sanctions imposed on it would be considered an act of war. Japan imposed a total ban on North Korean imports and said ships from the impoverished nation were prohibited from entering Japanese ports as punishment for its apparent nuclear test.
(AP, 10/11/06)
2006 Oct 11, In SF 2 Japanese champions of shogi, a cousin of Western chess played on an 81-square board, squared off for the opening game of the “Dragon King" title at the Hotel Nikko.
(SFC, 10/12/06, p.B1)
2006 Oct 18, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan will not build a nuclear bomb, declaring discussion on that topic "finished," despite the atomic test by North Korea.
(AP, 10/18/06)
2006 Oct 20, Japan's government said the birth rate rose for the seventh straight month in August, raising hopes for an upturn in the country's plunging annual birthrate and declining population.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 27, The US agreed to return to Japan part of the airspace used by the military near Tokyo, allowing civilian planes to reduce flight times and cut costs. The handover will take place by September 2008 before an expansion at Tokyo's Haneda airport.
(AFP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 27, It was reported that a new mobile phone in Japan can recognize its owner. The P903i from NTT DoCoMo automatically locks when the person gets too far away from it and can be found via satellite navigation if it goes missing.
(AP, 10/27/06)
2006 Oct 31, PM Shinzo Abe said Japan will continue assisting Equatorial Guinea in its efforts to promote democracy. Abe made the pledge during a 45-minute meeting with Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in Tokyo.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 7, A rare tornado tore across Japan's far north, killing nine people and leaving dozens more destitute.
(AFP, 11/7/06)
2006 Nov 11, Sony Corp. launched its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) in Japan.
(Econ, 11/18/06, p.63)
2006 Nov 14, Honda unveiled the hydrogen powered Honda FCX in Monterey, Ca. Hondo planned to produce fuel cell cars within 2 years.
(SFC, 11/15/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 15, A fleet of Japanese whalers set sail for an annual hunt in the Antarctic, where they hope to kill 860 whales for a research program that has been heavily criticized by environmentalists and some other nations.
(AP, 11/15/06)
2006 Nov 17, Japan’s Sony Corp. launched its new PlayStation 3 (PS3) in the USA.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 19, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe, fresh after his first Asia-Pacific summit, kicked off his official visit to Vietnam as business chiefs unveiled plans to invest more than 700 million dollars.
(AP, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 19, Nintendo's new Wii video game console debuted, the final entrant in the three-way scramble for dominance in the $30 billion global game market.
(Reuters, 11/19/06)
2006 Nov 23, Japan decided to temporarily suspend South Korean poultry imports due to a suspected bird flu outbreak that has killed around 6,000 chickens.
(AP, 11/23/06)
2006 Nov 30, Japan's lower house of parliament passed a bill to create a cabinet-level defense ministry for the first time since World War II.
(AFP, 11/30/06)
2006 Dec 13, Indian PM Manmohan Singh started a visit to Japan to seek support from the major civilian atomic power for the controversial US-India nuclear cooperation pact.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Japan PM Shinzo Abe’s government pushed through legislation requiring Japanese schools to encourage patriotism and elevating the Defense Agency to the status of a full ministry for the 1st time since WW II.
(SFC, 12/16/06, p.A10)
2006 Dec 18, Japanese electronics maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said it will begin mass production of a new lithium-ion battery that is safe from the overheating problems that prompted a massive recall of Sony Corp. batteries this year.
(AP, 12/18/06)
2006 Dec 21, Japan said it saw no hope of a breakthrough in talks on scrapping North Korea's nuclear weapons, accusing Pyongyang of using a financial dispute with the United States to drive a stake into a proposed deal.
(AP, 12/21/06)
2006 Dec 25, Four Japanese inmates on death row were hanged, the first executions to take place in Japan since September 2005.
(AP, 12/25/06)
2006 Dec 26, Chinese and Japanese history scholars met for the first in a series of government-mandated study groups aimed at smoothing over differences between the Asian powers on historical issues.
(AP, 12/26/06)
2006 Dec 31, Japanese media reported that Japanese courts had sentenced 44 people to death in 2006, the largest number in at least 26 years, amid a toughening of sentences for violent crimes.
(AP, 1/1/07)
2006 The number of suicides in Japan dipped this year but the total topped 30,000 for the ninth straight year.
(AP, 6/7/07)
2007 Jan 5, Momofuko Ando (b.1910), inventor of instant noodles (1958), died in Japan.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.94)
2007 Jan 8, USS Newport News nuclear-powered submarine collided with a Japanese oil tanker in the Straits of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world's oil supplies travel. The bow of the submarine was traveling submerged when it hit the stern of the supertanker Mogamigawa. Damage was light.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 9, Japan launched its first full-fledged defense ministry since World War II as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to build a more assertive nation.
(AFP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 14, Australia's Environment Minister Ian Campbell told national radio that Japanese whaling ships on their annual hunt in the Antarctic are banned from docking in Australia and should use restraint in looming clashes with protesters.
(AFP, 1/15/07)
2007 Jan 21, Russian border police seized a Japanese fishing boat and its six crew members in disputed waters between the two countries, prompting the Japanese government to protest. The No. 38 Zuisho Maru was captured off Kunashiri Island, one of four disputed islands in a group the Japanese call the Northern Territories and the Russians call the Kurils.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 26, It was reported that scientists in Japan have developed a new technique for detecting explosives such as TNT in landmines or luggage using radio waves. The scientists created a device called superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), which has a very sensitive magnetic field sensor that detects nitrogen, an element found in many explosives, including TNT.
(Reuters, 1/26/07)
2007 Jan 30, Another outbreak of bird flu was suspected in southern Japan after 23 chickens were found dead at a farm.
(AP, 1/30/07)
2007 Jan 31, The New York Stock Exchange announced a cooperative agreement with the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
(AP, 2/1/07)
2007 Feb 5, Britain pressed ahead with a cull of 160,000 turkeys after the nation's first outbreak of a deadly strain of bird flu in farmed poultry as Russia and Japan banned British poultry imports.
(Reuters, 2/5/07)
2007 Feb 7, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe pledged to regain four disputed northern islands from Russia, saying it was time to end the bickering between Tokyo and Moscow over the prime fishing grounds.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 9, Nichiro Corp., a Japanese food company, recalled nearly 5 million cans of tuna after a customer found part of a box cutter blade in a can. The small piece of blade was found in a can of tuna produced in Vietnam in February 2006 and imported to Japan by a third company for sale by Nichiro.
(AP, 2/9/07)
2007 Feb 12, A Japanese whaling ship issued a distress signal from Antarctic waters, after it collided with a protest boat trying to save whales from slaughter.
(AP, 2/12/07)
2007 Feb 13, Japan opened an international whaling conference by blasting a boycott by dozens of anti-whaling nations, saying their absence would block much-needed reforms of the commission that sets regulations.
(AP, 2/13/07)
2007 Feb 15, Officials warned of a potential environmental disaster in Antarctica after fire erupted on a Japanese whaling ship, as the search continued for a missing crewmen from the crippled ship. The next day Japanese officials said the ship posed no environmental threat.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 16, Japan's Cabinet approved sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program under UN Security Council guidelines.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 18, Japanese researchers said they had grown normal-looking teeth from single cells in lab dishes, and transplanted them into mice.
(Reuters, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 18, The United States sent eight more US F-22 stealth fighter planes to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa in their first full deployment overseas.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 20, Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Japan for a meeting with the emperor, dinner with the PM and a pep rally for US troops aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.
(AP, 2/20/07)
2007 Feb 21, The Bank of Japan voted to raise interest rates by a quarter of a point to 0.5%.
(Econ, 2/24/07, p.85)
2007 Feb 26, Officials said that after nearly a decade of trying, Japan has succeeded in establishing a network of spy satellites that can peer at any point on the globe.
(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 28, Japan and Russia looked to expand trade despite rocky relations as they agreed to cooperate on nuclear energy and in preventing disasters in disputed islands.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 28, Officials said Japan has decided to pull its whaling fleet out of the Antarctic and end this year's whale hunt early after a deadly fire crippled its mother ship.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Mar 1, PM Shinzo Abe said there was no evidence Japan coerced Asian women into working as sex slaves during World War II, backtracking from a landmark 1993 statement in which the government acknowledged that it set up and ran brothels for its troops. A passenger train derailed in northern Japan after slamming into a truck, leaving dozens injured including 25 high school students.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 3, In central Japan an annual hunt for as many as 20,000 dolphins drew to a close. Herded since October the youngest and most attractive dolphins were put up for sale to theme parks for as much as $100,000.
(SFC, 3/3/07, p.B6)
2007 Mar 4, An aide said PM Shinzo Abe will stand by Japan's 1993 apology over forcing Asian women to have sex with Japanese troops in the last century, after the leader's denial that Tokyo used coercion caused an international uproar.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 5, A Tokyo paper said Japan, the United States and India will carry out a joint military drill in the Pacific off Japan's coast amid concerns about China's military build-up.
(AFP, 3/5/07)
2007 Mar 8, PM Shinzo Abe said that ruling party lawmakers will conduct a fresh investigation into the Japanese military's forced sexual slavery of women during World War II.
(AP, 3/8/07)
2007 Mar 9, In Japan Aeon supermarket chain said it will take a 15% stake in troubled Daiei for 46.2 billion yen, or $393.5 million. The alliance would create Japan's biggest retail grouping.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 13, Australia and Japan signed a groundbreaking defense pact in Tokyo that the leaders of both countries stressed was not aimed at reining in China, but the road ahead for a two-way trade deal looked rougher.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 14, A Japanese court overturned a landmark ruling ordering the Japanese government and a company to compensate Chinese who were forced to work as slave laborers in Japan during World War Two. The Tokyo High Court acknowledged that the state and the firm had violated the human rights of the 11 Chinese, but rejected the plaintiffs' demand for compensation because a 20-year statute of limitation had expired.
(Reuters, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 14, Israeli and Palestinian envoys said that improving the economy can revive the peace process as they got to work on a Japanese initiative to create jobs in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/14/07)
2007 Mar 18, In Japan 3 masked men stole 220-pound block of gold worth more than $2 million from the Ohashi Collection Kan museum in Takayama. 26 railways and 75 bus companies in the greater Tokyo area were scheduled to begin sharing a new stored value system called Pasmo.
(AP, 3/19/07)(Econ, 2/17/07, p.72)
2007 Mar 22, A Japanese court sentenced Ryoji Miyauchi, former chief financial officer of dot-com company Livedoor, to 20 months in prison for inflating earnings reports.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 22, Brian Joubert became the first Frenchman in 42 years to win the world title by taking the men's event at the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo.
(AP, 3/22/08)
2007 Mar 23, A Japanese whaling ship returned to port from Antarctica with a catch of 508 whales, despite having its annual hunt cut short by a deadly fire.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 24, Japan's Miki Ando won the women's title at the World Figure Skating Championship in Tokyo, leading a 1-2 finish for the host country with Mao Asada second.
(AP, 3/24/08)
2007 Mar 24, Swedish truck maker Volvo said it has successfully acquired Japan's Nissan Diesel, the latest merger in the industry as companies prepare for more stringent emissions rules.
(AP, 3/24/07)
2007 Mar 25, A powerful earthquake struck central Japan, killing at least one person and injuring 170 others as it toppled buildings, triggered landslides and generated a small tsunami along the coast. The quake was followed throughout the day by aftershocks.
(AP, 3/25/07)
2007 Mar 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, under fire for denying that Japan forced women to work as sex slaves during World War II, offered a fresh apology but refused to clearly acknowledge Japan's responsibility for running the frontline brothels.
(AP, 3/26/07)
2007 Mar 26, Ann Hawker (22), a British language teacher, was found naked in a sand-filled bathtub at an apartment outside Tokyo. She had been beaten and then suffocated. Police hunted for the prime suspect, a 28-year-old Japanese male. On Nov 10, 2009, Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested as the only suspect in the murder, after he had spent over two years on the run and altered his appearance with plastic surgery. In 2011 Ichihashi admitted the killing but said it was accidental. On July 21 Ichihashi was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/29/07)(AFP, 12/2/09)(AFP, 7/4/11)(AFP, 7/21/11)
2007 Mar 27, In Japan a Cabinet official said an electrical glitch has knocked out a satellite in a spy network Japan hoped to use to gather intelligence on North Korea and other trouble spots around the world.
(AP, 3/27/07)
2007 Mar 28, A Japanese man was sentenced to death for murdering three people he lured through a suicide Web site by offering to die with them.
(AP, 3/28/07)
2007 Mar 29, In Tokyo the director of a research institute said Japanese scientists have developed an oral vaccine for Alzheimer's disease that has proven effective and safe in mice.
(Reuters, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 2, Thailand's premier hailed ties with Japan as he prepared to sign a free-trade agreement with his country's top investor, easing international isolation of the kingdom since last year's coup. Army-installed PM Surayud Chulanont will sign the deal April 3, which Thailand hopes will boost investment from Japan.
(AFP, 4/2/07)
2007 Apr 3, Japan and Thailand signed a free trade agreement that will cut tariffs on a wide range of traded goods, from seafood to automobiles.
(AP, 4/3/07)
2007 Apr 8, In Japan Nationalist Shintaro Ishihara won a third term as governor of Tokyo.
(Reuters, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 9, Japan lent some 850 million dollars to PM Nuri al-Maliki's government as the oil-hungry Asian power looked to boost output from the war-torn country. Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki met with Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, starting off a four-day visit that was delayed after Iran refused to allow his plane to fly over its airspace.
(AP, 4/9/07)
2007 Apr 10, Japan's Cabinet approved a six-month extension on trade sanctions against North Korea, which were imposed in the wake of the communist state's nuclear test last year.
(AP, 4/10/07)
2007 Apr 11, Japanese and Chinese leaders heralded a new era of closer ties between the two Asian powers, moving to repair relations damaged by a harsh dispute over history and signing accords on energy and environmental protection.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 12, Toyota named the first non-Japanese to its board of directors, appointing American James Press, the automaker's president of North American operations, amid growing fears of a political backlash for its booming US sales.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 16, Five young Japanese were found dead inside a sealed van in an apparent group suicide.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, In Japan the mayor of Nagasaki was shot outside a train station and is in critical condition. Police arrested Tetsuya Shiroo (59), who they said was the head of a local gang affiliated with Japan's largest "yakuza" group, the Yamaguchi-gumi. Mayor Itcho Ito (61) died the next day. The gangster arrested in the shooting had visited city offices more than 30 times seeking compensation for car damage caused by a pothole. In 2008 Shiroo was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder.
(AP, 4/17/07)(Reuters, 4/18/07)(AP, 4/19/07)(AP, 5/26/08)
2007 Apr 20, In Paraguay Japanese businessman Hirokazu Ota, the leader of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church in Paraguay, was freed following a 19-day abduction and a 140,000-dollar ransom payment.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 22, Japan went to the polls in two upper-house by-elections and a chain of local elections that could further weaken the leadership of embattled PM Shinzo Abe.
(AFP, 4/22/07)
2007 Apr 24, Joji Obara (54), a Tokyo businessman, was sentenced to life in prison for a wave of brutal assaults on women, but was cleared over the 2000 abduction and killing of British bar hostess Lucie Blackman.
(AFP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 24, Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. reported that it outsold General Motors Corp. by around 90,000 vehicles in the first quarter, moving a step closer to unseating its US rival as the world's biggest automaker. Aside from a few strike-related blips GM had been the top US car seller since 1931.
(Reuters, 4/24/07)(Econ, 4/28/07, p.76)
2007 Apr 25, Japan adopted stricter gun control guidelines following a spate of gangster shootings that rattled a nation renowned for its crime-free streets.
(AP, 4/25/07)
2007 Apr 27, President Bush and visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe threatened stronger punitive actions against North Korea if it reneged on a promise to padlock its sole nuclear reactor.
(AP, 4/27/08)
2007 Apr 27, Japan's Supreme Court upheld a ruling denying compensation to two Chinese women who were forced to work in military brothels during World War II. The court said that the women had no right to seek war compensation from Japan because of a 1972 agreement with China. The top court also overturned a lower court ruling awarding compensation to five Chinese who were forced to work for a Japanese construction company during the war.
(AP, 4/27/07)
2007 Apr 29, Japan and the resources-rich United Arab Emirates agreed to launch a high-level dialogue aimed at boosting economic ties and to speed up talks on a free trade pact. Officials of the governmental Japan Bank for International Cooperation decided to extend massive loans to Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. in exchange for securing a stable oil supply for Japan.
(AP, 4/29/07)(http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070430a2.html)
2007 May 1, Japan and Qatar stressed their solid energy partnership and agreed to launch initial negotiations on moves to stimulate Japanese investment in the Gulf state.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 2, Egypt and Japan agreed to push together in a bid to end the crisis over Iran's nuclear ambitions, calling for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction.
(AFP, 5/2/07)
2007 May 2, James Abegglen, American-born chronicler of the rise of “Japan Inc.," died in Japan. In the 1960s and 1970s he warned corporate America that Japan should be taken more seriously. His 9th book was titled “21st-Century Japanese Management."
(WSJ, 5/12/07, p.A8)
2007 May 5, A roller coaster traveling up to 46 mph hit a guardrail at an amusement park in western Japan, killing one person and injuring 21 others.
(AP, 5/5/07)
2007 May 6, Japan pledged $100 million in grants to the Asian Development Bank to combat global warming and promote greener investment in the region and called for a stronger international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
(AP, 5/6/07)
2007 May 9, Japan's Supreme Court rejected compensation claims by Chinese victims of atrocities committed by Japan in the 1930s and 40s, which included the use of biological weapons and a massacre in the city of Nanjing.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 10, A Japanese hospital opened the country's only anonymous drop box for unwanted infants despite government admonitions against abandoning babies.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 15, It was discovered that a father used a Japanese drop box for unwanted babies to deposit a preschooler, and not an infant, during its first day of operation.
(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 16, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe approved an initiative to deregulate Japan’s aviation market. Japanese officials said the landlocked nation of Laos has agreed to join the International Whaling Commission at Japan's request and is highly likely to support Tokyo's high-profile pro-whaling campaign.
(Econ, 5/26/07, p.40)(AP, 5/16/07)
2007 May 17, In central Japan a man went on a shooting rampage in his home, killing a policeman, wounding three other people, including his son and daughter, and taking his wife hostage.
(AP, 5/17/07)
2007 May 18, In Japan a former gangster surrendered after a shooting rampage at his home that left one policeman dead and three other people, including his son and daughter, injured.
(AP, 5/18/07)
2007 May 19, Japan's state and navy police raided a Japanese naval academy over an alleged leak of sensitive warship technology data shared between Japan and the US.
(AP, 5/19/07)
2007 May 21, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Sweden, kicking off a 10-day tour of Europe that will take in the three Baltic nations and Britain, where they have faced protests in the past.
(AP, 5/21/07)
2007 May 23, Japan passed a law to fund the reorganization of US forces in Japan and help move thousands of Marines from the country's south to the US territory of Guam. Fire broke out at a farm in northern Japan, killing about 2,000 pigs.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 23, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo said she welcomed a greater global role by Japan as she discussed a stalled free trade agreement in Tokyo.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 24, Japan's prime minister proposed cutting world greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 as part of a new global warming pact for all countries, including top polluters United States and China.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 24, Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko arrived in Estonia's seaside capital on their first-ever visit to a former Soviet republic.
(AP, 5/24/07)
2007 May 28, Japan's agriculture minister died after hanging himself just hours before he was to face questioning in a political scandal.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In Alaska officials from 75 nations began talks critical to whale conservation amid pressure, notably from Japan, to lift a 20-year ban on commercial whale hunting.
(AFP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 28, In Mexico City Riyo Mori, a 20-year-old dancer from Japan who hopes to someday open an international dance school, was crowned Miss Universe 2007.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 29, In Japan an executive allegedly involved in a bid-rigging scam that has been linked to the suicide of the agriculture minister leaped to his death.
(AP, 5/29/07)
2007 May 31, Japan failed in its bid to lift a moratorium on commercial whaling after stormy annual talks in Alaska of the 75-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC) and warned it might pull out of the organization.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 May, In Japan a new corporate law was scheduled to take effect allowing foreign companies to use stock swaps to acquire Japanese firms.
(Econ, 9/9/06, p.65)
2007 May, In Japan it was uncovered that the Social Insurance Agency was unable to match 50 million computerized pension records to people who have paid into public programs. Another 14 million records appeared to have never made it into the computer at system at all.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.24)
2007 Jun 2, Four people believed to have fled North Korea arrived at a port in northern Japan in a small boat and told police they want to go to South Korea.
(Reuters, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 2, The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) decided to permit a one-off sale of 60 tons of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to Japan, saying it would monitor closely the impact on poaching and population levels.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 6, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse held talks in Colombo with a top Japanese envoy on the future of the island's peace process following bloody recent clashes. A bomb detonated by suspected Tamil rebels derailed a train in eastern Sri Lanka.
(AP, 6/6/07)
2007 Jun 8, The Japanese government donated 9.25 million dollars (6.42 million euros) to UNICEF to support its child survival programs in Nigeria.
(AFP, 6/8/07)
2007 Jun 8, Japan’s Inamori Foundation announced that a California-based earthquake scientist, Japanese chemist and German choreographer have won the $410,000 Kyoto Prize for achievement in the arts and sciences. The basic sciences award went to Hiroo Kanamori of the California Institute of Technology for his research on major earthquakes along the Pacific Rim; Hiroo Inokuchi at the University of Tokyo received the advanced technology award for his work in organic electronics; German choreographer Pina Bausch was awarded the arts and philosophy prize for her pioneering work in developing a new genre of ballet dubbed "Tanztheater," or dance theater. The prizes were awarded on Nov 10.
(AP, 6/9/07)(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Jun 9, The Hawaiian canoe Hokulea sailed into the Japanese port of Yokohama, completing a five-month journey of more than 8,500 miles across the Pacific.
(AP, 6/9/07)
2007 Jun 12, An official said Japan has agreed to offer direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, but will send it to President Mahmud Abbas and not Hamas militants.
(AP, 6/12/07)
2007 Jun 14, Rifat Hadziahmetovic (39) of Montenegro and another "Pink Panther" member allegedly stole a diamond tiara worth 200 million yen (2.3 million dollars) and other gems from a jewelry store in Tokyo's upmarket Ginza district. Hadziahmetovic was arrested in 2009 in Cyprus. In 2010 he was extradited to Japan from Spain for the robbery in Tokyo. The other suspect in the heist, Radovan Jelusic (39) was arrested in Rome in May in possession of a forged Croatian passport.
(AP, 8/14/10)
2007 Jun 14, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, visiting Japan, pledged to fight corruption to lure more investors from top donor Japan as he tries to wean his government away from foreign aid.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jun 18, Japan changed the name of the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, site of the famous World War II battle, to its original name of Iwo To after residents there were prodded into action by two recent Clint Eastwood movies.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 20, Japanese lawmakers approved a two-year extension of the country's air force transport mission in Iraq, despite criticism of Tokyo's involvement in the unpopular war.
(AP, 6/20/07)
2007 Jun 26, A Japanese robot maker unveiled what it called the world's first prototype of an artificial hand with "air muscles" that can do even delicate work like picking up a raw egg.
(AP, 6/26/07)
2007 Jun 26, Tokitaizan, whose real name is Takashi Saito (17), collapsed during a training session in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, and was confirmed dead a few hours later. On Oct 5 the Japan Sumo Association expelled stablemaster Junichi Yamamoto. On Feb 7, 2008, 3 wrestlers and a former trainer were arrested for Saito’s death.
(Econ, 10/13/07, p.46)(www.japantoday.com/jp/news/419435)(Econ, 2/16/08, p.49)
2007 Jun 28, Shigetake Ogata (73), the former head of Japan's intelligence agency, was arrested on fraud allegations involving a $29 million purchase of the headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents from a pro-North Korean group that he had monitored.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 28, Kiichi Miyazawa (87), former PM of Japan (1991-1993), died.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jul 3, Fumio Kyuma, Japan's defense minister, resigned under an avalanche of criticism for suggesting that the United States was justified in dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because the attacks saved Japan from a Soviet invasion.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 5, Japanese police arrested an American sailor on suspicion of attempted murder after two women were stabbed near a naval base south of Tokyo. In 2008 a Japanese court found sailor Joshua David Williams (20) guilty of stabbing the two Japanese women sentenced him to eight years in prison.
(AP, 7/5/07)(AP, 6/19/08)
2007 Jul 13, A powerful typhoon pounded Japan's southern Okinawa island chain, cutting power to tens of thousands of households and grounding flights with winds up to 100 mph.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 15, Typhoon Man-yi, one of the most powerful storms to hit Japan in decades, headed away from Tokyo after leaving four people dead or missing.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul 16, A 6.8 earthquake struck northwestern Japan, destroying hundreds of homes, buckling seaside bridges and causing a fire at one of the world's most powerful nuclear power plants. 11 people were killed and hundreds were injured. The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant suffered a slew of problems, including spilled waste drums, leaked radioactive water, fires and burst pipes.
(AFP, 7/16/07)(WSJ, 1/17/07, p.A1)(Econ, 7/21/07, p.41)(AP, 7/16/08)
2007 Jul 29, In Japan exit polls showed that PM Shinzo Abe's ruling party suffered humiliating losses in parliamentary elections after a string of political scandals, but Abe said he did not plan to resign. Official election results showed the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito, with a total of 103 seats, a 30-seat loss that left it far short of the 122 needed to control the house. The main opposition Democratic Party grabbed 112 seats, up from 81. For the 1st time in its history the LDP was no longer the biggest party in the upper house.
(AP, 7/29/07)(AP, 7/30/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.35)
2007 Jul 30, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe rejected calls for his resignation, saying the country couldn't afford the resulting "power vacuum."
(AP, 7/30/07)
2007 Aug 1, Norihiko Akagi, Japan's scandal-embroiled agriculture minister, stepped down, taking responsibility for a shattering election defeat for the ruling party. Akagi had been hit by an embarrassing accounting scandal, which was widely viewed as a major reason behind the ruling election loss.
(AP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 10, Japan and the US signed an agreement aimed at protecting classified military information to be shared by the two countries promoting closer defense cooperation.
(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 15, Japan's foreign minister launched plans for a joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial park in the West Bank that he said would promote peace in the region through prosperity.
(AP, 8/15/07)
2007 Aug 16, Japan sizzled through its hottest day on record as a heat wave claimed at least nine lives and threatened power supplies strained by a recent earthquake. The mercury hit 105.6 degrees in the western city of Tajimi in the afternoon, breaking a previous national record of 105.4 degrees set in 1933.
(AP, 8/16/07)
2007 Aug 20, In Okinawa, Japan, passengers used emergency slides to evacuate a China Airlines Boeing 737-800 just minutes before the plane burst into a fireball on the tarmac. All 165 people aboard escaped unhurt, including the pilot, who jumped from the cockpit at the last second.
(AP, 8/20/07)(AP, 8/20/08)
2007 Aug 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in New Delhi to firm up billions of dollars of investment projects, expand trade ties and discuss India's controversial nuclear cooperation deal.
(AFP, 8/21/07)
2007 Aug 31, Leading Japanese mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo Inc. said it will tie up with broadband provider ACCA Networks to introduce ultra-fast mobile WiMAX technology.
(AFP, 8/31/07)
2007 Sep 1, Takehiko Endo, Japan's latest agricultural minister, acknowledged that a private farming group he leads exaggerated weather damage to the 1999 grape harvest in order to receive government compensation, which amounted to $9,930.
(AP, 9/2/07)
2007 Sep 3, Takehiko Endo, Japan's scandal-hit farm minister, resigned dealing a fresh blow to PM Shinzo Abe just a week after he reshuffled his cabinet in the hope of cleaning up the government's image.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 4, 5-nation war games began in the Bay of Bengal. Indian and US aircraft carriers launched fighter jets into the air as American submarines cruised below Japanese, Australian and Singaporean warships.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 5, Japan and North Korea held talks for the first time in six months in a bid to ease tensions amid signs of cautious optimism for progress from the arch-foes. The meeting in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator is part of a working group set up by six-nation talks designed to stop North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
(AFP, 9/5/07)
2007 Sep 6, Japan and North Korea wrapped up a rare meeting without a breakthrough in an emotional row over kidnappings, but they pledged to keep talking amid small signs of hope between the arch-rivals.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 6, An unmanned Russian rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite malfunctioned after liftoff, sending parts crashing in an uninhabited part of Kazakhstan and triggering concerns about environmental damage.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 12, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced he will resign, ending a troubled year-old government that has suffered a string of damaging scandals and a humiliating electoral defeat.
(AP, 9/12/07)
2007 Sep 14, Japan's space agency launched its much-delayed lunar probe, beginning what it calls the largest mission to the moon since the US Apollo flights. The Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), probe was launched aboard one of the space program's mainstay H-2A rockets from its launch-pad on remote Tanegashima island.
(AP, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 14, It was reported that researchers at Tokyo Univ. had developed a method, dubbed surrogate broodstocking, whereby they inject newly hatched, sterile Asian masu salmon with sperm-growing cells from rainbow trout. The grown salmon then produce trout.
(SFC, 9/14/07, p.A14)
2007 Sep 15, Yasuo Fukuda (71), the front-runner to become Japan's next prime minister, vowed to extend his nation's support for US-led operations in Afghanistan. The Sept. 23 Liberal Democratic Party ballot to replace PM Shinzo Abe, who abruptly resigned earlier this week, will pit the liberal Fukuda against the more hawkish former Foreign Minister Taro Aso (66). Both candidates have said Japan cannot afford to drop out of the global war on terrorism.
(AP, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 20, Japan's Sharp Corp. said it had agreed to become the top shareholder in its financially troubled rival Pioneer Corp. as part of a broad business tie-up in response to growing competition.
(AP, 9/20/07)
2007 Sep 23, Yasuo Fukuda, a veteran moderate, easily won election as Japan's ruling party president, pledging to keep a pro-US foreign policy and improve ties with Asia after he almost certainly becomes prime minister later this week.
(AP, 9/23/07)
2007 Sep 25, Japan’s Parliament elected Yasuo Fukuda to be the prime minister, thrusting the moderate political insider into the job of taking on a resurgent opposition and rebuilding the scandal-scarred ruling party.
(AP, 9/25/07)
2007 Sep 28, Japan suspended poultry imports from Canada after the H7N3 strain of avian influenza was found on a Saskatchewan chicken farm.
(Reuters, 9/28/07)
2007 Sep 29, In southern Japan more than 100,000 people protested against the central government's order to modify school textbooks which say the country's army forced civilians to commit mass suicide at the end of World War II.
(AP, 9/30/07)
2007 Oct 1, Japan began a 1-year process of privatizing its postal system, recognized as the world’s largest bank with over $2 trillion in assets.
(Econ, 9/29/07, p.82)
2007 Oct 5, Japan put its first satellite into orbit around the moon, placing the country a step ahead of China and India in an increasingly heated space race in Asia.
(AP, 10/5/07)
2007 Oct 8, Satoshi Nakamura (23), a Japanese tourist, was abducted in a restive region of southeast Iran bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan as he headed from his hotel for the ancient mud-built citadel of Bam. Nakamura was released on July 14. A bandit called Esmail Shahbakhsh, blamed for the kidnapping, had reportedly demanded the release of his arrested son in exchange for Nakamura.
(AFP, 6/15/08)
2007 Oct 9, Japan's Cabinet approved plans to extend economic sanctions against North Korea, despite the communist state's agreement to disable its main nuclear complex by year's end.
(AP, 10/9/07)
2007 Oct 10, Police in Japan arrested Kazunari Saito (33), who ran an Internet suicide site, for allegedly killing a woman who paid him to do so. He allegedly gave Sayaka Nishizawa (21) sleeping pills and suffocated her in April. Nishizawa had contacted the suspect through an Internet suicide site he hosted and paid him $1,700.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 16, Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, said it had canceled a multimillion dollar grant to protest the military-ruled nation's crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
(AP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, Investigators began raids on Japanese companies accused of corruption in projects to remove chemical weapons abandoned in China during World War II. The allegations involve the illegal diversion of some of the $199 million the government has disbursed since 2004 to help dispose of 400,000 chemical weapons that retreating Japanese troops left in northeast China at war's end. China has said poisons have leaked from the weapons and killed about 2,000 people since 1945.
(AP, 10/19/07)
2007 Oct 26, An official said Japan hopes to thwart potential terrorists from entering the country by fingerprinting and photographing all foreigners aged 16 or over on entry starting next month.
(AP, 10/26/07)
2007 Oct 28, The USS Porter, a guided missile destroyer, fired on and destroyed two pirate boats tied to the Golden Nori, a hijacked Japanese-flagged chemical tanker. The ship was carrying a load of benzene off the coast of Somalia.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Oct 29, Japanese megabank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) said that its losses on US subprime loans soared by as much as six-fold over two months to $263 million.
(AP, 10/29/07)
2007 Oct, In Japan a woman (19) in Hiroshima was allegedly raped by 4 US Marines. In 2008 Lance Cpl. Larry A. Dean (20) was sentenced to two years in prison for "wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts" but cleared of rape. 3 other Marines still faced court-martial.
(AP, 5/9/08)
2007 Nov 1, Japan's defense minister ordered ships supporting US-led forces in Afghanistan to return home after opposition lawmakers refused to support an extension of the mission, saying it violated the country's pacifist constitution.
(AP, 11/1/07)
2007 Nov 16, US President George W. Bush and Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda met for talks aimed at bridging rifts on North Korea and Tokyo's military role in the "war on terror."
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 18, A defiant Japan embarked on its largest whaling expedition in decades, targeting protected humpbacks for the first time since the 1960s despite international opposition. 4 ships headed for the waters off Antarctica, resuming a hunt that was cut short by a deadly fire last February that crippled the fleet's mother ship. An anti-whaling protest boat awaited the fleet offshore.
(AP, 11/18/07)
2007 Nov 20, Scientists in Japan and the US reported that they have made ordinary human skin cells take on the chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells, a startling breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy.
(AP, 11/20/07)
2007 Nov 28, In Japan former Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya (63) and his wife were arrested on suspicion they accepted lavish gifts from companies, including one linked to General Electric, in exchange for contracts.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, A Chinese warship dropped anchor off Tokyo in the communist nation's first military visit to Japan since World War II, symbolizing improving ties.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 29, ZMP of Japan began selling a two-legged walking robot that runs on Microsoft's new robotics software, a product the companies said will make it easier to transfer technology from one robot to another.
(AP, 11/29/07)
2007 Dec 1, China and Japan began talks on trade and economic issues that are intended to bolster the recent warming of their long-uneasy relations.
(AP, 12/1/07)
2007 Dec 2, China and Japan amicably wrapped up their first high-level trade and economic talks on Sunday by pledging greater overall cooperation, but left the touchy issue of gas exploration in the East China Sea unresolved.
(AP, 12/2/07)
2007 Dec 10, Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co. said it will buy US biopharmaceutical company MGI Pharma Inc. for $3.9 billion in cash in a move aimed at boosting its cancer drug business and sustain sales growth.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 12, Pirates freed a Japanese chemical tanker loaded with highly explosive benzene off the coast of Somalia, six weeks after seizing the vessel and its crew.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, Japan said that Russia seized four Japanese fishing boats in disputed waters between the two countries, calling the detention unacceptable and demanding an explanation from Moscow.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan began sending warnings to an estimated 8.5 million people that their pension data may have gone missing, as the government seeks to clean up a scandal that has damaged its credibility.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, Japan and the United Arab Emirates signed an accord to strengthen economic ties, including a deal for Japanese banks to extend a multibillion-dollar loan to a state-owned Abu Dhabi oil firm.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, US trade officials said the US has reached a deal with the EU, Japan and Canada to keep its Internet gambling market closed to foreign companies, but is continuing talks with India, Antigua and Barbuda, Macau and Costa Rica.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 18, Japan said it had shot down a ballistic missile in space high above the Pacific Ocean as part of joint efforts with the United States to erect a shield against a possible North Korean attack.
(AP, 12/18/07)
2007 Dec 21, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Japan is dropping its plan to kill humpback whales in the seas off Antarctica. The fleet will, however, kill some 935 minke whales, a smaller, more plentiful species, and 50 fin whales.
(AP, 12/21/07)(AP, 12/22/07)
2007 Dec 28, China and Japan made no major breakthroughs in resolving a row over natural resources in the East China Sea, but a visit by Japanese PM Yasuo Fukuda signaled a new warmth in bilateral relations.
(AP, 12/28/07)
2007 Dec 29, Shu Uemura (79), Japanese makeup artist, died. He had won acclaim in Hollywood and built an international cosmetics brand under his name.
(AP, 1/8/08)(WSJ, 1/12/08, p.A10)
2007 “The Reason I Jump" by Naoki Higoshida (b.1992), Japanese poet, novelist, and essayist, was published in English in a translation by British novelist David Mitchell and his wife Keiko Yoshida. The book explained the hidden frustrations of his autism.
(Econ, 8/12/17, p.68)
2007 Kenneth B. Pyle authored “Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power and Purpose."
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.94)
2007 Japan’s government debt this year stood at around 180% of GDP, the highest for any developed economy.
(Econ, 12/1/07, SR p.3)
2007 In Japan the Nippon Kaigi lobby group persuaded the government to make April 29 a national holiday in honor of Hirohito (1901-1989), the WWII Emperor of Japan.
(Econ, 6/6/15, p.33)
2007 Over Some 33,000 people took their lives in Japan this year, topping 30,000 for the tenth consecutive year despite a government campaign to reduce what is one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
(Reuters, 6/19/08)
2007 Australia, India, Japan, and the US met for a "quadrilateral dialogue" on security matters. The first iteration of the Quad ceased to exist following the withdrawal of Australia in February 2008. The pact was revived in 2017.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrilateral_Security_Dialogue)(Econ., 11/21/20, p.36)
2008 Jan 10, Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said it will drop the name of its charismatic founder and become Panasonic Corp. to strengthen its global image.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 11, Japan's parliament cleared the way for its navy to return to the Indian Ocean on a US-backed anti-terror mission, after stiff lobbying from Washington in support of the measure.
(AP, 1/11/08)
2008 Jan 12, Greenpeace said its protest ship located Japan's whaling fleet in Antarctic waters and is pursuing it to stop the hunt for the giant sea creatures.
(AP, 1/12/08)
2008 Jan 13, In Sri Lanka Japan's peace envoy opened talks, hinting international donors may hold back much-needed foreign aid if the island's decades-long ethnic conflict escalates.
(AP, 1/13/08)
2008 Jan 15, An Australian judge banned the company that conducts Japan's whale hunt from killing the animals in a large part of its regular hunting grounds off Antarctica. Japanese whalers said they are holding captive two activists who "illegally" boarded their vessel in the Southern Ocean, in a dramatic escalation in the battle between the two sides.
(AP, 1/15/08)
2008 Jan 16, Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic halted its operations and scrambled to arrange the turnover of two activists who boarded one of its harpoon ships after a tense, high-seas chase, accusing the Sea Shepherd conservation group of piracy.
(AP, 1/16/08)
2008 Jan 17, Australia said it would send a ship to pick up two anti-whaling activists who jumped on a Japanese harpoon vessel from a rubber boat in Antarctic waters, offering a solution to a tense, two-day standoff on the high seas.
(AP, 1/17/08)
2008 Jan 18, Two activists who had jumped on board a Japanese whaling boat were returned to their ship by Australian officials.
(AP, 1/18/08)
2008 Jan 24, Japan's national police, facing allegations that officers regularly squeeze confessions from suspects with abuse, issued guidelines for the first time setting limits on how far they can go in questioning sessions.
(AP, 1/24/08)
2008 Jan 29, Japan's coast guard said it has sent a team of officers to protect its whaling fleet against intensifying protests by environmentalists.
(AFP, 1/29/08)
2008 Jan 29, Japan said it was setting up a fund to help African countries enhance protection of intellectual property rights, calling it key to boosting the continent's economic potential.
(AP, 1/29/08)
2008 Jan 31, In northern Sri Lanka a bomb being transported by a suicide bomber on a bicycle exploded prematurely, killing four people and injuring 13 others. Japan cautioned it will review its aid policy unless the violence subsided.
(AP, 1/31/08)(AFP, 1/31/08)
2008 Feb 1, Scientists in Japan and New Zealand said they have created a "tear-free" onion using biotechnology to switch off the gene behind the enzyme that makes us cry.
(AFP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 1, An Australian report said that Japanese harpoonists killed five whales in one day after Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd ships, which had halted the hunt in Antarctic waters, were forced to return to port to refuel.
(AFP, 2/1/08)
2008 Feb 3, Police said Japanese investigators found insecticide on the outside of six bags of Chinese-made dumplings in Japan after separate dumplings made by the same company sickened 10 people there.
(AP, 2/3/08)
2008 Feb 9, In Japan the world's leading economies pledged to work together to secure stability in volatile markets but brushed off the idea of a single uniform remedy for the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations.
(AP, 2/9/08)
2008 Feb 11, In Japan US Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott was arrested after a 14-year-old girl said he raped her in his car. Hadnott was released Feb 29 after the girl withdrew her criminal complaint against him. He still faced a US military investigation. On May 16 Hadnott (38) was found guilty of abusive sexual conduct and sentenced to four years in prison.
(AFP, 2/12/08)(AP, 3/1/08)(AP, 5/16/08)
2008 Feb 16, A company source said Toshiba Corp is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high-definition video, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp.
(Reuters, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 19, A Japanese navy destroyer equipped with advanced radar plowed into a fishing boat off the Pacific coast, splitting the boat in two and plunging two fishermen into the chilly waters. The men remained missing.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 19, Japan’s Toshiba Corp. announced it would no longer develop, make or market high-definition HD DVD players and recorders, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp.
(AP, 2/19/08)
2008 Feb 23, Japan's space agency launched an experimental communications satellite designed to enable super high-speed data transmission at home and in Southeast Asia.
(AP, 2/24/08)
2008 Feb 27, Japan and Israel shared their concerns about Iranian nuclear programs and agreed to cooperate to prevent Tehran from going nuclear.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Mar 5, In western Japan 3 vessels collided in a strait, killing one Filipino crew member and leaving three others missing when their cargo ship sank. The body of Gold Leader's captain, Tomas Nirid Demandaco Jr. (51), was found the next day. A suspected right-wing activist committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in front of Japan's parliament in apparent protest against Japan's warming ties with China.
(AP, 3/5/08)(AP, 3/6/08)
2008 Mar 7, Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a protest ship harassing Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, said he was shot in a high-seas clash and his crew members pelted with flash grenades, injuring one. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and Japanese officials insisted only warning devices were fired.
(AFP, 3/7/08)
2008 Mar 11, In Japan authorities arrested in Osaka arrested Hatsue Shimizu (64) and Yoshiko Ishii (55), two sisters, for allegedly hiding millions of dollars worth of cash in their garage to evade inheritance taxes. Their father, who was in the real-estate lease business, died in 2004, leaving $72.9 million to his family.
(AP, 3/12/08)
2008 Mar 11, The US space shuttle Endeavour blasted off from a seaside Florida launch pad to deliver part of a long-awaited Japanese space laboratory and a Canadian-built robotic system to the International Space Station.
(AP, 3/11/08)
2008 Mar 15, In Japan Tony Blair, during a meeting of senior officials from the world's top 20 greenhouse gas emitters, urged the world's heaviest polluters including the United States, China and India to agree to binding emissions cuts, saying failure to act on global warming would be "unforgivably irresponsible."
(AP, 3/15/08)
2008 Mar 19, In Japan Masaaki Takahashi (61) of Tokyo was found fatally stabbed in his cab in Yokosuka, about a half-mile from a US naval base. US and Japanese authorities soon began searching for a US sailor for questioning in the killing of the Japanese taxi driver. On April 2 US sailor Olatunbosun Ugbogu (22), a Nigerian national, admitted during police questioning that he had killed the man. On July 30, 2009, Ugbogu was sentenced to life in prison.
(AP, 3/21/08)(AFP, 4/2/08)(AP, 7/30/09)
2008 Mar 23, In eastern Japan a person was stabbed to death and at least seven others were hurt by a man who went on a knifing spree at a shopping mall. Police arrested Masahiro Kanagawa (24), who was also wanted over the earlier slaying of a 72-year-old man.
(AP, 3/23/08)
2008 Mar 25, America’s baseball season opened in Japan as the Boston Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.83)
2008 Mar 26, Italian officials held a crisis meeting after Japan and South Korea banned imports of mozzarella following the discovery of high dioxin levels in buffalo milk used to make the famed cheese.
(AP, 3/26/08)
2008 Mar 31, The US investment banking company Lehman Brothers sued the Japanese trading company Marubeni, seeking to recover $350 million in financing it says was obtained fraudulently.
(AP, 3/31/08)
2008 Mar 31, Scientists in Japan reported that they have designed artificial molecules that when used with rats successfully reversed liver cirrhosis, a serious chronic disease in humans that until now can only be cured by transplants.
(Reuters, 3/31/08)
2008 Apr 3, Japanese police arrested Olatunbosun Ugbogu (22), a Nigerian national serving in the US Navy, in the March 19 stabbing death of a taxi driver near an American naval base outside Tokyo. He was handed over to Japanese authorities just before the arrest under a bilateral security pact.
(AP, 4/3/08)
2008 Apr 5, In Japan G8 development officials began a two-day ministerial meeting in Tokyo on how to ease suffering in Africa and other impoverished states as well as bolster their efforts in foreign development aid.
(AFP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 6, In Japan the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations vowed to step up cooperation with emerging donors such as China and India and said they remained committed to a goal to double their own aid to Africa by 2010.
(AP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 9, Japanese lawmakers approved Masaaki Shirakawa as the new central bank chief, ending a power vacuum that had left the nation's top economic job vacant for weeks with global markets in disarray.
(AP, 4/9/08)
2008 Apr 14, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said they had finished signing a deal to tear down trade barriers between the world's second-largest economy and the 10-member bloc.
(AFP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, Japan’s government said violent clashes with animal rights groups and fewer whale sightings forced its whaling fleet to head home from the Antarctic with only 55 percent of its 985-whale hunting target.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 21, In Japan PM Yasuo Fukuda met with South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak and both declared a new era of closer cooperation.
(WSJ, 4/22/08, p.A10)
2008 Apr 21, Pirates in the Gulf of Aden fired on a Japanese oil tanker, unleashing hundreds of gallons of fuel into the sea. The attack took place 170 miles off the coast of Yemen while the 150,000-ton tanker was heading to Saudi Arabia.
(AP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 25, In Japan protesters waved the Tibetan flag and denounced China's rulers as the Beijing Olympic torch arrived for the latest leg of a worldwide relay marred by demonstrations.
(AP, 4/25/08)
2008 May 4, In Japan thousands of activists, artists and scholars gathered for an international peace conference outside Tokyo, vowing to promote the Japanese Constitution's war-renouncing Article 9 as a global standard and prevent the clause from being weakened.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 6, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Tokyo for a feel-good visit that will use ping pong and pandas to take the edge off more contentious problems like border disputes, historical animosity and concerns over China's rule in Tibet.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 7, The leaders of Japan and China agreed to resolve a territorial row and start regular summits to ease decades of tension, pledging that Asia's two largest economies would not see each other as a threat.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 7, It was reported that Japan was experiencing a problem with a growing population of crows. Over the last 2 years utilities in Tokyo had reported almost 1400 cases of crows cutting fiber optic cables.
(SFC, 5/7/08, p.A10)
2008 May 19, Japan’s tourism ministry named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among kids and young women.
(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 19, Nissan Motor Co. and NEC corp. announced plans to begin mass-producing lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. Nissan and Renault planned to have an all-electric car in the US and Japan by 2010.
(WSJ, 5/20/08, p.B1)
2008 May 23, Japan allocated $54 million in emergency grants to the UN to help Afghanistan, Africa and Palestinian refugees cope with the ongoing food crisis.
(AP, 5/23/08)
2008 May 26, In Japan the Group of Eight (G8) environment chiefs pledged "strong political will" toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, declaring that developed nations should take the lead in battling global warming, but failed to agree on much more contentious near-term targets.
(AP, 5/26/08)
2008 May 28, African leaders, in Japan for a major development conference, lashed out at rich nations for erecting trade barriers that prevent the continent's economic development even as they make lofty pledges to boost aid. Japan pledged to double aid to Africa by 2012 and to help the continent boost rice production two-fold to ease food shortages.
(AFP, 5/28/08)
2008 May 30, In Japan participants closed a 3-day African development conference saying they aim to double rice production in Africa in 10 years and expand irrigated land by 20 percent in five years.
(AP, 5/30/08)
2008 Jun 8, G8 leaders meeting in Japan pledged to fight skyrocketing energy prices by increasing efficiency and accelerating investment in new technologies, while urging producers to expand production.
(AP, 6/8/08)
2008 Jun 8, In Tokyo police arrested Tomohiro Kato, a blood-spattered 25-year-old man, who they said drove a truck into a crowd of people, then got out and began a frenzied knife attack stabbing 17 people leaving at least 7 dead. On March 24, 2011, a court sentenced the former auto plant worker to death.
(Reuters, 6/8/08)(WSJ, 6/9/08, p.A1)(SFC, 6/10/08, p.A3)(AFP, 3/24/11)
2008 Jun 10, Japan’s Toyota said it will start making the Camry hybrid in Australia and Thailand as part of its efforts to step up production of "green" cars around the world.
(AP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 10, A Japanese patrol boat unintentionally sank a recreational fishing boat from Taiwan near the Senkaku islands, controlled by Japan, but also claimed by Taiwan and China. The vessel picked up all 16 passengers and crew.
(Econ, 6/21/08, p.55)
2008 Jun 11, In Japan the upper house, newly controlled by the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), passed its first ever censure motion against the government.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.55)
2008 Jun 11, Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo said it would buy control of top Indian generics firm Ranbaxy for up to 4.6 billion dollars, entering the fast expanding non-branded drugs market.
(AFP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 14, In Japan G8 finance ministers said soaring oil and food prices are emerging as serious threats to global economic growth, while vowing to work together to address the problem.
(AP, 6/14/08)
2008 Jun 14, In northern Japan a magnitude-7.2 earthquake ripped across mountains and rice fields, killing at least 13 people as it sheared off hillsides, jolted buildings and shook nuclear power plants. 10 people remained missing.
(SFC, 6/17/08, p.A8)(AP, 6/18/08)(AFP, 7/10/08)
2008 Jun 16, The FCX Clarity, Honda's new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car, rolled off a Japanese production line and headed to Southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 17, In Japan serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki (45), who mutilated the bodies of four young girls and reportedly drank the blood of one of his victims, was among three convicted murderers executed for crimes an official called indescribably cruel. Also executed were Shinji Mutsuda (45), who had been on death row for the murder and robbery of two people, and Yoshio Yamasaki (73), who was convicted of killing two people for the insurance money.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 18, China and Japan agreed to end a dispute over control of offshore natural gas fields and to jointly develop the fields in the East China Sea.
(SFC, 6/19/08, p.A12)
2008 Jun 23, A Japanese fishing boat capsized and sank off the country's eastern coast, leaving four crew members dead and 13 missing.
(AP, 6/23/08)
2008 Jun 24, A Japanese warship steamed into a Chinese port, the first such visit since World War Two, in a military exchange aimed at putting relations between the former bitter enemies on a firmer footing.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Japan foreign ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations agreed on the need to step up efforts to secure Afghanistan's borders and stabilize food and oil prices to avoid a global crisis.
(AP, 6/26/08)
2008 Jun 27, In Japan Group of Eight (G8) powers warned they could take further action against Sudan at the UN Security Council unless it complies with demands to bring Darfur war crimes suspects to justice.
(AFP, 6/27/08)
2008 Jul 2, Japan and Middle Eastern leaders agreed on a project to bring thousands of badly needed jobs to the West Bank, voicing hope it would lay the groundwork for a Palestinian state.
(AFP, 7/2/08)
2008 Jul 4, Japan announced it will provide $50 million in new emergency food aid to help developing countries cope with the impact of soaring food prices.
(AP, 7/4/08)
2008 Jul 5, In northern Japan more than 1,000 people marched to protest an upcoming summit of the G8 industrialized countries. Police arrested four protesters after a brief scuffle.
(AP, 7/5/08)
2008 Jul 7, In Japan G8 leaders raised the prospect of more sanctions against Zimbabwe unless quick progress is made to end a political crisis after a violent election that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule. The G8 met with seven African leaders at its annual summit. African leaders urged the Group of Eight nations to tackle spiking oil and food prices. Japan included 5 “outreach" countries (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa) for brief discussions with the G8.
(Reuters, 7/7/08)(AFP, 7/7/08)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.33)
2008 Jul 8, In Japan G8 leaders endorsed halving world emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. The G8 also agreed to impose targeted sanctions against leading Zimbabwean officials after a violent election last month that extended President Robert Mugabe's 28-year rule.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 9, In Japan G8 leaders reiterated their commitment for doubling aid to Africa by 2010 and instituted new accountability procedures to ensure that wealthy countries fulfill their promises of aid there. They also agreed to combat global warming but developing nations declined o endorse emissions targets.
(SFC, 7/10/08, p.A7)(WSJ, 7/10/08, p.A1)
2008 Jul 13, Thousands of Japanese rallied against the permanent basing of the nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier near Tokyo, saying a recent onboard fire made it unsafe.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 14, South Korea said it will recall its ambassador from Japan over a rekindled debate about disputed islands between the countries, as the new Seoul government seeks to lift its sagging popularity at home with an appeal to nationalism.
(AP, 7/14/08)
2008 Jul 15, Fishermen across Japan went on a massive one-day strike to protest skyrocketing fuel prices, the latest blow to the country's foundering fishing industry.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Jul 28, In central Japan 4 people died after being swept away in torrential rains that caused floods and mudslides and prompted an evacuation order for 50,000 people.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Jul, Japan for the first time exported more to China this month than to America. Japan’s public sector debt stood at 170% of GDP, the highest among the big rich economies.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.87)
2008 Aug 5, In Japan 4 people were missing after being washed away by a surge of sewage water while working in a manhole in downtown Tokyo.
(AP, 8/5/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over 200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 7, A new US Embassy report released by the Japanese Foreign Ministry said the USS Houston submarine was already leaking during nine earlier port calls in Japan and the amount of radiation leaked was larger than initially reported. It "has been steadily leaking a small amount" of radiation from June 2006 to July 2008 when it entered a drydock in Hawaii.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 10, Japan's Masato Uchishiba has won his second straight Olympic gold medal, pinning France's Benjamin Darbelet just seconds into their final match in the men's 66-kilogram division and bringing Japan its first judo gold of the Beijing Games.
(AP, 8/10/08)
2008 Aug 21, Armed pirates hijacked a Japanese chemical tanker with 19 crew, an Iranian bulk carrier with 29 crew, and a German cargo ship with a crew of 9 off Somalia's coast.
(AP, 8/21/08)(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 22, Japanese scientists said they had derived stem cells from wisdom teeth, opening another way to study deadly diseases without the ethical controversy of using embryos.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 23, Pirates fired on a Japanese-operated cargo ship off Somalia and attempted to board the vessel but failed to seize it.
(AP, 8/23/08)
2008 Aug 26, A UN team in Herat, Afghanistan, said it found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians, including 60 children, were killed in US-led air strikes last week. Aerial bombardment was clearly evident with some 78 houses having been totally destroyed and serious damage to many others. Kazuya Ito (31), a Japanese aid worker, was kidnapped at gunpoint with his driver near Jalalabad. Ito was found killed the next day. A group of Taliban fighters attacked a police checkpoint in Nad Ali district of Helmand province, sparking a clash that killed 18 militants. An air strike killed 30 Taliban in southeastern Afghanistan close to the border with Pakistan.
(AP, 8/26/08)(AP, 8/27/08)(Reuters, 8/27/08)
2008 Aug 29, Central Japan was hit by heavy rains and flooding forcing the evacuation of over a million people. At least one person was killed and several more were missing.
(WSJ, 8/30/08, p.A1)(http://english.pravda.ru/news/hotspots/29-08-2008/106251-japan_flood-0)
2008 Aug 30, China’s tallest building, the 101-story, 1,614-foot Shanghai World Financial Center, opened 14 years after Minoru Mori, its Japanese developer, began the $1.13 billion project. The family owned Mori Building Co. owned 70% of the project.
(SFC, 8/29/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.B2)
2008 Sep 1, Japan's chronically unpopular PM Yasuo Fukuda (72), suddenly announced his resignation after less than a year in office, throwing the world's second-largest economy into political confusion.
(AP, 9/1/08)
2008 Sep 5, In Japan right-leaning former Foreign Minister Taro Aso announced that he will run for ruling party president in a move that would put him on track to take over as Japan's next prime minister.
(AP, 9/5/08)
2008 Sep 6, Yahoo! Japan announced support for victimized users whose Yahoo IDs were used illegally. The company admitted that its online auction site suffered a huge security breach and agreed to reimburse users who had been charged fees relating to fraudulent transactions.
(http://blog.trendmicro.com/caution-needed-jp-yahoo-auctions-site-phished/)(Econ, 10/18/08, p.76)
2008 Sep 6, In Greece the body of Amphithea Tanida (36) was found wrapped in sheets in a bathroom in her parents' villa at Amarynthos on Evia. Masami Tanida (77), a retired Japanese diplomat, and his wife Maria (67) were arrested the next day and charged with murdering their daughter.
(AP, 9/8/08)
2008 Sep 11, Japan said it was ending an air mission in Iraq, wrapping up a military deployment which was historic for the pacifist nation but deeply unpopular among the public.
(AFP, 9/11/08)
2008 Sep 16, A Japanese researcher said he has taught a beluga whale to "talk" by using sounds to identify three different objects, offering hope that humans may one day be able to hold conversations with sea mammals.
(Reuters, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 16, Urgently trying to keep cash flowing amid a Wall Street meltdown, the Federal Reserve pumped another $70 billion into the nation's financial system to help ease credit stresses. Late in the day the Federal Reserve agreed to a 2-year $85 billion loan to insurance giant American International Group (AIG) in exchange for a 79.9% equity stake in the form of warrants called equity participation notes. Central banks in the US, Europe and Japan pumped tens of billions into their banking systems to keep money flowing.
(AP, 9/16/08)(SFC, 9/17/08, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/17/08, p.A1)
2008 Sep 19, Japan's agriculture minister resigned in a widening scandal over rice contaminated with mold and pesticide that was sold as food for thousands of people, including schoolchildren and nursing home patients.
(AP, 9/19/08)
2008 Sep 22, Brash conservative Taro Aso easily won the presidency of Japan's struggling ruling party, virtually ensuring his election as prime minister later this week amid political and economic turmoil.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 22, Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's largest brokerage, reached a deal to buy the Asian operations of bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in a deal valued at around $225 million.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 23, Japan’s Nomura Holdings said it will buy the European and Middle Eastern equities and investment banking operations of Lehman Brothers for an undisclosed sum.
(AFP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 24, Taro Aso (68), former foreign minister and flamboyant conservative of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), took charge as Japan's new prime minister, pledging to work for a "cheerful" nation by reviving an economy in the doldrums.
(AP, 9/24/08)(Econ, 9/27/08, p.53)(Econ, 11/1/08, p.51)
2008 Sep 29, Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ said it would take a 21% stake in Morgan Stanley at a cost of $9 billion.
(http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/30/content_10134094.htm)
2008 Sep 29, The US Federal Reserve with the help of the ECB, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan agreed to lend banks a further $620 billion.
(Econ, 10/04/08, p.73)
2008 Oct 1, In Japan a pre-dawn fire raged through an adult video theater in the western city of Osaka, killing at least 15 people and injuring 10 others.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 8, Six central banks jolted markets by cutting interest rates together in an attempt to shore up confidence in the world's crisis-stricken financial system. The US Fed reduced its key rate from 2% to 1.5%. The Bank of England unexpectedly slashed its key lending rate by a half-point to 4.5%. The Bank of Canada cut its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 2.5%. China also cut its key interest rates for a second time in less than one month to 6.9%. The European Central Bank sliced its rate by half a point to 3.75%. Sweden, and Switzerland also cut rates. Earlier in a day Japan's Nikkei showed its biggest drop since the October, 1987 stock market crash. The IMF said the world economy is entering a major downturn.
(AP, 10/8/08)(AFP, 10/8/08)(Econ, 10/11/08, p.100)
2008 Oct 2, Nissan unveiled the Nuvu, a prototype for an electric city car.
(WSJ, 4/9/09, p.B2)(http://odeo.com/episodes/23832952-Nissan-NuVu-Concept-EV)
2008 Oct 9, The central banks of Taiwan and South Korea cut interest rates as Japan and others pumped more cash into the financial markets.
(WSJ, 10/10/08, p.A4)
2008 Oct 15, Armed pirates hijacked a Japanese-operated bulk carrier with 21 Filipino crew members in the Gulf of Aden near Somalia. The ship African Sanderling was released on January 12, 2009.
(AP, 10/15/08)(AP, 1/13/09)
2008 Oct 17, The UN added Japan, Austria, Turkey, Mexico and Uganda as members to the 10 non-permanent seats of the Security Council, replacing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 24, Tokyo and Beijing agreed to establish a hotline between their leaders to build mutual trust, as Prime Minister Taro Aso held his first meeting as Japanese leader with his Chinese counterparts.
(AP, 10/24/08)
2008 Oct 28, Namibia sold more than seven tons of ivory for $1.1 million, in the first legal auction of elephant tusks in nearly a decade, exclusively for Chinese and Japanese buyers.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 30, Japan unveiled a $51.5 billion stimulus package to buttress its economy against the fallout of the global financial crises.
(WSJ, 10/31/08, p.A9)
2008 Oct 31, In Japan an essay by Gen. Toshio Tamogami, head of Japan’s air force, was published. He had won a competition for best essay denying Japan’s wartime role as an aggressor and sponsor of atrocities. The contest was sponsored by Toshio Motoya, the head of a hotel chain. Within hours of publication Gen. Toshio Tamogami was out of a job.
(Econ, 11/8/08, p.57)
2008 Oct 31, The Leakey Foundation awarded its Leakey Prize to American primatologist Jane Goodall and Japanese scientist Toshidada Nishida for their work with chimpanzees.
(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Nov 6, Japanese researchers said they had created functioning human brain tissues from stem cells, a world first that has raised new hopes for the treatment of disease.
(AFP, 11/6/08)
2008 Nov 10, In Japan a California-based computer scientist, a Canadian philosophy professor and a Canadian molecular biologist each received US$500,000 at an awards ceremony for this year's Kyoto Prizes for achievement in the arts and sciences.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 12, LCD makers LG Display of South Korea, Sharp of Japan, and Chunghwa Picture tubes of Taiwan pleaded guilty to US charges of price fixing and will pay fines totaling $585 million.
(WSJ, 11/13/08, p.B3)
2008 Nov 13, Vietnam's premier pledged to probe a corruption case in which Japanese businessmen have admitted bribing a Vietnamese official in the latest scandal involving a foreign aid-funded road project.
(AP, 11/13/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Pakistan a Japanese and an Afghan journalist were shot in the frontier city of Peshawar, the third attack on foreigners in three days. Motoki Yotsukura from the Asahi Shimbun newspaper was wounded in the leg. Abdul Sami Yousafzai, was more seriously hurt. Missiles apparently fired by US unmanned aircraft in North Waziristan killed at least 12 people, including 9 militants.
(AP, 11/14/08)(AFP, 11/14/08)(WSJ, 11/15/08, p.A1)
2008 Nov 17, The mother ship in Japan's whaling fleet left for the country's annual hunt in the Antarctic. Greenpeace anti-whaling activists vowed to disrupt the expedition once again after high-seas clashes forced an early halt last year.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, Australia said it will invest millions of dollars in non-lethal whale research to show Japan that the animals do not need to be killed in order to be studied.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 17, US Automakers begged governments to save them amid a spreading global recession. Cash-strapped General Motors Corp. said it will sell its entire stake in Suzuki Motor Corp. for 22.37 billion yen ($230 million), the automaker's latest move to stay afloat while awaiting a decision on government aid for the industry.
(AP, 11/17/08)
2008 Nov 18, In Japan Takehiko Yamaguchi (66) and his wife Michiko (61) were found dead near the doorway of their home in Saitama, just outside Tokyo. Evidence showed the pair had been stabbed repeatedly. On Nov 22 Takeshi Koizumi (46) turned himself in to police saying that he had killed the retired vice health minister. Authorities later said they suspected the attacks were connected to the ministry's mishandling of millions of pension records, a debacle that has drawn intense ire from the public, many of whom lost their retirement funds as a result. It was later reported that Koizumi accused the ministry of killing his childhood pet dog.
(AP, 11/23/08)(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Nov 28, Japan announced it would end its airlift operations in Iraq by the end of the year, citing security improvements and moves toward democracy in Iraq.
(AP, 11/28/08)
2008 Dec 5, Japan approved a law that will grant citizenship to all children born out of wedlock to Japanese fathers who acknowledge them, regardless of the nationality of their mothers.
(AP, 12/5/08)
2008 Dec 9, Sony said it is slashing 8,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its global work force, aiming to cut costs by $1.1 billion a year as an economic downturn and a stronger yen batter profits at the Japanese electronics maker.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 Dec 13, Japan, China and South Korea moved to ward off the effects of the global financial crunch at a trilateral summit in Japan, while Tokyo and Seoul criticized North Korea for stalling denuclearization talks.
(AP, 12/13/08)
2008 Dec 20, Militant environmental activists said they had intercepted the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters and attempted to attack one of the boats with stink bombs.
(AP, 12/20/08)
2008 Dec 22, Toyota Motor Corp. projected its first-ever operating loss since 1939, acknowledging that its nine-year stretch of global vehicle-sales growth had stalled. Pres. Katsuaki Watanabe projected an operating loss of $1.7 billion.
(AP, 12/22/08)(WSJ, 12/23/08, p.A7)
2008 Dec 25, Japan and Vietnam signed an economic partnership pact with a promise to cut tariffs on some 92% of goods and services traded between the two nations within a decade.
(AFP, 12/25/08)
2008 The Japanese film “Departures" depicted the beauty and dignity of nokan, a Buddhist-derived ritaul cleansing ceremony for the recently deceased.
(Econ, 8/6/16, p.32)
2008 Japan began allowing city residents to divert a proportion of their income to a furusato (a home town area) of their choice.
(Econ., 4/18/15, p.35)
2008 Japan’s Olympus Corp. paid a $687 advisory fee relating to the purchase of Gyrus, a British medical devices firm. The fee was over 30% of the purchase price. In 2011 the company confessed that the deals were designed to hide losses on securities dating back to the 1990s.
(Econ, 11/12/11, p.74)
2009 Jan 3, Bitcoin, the “world’s first decentralized digital currency" was introduced. It was devised in 2008 by programmer Satoshi Nakomoto (thought not to be the person’s real name). It was run by a peer-to-per network and limited to 21 million coins. Nakamoto mined the genesis block of bitcoin (block number 0), which had a reward of 50 bitcoins. By 2013 the leading exchange was Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based firm.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bitcoin)(Econ, 6/18/11, p.83)(Econ, 4/13/13, p.69)
2009 Jan 20, In Japan Toyota tapped Akio Toyoda, grandson of the automaker's founder, as president, paying homage to its roots at a time when the company faces its first operating loss in 70 years.
(AP, 1/20/09)
2009 Jan 21, GM reported an 11% drop in 2008 vehicle sales, relinquishing its crown as the world’s biggest auto maker to Toyota after 77 years.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.B3)
2009 Jan 22, Asian economic gloom worsened when China said growth plunged in the final quarter of 2008 while Japan said exports fell at a record pace in December amid weakening Western consumer demand.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 23, Japan’s space agency (JAXA) launched Ibuki (breath), the first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide emissions. Officials hoped to gather information on climate change and help the country compete in the lucrative satellite-launching business.
(AP, 1/23/09)(Econ, 2/14/09, p.90)
2009 Jan 27, Japan announced a $16.7 billion stimulus package to help businesses that have en decimated by the global financial crisis.
(www.uiowa.edu/ifdebook/timeline/Credit_Crisis_Timeline.pdf)
2009 Jan 27, Japan’s No. 38 Yoshi Maru fishing boat was seized by Russian authorities in waters between the two countries and was taken to the Russian port of Nakhodka. On Feb 7 Russian authorities released all 10 Japanese crew members seized after allegedly straying into Russian waters.
(AFP, 1/28/09)(AP, 2/7/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan's defense minister ordered the dispatch of ships to fight pirates off the shores of Somalia, joining other countries in the battle against the outlaws.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan’s territorial row with Russia was re-ignited as Japan announced that it had cancelled humanitarian aid to the four disputed Russian-held islands, north of Japan's main northern island of Hokkaido, following new Russian demand that a disembarkation card be submitted in addition to the usual procedures.
(AP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 28, Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe signed a partnership accord with Iraq, on a rare visit to the country for a senior leader of the close US ally.
(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 29, Japan hanged four convicted murderers, carrying out the country's first executions of the year despite international criticism.
(AFP, 1/29/09)
2009 Feb 2, A volcano near Tokyo erupted, shooting up billowing smoke and showering parts of the capital with a fine ash that sent some city residents to the car wash and left others puzzled over the white powder they initially mistook for snow.
(AP, 2/2/09)
2009 Feb 9, Nissan said it is slashing 20,000 jobs, or 8.5 percent of its global work force, to cope with what Japan's third-largest automaker expects will be its first annual loss in nine years.
(AP, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 9, Scientists in Japan reported that they have identified an enzyme which appears to suppress breast cancer and they hope the finding will spur new therapies to control the second most common cancer in the world.
(Reuters, 2/9/09)
2009 Feb 16, Japan warned it was in the deepest economic crisis since World War II, after Asia's biggest economy suffered its worst contraction in almost 35 years.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 16, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched her Asia tour in Japan calling US-Pacific ties "indispensable" for curbing problems like climate change, the global financial crisis and nuclear weapons.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 17, Japan's Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa abruptly resigned over allegations he made a drunken appearance at a G-7 news conference, shaking PM Taro Aso's already deeply unpopular government. On Oct 4 Nakagawa (56) was found dead in his home. Police ruled out foul play.
(AP, 2/17/09)(AP, 10/4/09)
2009 Feb 17, In Japan US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned North Korea against following through on a threatened missile launch, saying it would damage its prospects for improved relations with the United States and the world. Clinton also signed an agreement with Japan that will move 8,000 Marines off the southern Japanese island of Okinawa to the US territory of Guam.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 18, Japanese PM Taro Aso met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on an island near disputed resource-rich maritime territory, hoping to make progress toward resolving a dispute lingering since World war II.
(AP, 2/18/09)
2009 Feb 23, Honda Motor Co. named Takanobu Ito (55), head of core automaking operations, as its new chief executive, in an effort to provide fresh leadership to battle a global crisis in the auto industry. He replaced Takeo Fukui (64) as CEO and president.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Feb 24, President Barack Obama told Japanese PM Taro Aso that his nation was the cornerstone of US security policy in East Asia and America's links to the world economy.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 24, In southern Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed four US troops in the deadliest single attack on international forces this year. Japan said it will pay the salaries of Afghanistan's 80,000 police officers for six months as part of its ongoing financial support for the country.
(AP, 2/24/09)
2009 Feb 27, A court ordered the Japanese government to pay 5.6 billion yen ($57.7 million) to compensate people whose lives are disrupted by the noise of warplanes at a US air base on the southern island of Okinawa. The Fukuoka High Court ruling doubled the 2.8 million yen compensation awarded in 2005 to the people living around Kadena Air Base, and upheld the appeals of 5,540 residents.
(AP, 2/27/09)
2009 Mar 5, A political scandal in Japan widened when government figures, including an influential former premier, said they had taken money linked to a firm whose murky donations have shaken the opposition.
(AFP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 10, Two cargo ships collided off the coast of a central Japanese island, leaving 16 South Korean and Indonesian crew members missing.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 13, Japan said it could shoot down any threatening object falling toward its territory, after North Korea said a planned rocket launch would send it across Japanese territory.
(AP, 3/13/09)
2009 Mar 21, In Botswana Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone opened a development conference and warned that the global economic crisis would affect Africa for at least two years.
(AP, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 23, In Japan an MD-11 aircraft operated by FedEx crashed at Tokyo's main international airport, killing its two-member crew. Though largely retired from passenger use for economic reasons, the MD-11 aircraft is still employed for cargo transport.
(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 24, Prosecutors charged a top aide to Japan's opposition leader in connection with a political donations scandal, but the lawmaker said he would stay on as party chief and continue his quest to become the country's next prime minister. Ichiro Ozawa, the head of the Democratic Party of Japan, said he still believed he and his aide have not broken any laws. But he apologized for causing the concerns because of the scandal.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 6, Japan’s Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said PM Taro Aso has ordered a $100 billion stimulus plan to boost the national economy. PM Aso and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez agreed to deepen ties in energy, investment and trade, with Japanese companies ready to participate in gas and crude production in the Latin American country.
(WSJ, 4/7/09, p.A8)(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 10, Japan renewed and strengthened sanctions against North Korea, but disagreed with the US over how the UN Security Council should censure Pyongyang for its rocket launch.
(AP, 4/10/09)
2009 Apr 16, Japan promised to pledge up to $1 billion in aid for cash-strapped Pakistan at a donors conference as allies pressed the country for commitments to fight an Islamist insurgency and implement economic reforms.
(Reuters, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 17, Thirty-one international donors, led by the US and Japan, pledged $5.3 billion to stabilize Pakistan's troubled economy and fight the spread of terrorism in the Islamic nation and neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 4/17/09)(Econ, 4/25/09, p.81)
2009 Apr 21, Japan's highest court upheld the death sentence of a woman convicted of murdering four neighbors and sickening dozens more with arsenic-laced curry more than a decade ago. A district court had convicted Masumi Hayashi (47) in 2002 of deliberately lacing a pot of curry with arsenic and serving it to neighbors at a festival in July 1998 in Wakayama city.
(AP, 4/21/09)
2009 Apr 22, The film “City of Life and Death," written and directed by Chuan Lu, opened in China. It depicted the 1937 Japanese assault on Nanjing.
(Econ, 5/2/09, p.43)(www.imdb.com/title/tt1124052/)
2009 Apr 27, In Japan Univ. of Wyoming professor Craig Arnold (41), an award-winning poet, was reported missing after he failed to return from a hike on the tiny island of Kuchinoerabu-jima, about 30 miles (50 km) off the coast of southern Kyushu island.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 Apr 27, America, Canada, Europe and Japan promised to cooperate on validating alternatives to using animals in medical research. An estimated 50-100 million animals were used in research annually around the world.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.18)
2009 Apr 29, The prime ministers of China and Japan pledged to lay a stronger foundation for cooperation between the historic Asian rivals amid global economic and health crises.
(AFP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, In Beijing Japan’s PM Taro Aso called for Tokyo and Beijing to unite in facing the world's environmental and economic challenges, while playing down concerns over China's military power.
(AP, 4/30/09)
2009 May 1, In Cambodia a court official said Japan has donated $4.17 million to the UN-backed genocide tribunal trying former Khmer Rouge leaders on war crimes charges, just as the troubled court was running out of funding.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 2, India's biggest drug maker Ranbaxy announced the recall of an antibiotic, on sale in the US, because of manufacturing problems, marking a new setback for the company. The Japanese-controlled company said it was voluntarily recalling all lots of nitrofurantoin capsules, an antibiotic used in the treatment of urinary tract infections.
(AFP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 9, Australia and Japan joined the ranks of affected countries with confirmed H1N1 swine flu. New Zealand, the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to confirm cases, reported two more for a total of seven.
(AP, 5/9/09)
2009 May 11, Ichiro Ozawa, head of Japan’s opposition DPJ, resigned following a fund raising scandal involving his main political aide.
(Econ, 5/30/09, p.42)
2009 May 14, Japan’s Sony Corp. reported its first annual net loss in 14 years and forecast a bigger loss this year, saying the pressure from sliding sales, competition in gadget prices and a strong yen was expected to continue.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 16, Japan's main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, which hopes to take control of the country in elections later this year, chose Yukio Hatoyama, the grandson of a former prime minister, as its chief.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 16, Japan said 8 high school students had tested positive for swine flu amid fears the virus was spreading in at least two cities where scores of students said they felt ill.
(AP, 5/16/09)
2009 May 18, In Japan health officials said a wave of new confirmations sent the number of H1N1 flu cases soaring to more than 120, prompting the government to order the closure of schools and the cancellation of community events.
(AP, 5/17/09)
2009 May 21, Japan’s PM Taro Aso again urged the public to stay calm as a total of 292 swine flu cases were reported, including the third in greater Tokyo, the world's largest urban area.
(AFP, 5/21/09)
2009 May 28, It was reported that Japanese researchers have added genes to monkeys that cause the animals to glow under a fluorescent light, and that the new genetic attributes can pass to their offspring.
(SFC, 5/28/09, p.A9)
2009 Jun 7, China and Japan pledged to throw their combined weight behind efforts to revive the struggling world economy after talks aimed at boosting trade between the two powers.
(AFP, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 19, Isamu Akasaki (80), a professor at Nagoya University in central Japan, was among the winners of this year's Kyoto Prizes. He will receive the advanced technology award for his pioneering work in the development of blue light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. Peter (72) and Rosemary Grant (72), a husband-and-wife team of biologists from Princeton University, won for their decades of research on evolution in the Galapagos Islands and will share an award of $515,000. This year's award in arts and philosophy went to French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (84).
(AP, 6/19/09)
2009 Jul 2, The UN nuclear agency's governing board (IAEA) chose Yukiya Amano, a veteran Japanese diplomat as its new head. The term of the present head, Mohamed ElBaradei, ends in November.
(AP, 7/2/09)
2009 Jul 2, Manabu Kurita caught a 22-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass on Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. On Jan 8, 2010, the Florida-based International Game Fish Association credited him with tying the 77-year-old world record for catching the biggest largemouth bass.
(AP, 1/9/10)
2009 Jul 13, Japan passed a law that will allow children to receive organ transplants for the first time, reversing a ban that doomed many young patients or forced them to seek medical care abroad.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Japan 10 senior citizen climbers were found dead in the northern mountains of Hokkaido, apparently from hypothermia. Police began investigating possible negligence by the tour organizers.
(AP, 7/17/09)
2009 Jul 21, Japan’s PM Taro Aso dissolved the powerful lower house of the parliament and vowed his divided ruling party will make a new start in national elections next month despite forecasts it may lose the grip it has held on the nation for most of the past 55 years.
(AP, 7/21/09)
2009 Jul 21, In southern Japan torrential rains triggered floods and landslides, leaving at least six people dead and 10 others missing, including elderly residents at a nursing home.
(AP, 7/22/09)
2009 Jul 23, In Japan Jerry Yu (30), a US citizen who worked for a Japanese communications company in Tokyo, was found dead of probable hypothermia off a trail just below the peak of Mount Fuji. His colleague, Takeshi Nakamura (27), was found dead the next day.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 30, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata described his test of new underwear, called J-Wear, as the shuttle Endeavour prepared to come home after over 2 weeks aloft. Wakata tested the high-tech underwear for a month at a time during his 4½ months aboard the ISS.
(SFC, 7/31/09, p.A9)
2009 Aug 6, Japan's first jury trial since World War II concluded with a mixed group of citizens and professional judges convicting a man of murder and sentencing him to a tougher-than-expected 15 years in prison.
(AP, 8/6/09)
2009 Aug 10, Typhoon Etau slammed into the west coast of Japan. 13 people were killed in raging floodwaters and landslides, and 10 others were missing.
(AP, 8/10/09)
2009 Aug 13, In Japan a woman (23) crashed her moped when it hit a rope that was stretched across the road. She suffered a fractured skull after being thrown from her bike near western Tokyo's US Yokota Air Base. Police later arrested four children, three boys and one girl aged between 15 and 18, of US military personnel on suspicion of attempted murder.
(AFP, 12/5/09)
2009 Aug 15, Japan's PM Taro Aso expressed deep regret over the suffering his country inflicted on Asian countries during World War II in a solemn ceremony that marked the 64th anniversary of Tokyo's surrender.
(AP, 8/15/09)
2009 Aug 22, The West Australian town of Broome, with deep historical ties to Japan, voted to sever its sister city relationship with the Japanese village of Taiji to protest an annual dolphin slaughter near there. At an extraordinary meeting on October 13 Broome rescinded the decision, which it said was made in haste and without wide consultation, and issued an apology to the Japanese community in Broome and Taiji, their families and friends for any disrespect caused by council's resolution. But it noted that it did not condone the harvest of dolphins in Taiji, with which it forged sister-city relations in 1981.
(AP, 8/24/09)(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Aug 25, Sony Corp. unveiled a new electronic book reader for the American market, dubbed the “Daily Edition." It was scheduled to become available in December for $399 and compete with Amazon’s Kindle.
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.56)
2009 Aug 30, Japan's ruling party conceded a crushing defeat as voters were poised to hand the opposition a landslide victory in nationwide elections, driven by economic anxiety and a powerful desire for change. The left-of-center Democratic Party of Japan, under Yukio Hatoyama (62), won 308 of the 480 seats in the lower house of parliament, ousting the Liberal Democrats, who have governed Japan for all but 11 months since 1955.
(AP, 8/30/09)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.29)
2009 Sep 1, In Japan dolphin hunting season opened in Taiji. Over the next 6 months fishermen were expected to catch about 2,300 of Japan’s annual quota of 20,000 dolphins, to be sold for meat and to aquariums.
(SSFC, 9/20/09, p.A20)
2009 Sep 3, Japan’s Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. said it is acquiring US drug maker Sepracor Inc., which makes insomnia drug Lunesta, for about $2.6 billion in an effort to expand in the US market.
(AP, 9/3/09)
2009 Sep 7, Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's next prime minister, vowed to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25% from 1990 levels by 2020.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 10, The Japanese space agency successfully launched a new rocket carrying an unmanned cargo ship on a $680 million maiden voyage to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SFC, 9/11/09, p.A9)
2009 Sep 10, Amnesty International issued a new report saying Japan executes mentally ill prisoners, some of whom are driven insane by harsh treatment while on death row.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 10, Australia announced liquefied natural gas (LNG) deals worth up to 60 billion US dollars with Japan and South Korea, raising its status as a major energy supplier.
(AP, 9/10/09)
2009 Sep 16, Japan opposition leader Yukio Hatoyama took office as prime minister, naming a new Cabinet and vowing to rebuild the economy and refocus Japan's place on the world stage with his largely untested party. Japan’s debt was almost 200% of GDP. Shizuka Kamei, founder of the People’s New Party (PNP) (2005), took office as the new minister for financial and postal services.
(AP, 9/16/09)(Econ, 9/5/09, p.69)(Econ, 9/26/09, p.88)
2009 Sep 24, Japan’s Tokyo Game Show, billed as the world's largest computer entertainment fest, kicked off with hopes that depressed sales of game consoles will enjoy a holiday resurrection.
(AP, 9/24/09)
2009 Sep 25, Japan's new government launched an investigation into whether previous administrations entered secret security pacts with Washington, including one said to endorse US nuclear-armed ships despite a policy of barring such weapons.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 28, In China foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea pledged to deepen cooperation on non-proliferation and disarmament, as pressure grew on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.
(AFP, 9/28/09)
2009 Sep 29, Toyota Motor Corp. issued its largest-ever US recall, involving 3.8 million vehicles. Toyota and the government warned owners to remove the mats from their vehicles that could cause accelerators to get stuck and lead to a crash.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 2, In Denmark the IOC opened a meeting hearing the cases led by government leaders and kings to win the right to stage the 2016 Olympic Games. US Pres. Obama spoke for Chicago, Japan's new PM Yukio Hatoyama spoke for Tokyo, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva spoke for Rio de Janeiro, and Spain's King Juan Carlos and PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke for Spain. Brazil won the bid.
(AFP, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 7, The first British-built Honda Jazz auto rolled off the assembly line after production was switched from Japan in a move the manufacturer hopes will end a troubled year for the factory.
(AFP, 10/7/09)
2009 Oct 8, Typhoon Melor tore through Japan's main island, peeling roofs off houses, cutting electricity to hundreds of thousands and forcing flight cancellations before turning back toward the sea. Two men died.
(AP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 9, Japanese officials said they have obtained rights to develop platinum mines in South Africa and Botswana in a bid to ensure a stable supply of the metal. The government-backed Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. (JOGMEC) said it has signed a contract with Discovery Metals in Australia to jointly develop nickel and platinum mines in northeast Botswana. It has also inked another deal with Canadian firm Platinum Group Metals to explore for platinum in South Africa.
(AFP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 10, Japan said it has suspended beef shipments from an American meatpacking plant after finding cattle parts banned under an agreement to prevent the spread of mad cow disease. The suspension only affected Tyson's factory in Lexington, Nebraska, one of 46 meatpacking plants approved to export beef to Japan.
(AP, 10/10/09)
2009 Oct 10, China, Japan and South Korea held a 3-way summit in Beijing.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.43)
2009 Oct 16, Eight countries called on Tokyo to allow divorced foreign parents access to their children living in Japan and to sign a treaty against international parental child abductions.
(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Oct 19, Japan said it has caught 59 whales off Hokkaido, one short of the maximum allowed by international guidelines, under a research program that critics say is a cover for commercial whaling.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 20, Japan’s government said it would reverse the privatization of Japan Post along with its enormous banking unit. On Oct 28 the new government ousted the president of Japan Post and almost the entire board.
(Econ, 10/24/09, p.50)(Econ, 10/31/09, p.73)
2009 Oct 27, The Japanese destroyer JS Kurama collided with the South Korean container ship Carina Star in the Kanmon Strait near the southern main island of Kyushu and both were engulfed in flames.
(AP, 10/27/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Japan it was revealed that PM Yukio Hatoyama had failed to declare some $800,000 in income from stock sales. He already faced flak for falsified fundraising reports.
(SSFC, 11/8/09, p.A10)
2009 Nov 6, Japan pledged $5.5 billion in aid over 3 years for Southeast Asia's 5 Mekong River nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam), seeking to deepen ties with the region amid growing influence from China.
(AFP, 11/6/09)
2009 Nov 7, In Japan a 66-year-old man was hit by a car and killed. Investigators later linked a US Army soldier to the hit-and-run accident in Okinawa. On Jan 7 Clyde Gunn (27), a staff sergeant from Oxford, Mississippi, was charged with the fatal hit-and-run.
(AP, 11/19/09)(AP, 1/7/10)
2009 Nov 10, Japan announced $5 billion in fresh aid to Afghanistan even as it plans to bring home refueling ships supporting US-led forces there. The pledge came just days before President Barack Obama arrives in Tokyo for talks that are sure to focus on the countries' military alliance.
(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 13, President Barack Obama met with Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama on his first major trip to Asia. He emphasized cooperation and opened with a warning to North Korea that there will be tough, unified action by the US and its Asian partners if the Koreans fail to abandon their nuclear weapons programs. Obama and Hatoyama agreed to joint efforts to realize a nuclear weapons-free world.
(AP, 11/13/09)(SFC, 11/13/09, p.A4)
2009 Nov 14, Pres. Obama spoke in Tokyo and then flew to Singapore for a 21-nation summit of Asia-Pacific leaders. In his Tokyo speech Pres. Obama declared the United States a "nation of the Pacific and reached out warmly to China, applauding Beijing's robust strides as a burgeoning economic giant.
(AP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 14, In South Korea at least ten people, including eight Japanese tourists, were killed and six others injured in a blaze at an indoor shooting range in Busan.
{South Korea, Japan}
(AFP, 11/14/09)
2009 Nov 16, A Yemeni security official and the Japanese Embassy said armed tribesmen have kidnapped a Japanese engineer working on the construction of a school and demanded the government release one of their imprisoned tribe members. Takeo Mashimo was released on Nov 23.
(AP, 11/17/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 19, Four whaling ships left Japan for a five-month hunt in the Southern Ocean, using a loophole in an international moratorium that allows their killing for lethal "research."
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 27, China and Japan agreed to conduct their first joint military training exercise, in the latest sign of warming ties between the Asian neighbors, long marked by mutual suspicion and spats over a range of issues.
(Reuters, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 28, Japan launched its fifth spy satellite into orbit in a bid to boost its ability to independently gather intelligence.
(AP, 11/28/09)
2009 Dec 1, In Vienna Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano took the helm of the UN atomic watchdog (IAEA), pledging a steady hand to steer the agency through the storm surrounding Iran's nuclear drive. Mohamed ElBaradei (67), the outgoing Egyptian chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), handed over his leadership to Yukiya Amano.
(AP, 11/30/09)(AFP, 12/1/09)
2009 Dec 5, Australia welcomed a 90 billion dollar (82 billion US) deal to supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a Japanese power company in what is believed to be the country's biggest export sales contract.
(AFP, 12/6/09)
2009 Dec 9, Germany’s Volkswagen announced that it has agreed to pay $2.5 billion for a 19.9% stake in Suzuki, a family-owned Japanese maker of small cars and motorcycles.
(Econ, 12/12/09, p.72)
2009 Dec 10, Ichiro Ozawa, Japan’s “shadow shogun," flew 645 people in 5 airplanes, including 143 members of the DPJ, to meet with China’s Premier Hu Jintao.
(Econ, 12/19/09, p.75)
2009 Dec 11, Australia's PM Kevin Rudd threatened legal action against Japan if it does not stop its research whaling program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 23, Japanese whalers and militant conservationists clashed in the Antarctic Ocean over two days, with weapons including water cannon, blinding lasers and bottles of rancid acid.
(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 24, Two former aides to Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama were charged with falsifying reports of campaign contributions, dashing the promise of the leader who vowed to usher in a new, cleaner era in the country's politics. Dead and false contributors were found on the list of Hatoyama’s campaign donors.
(AP, 12/24/09)(Econ, 10/25/14, p.44)
2009 Dec 27, Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama arrived in India on a three-day visit aimed at strengthening economic and security cooperation with the emerging giant.
(AFP, 12/27/09)
2009 In Japan the first two volumes of “IQ84," a novel by Haruki Murakami, were published and a million copies were sold in a few weeks. English translations became available in 2011.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.95)
2009 Japan became the first large country to ban handheld mobile phone use while driving.
(Econ, 4/16/11, p.37)
2009 Japan’s population of 127 million was set to decline.
(Econ, 5/16/09, p.50)
2009 In Japan the yakuza, the country’s organized crime groups, boasted some 84,000 members, with half as part timers. They were estimated to bring in about $21 billion annually.
(Econ, 2/28/09, p.44)
2010 Jan 1, In Japan a robber bored a hole through the wall of jewelry shop and walked off with about 200 luxury watches worth 300 million yen ($3.2 million) in Tokyo's upscale Ginza district. On Jan 7-8 three men and 3 women were arrested in Hong Kong in connection with the jewelry heist. Police suspect many of the watches were mailed from Japan to Hong Kong, with some then sent to mainland China.
(AP, 1/2/10)(AP, 1/9/10)
2010 Jan 6, In the waters off Antarctica the trimaran Ady Gil, a Sea Shepherd Conservation Society boat, had its bow sheared off and was taking on water after it was struck by the Shonan Maru 2, a Japanese whaling ship. The trimaran’s 6 crew members were safely transferred to the bob Barker, another of the Society's vessels. The Ady Gil was left to sink the next day after a tow rope snapped and the Bob Barker resumed its pursuit of the Japanese whalers.
(AP, 1/6/10)(SFC, 1/6/10, p.A2)(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 13, Japanese prosecutors raided the fund-raising office of ruling party kingpin Ichiro Ozawa over a widening money scandal, dealing a fresh blow to the troubled government.
(AP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Seattle, Washington Tohru Shigemura (71), a Japanese psychiatrist traveling the world as a big game hunter, was charged in connection with smuggling black bear gall bladders. He had pretended to be a US citizen to buy guns, which he used to kill 6 black bears in and around the Quinault Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 19, Japan Airlines filed for one of the country's largest bankruptcies ever, entering a restructuring that will shrink Asia's top carrier and its presence around the world.
(AP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 21, Toyota said it is recalling 2.3 million vehicles in the US to fix accelerator pedals with mechanical problems that could cause them to become stuck. The announcement comes just months after it recalled 4.2 million vehicles due to gas pedals that could become trapped under floor mats, causing sudden acceleration.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 24, Japanese voters in Nago city on Okinawa island elected a mayor who opposes plans for a controversial new US air base, complicating a row with Washington over relocating troops.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 26, Toyota Motor Corp. announced it would halt sales of some of its top-selling models to fix gas pedals that could stick and cause unintended acceleration. Last week, Toyota issued a recall for the same eight models affecting 2.3 million vehicles. Toyota said it is also suspending production at six North American car-assembly plants beginning the week of Feb. 1. It gave no date on when production could restart.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 28, Toyota Motor Corp extended its safety recall of millions of its most popular cars to Europe and China in a further blow to the reputation of the world's largest auto maker.
(Reuters, 1/28/10)
2010 Jan 29, Honda Motor Co. said it would recall a total 646,000 units of the Fit/Jazz and City models globally, including 140,000 in the United States. The recall was to fix a defective master switch, which could cause water to enter the power window switch and in some cases cause a fire.
(Reuters, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 30, In Japan thousands of protesters from across Japan marched in central Tokyo to protest the US military presence on Okinawa, while a Cabinet minister said she would fight to move a Marine base Washington considers crucial out of the country.
(AP, 1/30/10)
2010 Jan 31, Mexican President Felipe Calderon arrived in Japan for a three-day visit, as the countries mark 400 years of official ties.
(AFP, 1/31/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 6, Japanese naval ships returned home at the close of an eight-year refueling mission in support of US-led military operations in Afghanistan.
(AFP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 6, The anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in the icy waters off Antarctica — the second major clash this year in the increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 7, Newspapers said Toyota will recall 300,000 Prius hybrid vehicles because of brake flaws. Toyota said that it will soon announce plans to deal with braking problems in its prized Prius hybrid amid reports it has decided to issue a recall for the latest model in Japan, a possible new embarrassment for the world's biggest automaker.
(AFP, 2/7/10)(AP, 2/7/10)
2010 Feb 9, Toyota officials went to Japan's Transport Ministry to formally notify officials the company is recalling the 2010 Prius gas-electric hybrid. The automaker is also recalling two other hybrid models in Japan, the Lexus HS250h sedan, sold in the US and Japan, and the Sai, which is sold only in Japan. The total recall amounted to 437,000 Prius and other hybrid vehicles worldwide to fix brake problems.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 9, Honda Motor Co. added 378,000 US vehicles and 41,000 in Canada to its 15-month-old global recall for faulty air bags in the latest quality problem to hit a Japanese automaker. The next day 17,000 cars in Japan were added to the list.
(AP, 2/10/10)
2010 Feb 11, In the Antarctic Ocean Sea Shepherd protesters shot butyric acid, produced from stinking rancid butter, at Japanese whalers to try to disrupt the annual whale hunt. The activists maintained that butyric acid is nontoxic.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 15, In Antarctic waters Peter Bethune, a member of the US-based Sea Shepherd activist group, jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 from a Jet Ski with the stated goal of making a citizen's arrest of the ship's captain and presenting him with a $3 million bill for the destruction of a protest ship last month. The Japanese government said Bethune will be charged with trespassing and assault and tried under Japanese law.
(AP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 16, New US Treasury data said China's holdings of US Treasury bonds tumbled in December, allowing Japan to take over as the top holder of American government debt.
(AFP, 2/16/10)
2010 Feb 24, Akio Toyoda, scion of the beleaguered Toyota empire, apologized before a US House committee investigating deadly flaws that sparked the recall of 8.5 million cars.
(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Feb 26, Australia warned Japan that "diplomacy comes to an end this year" on whaling, after presenting a bold plan to phase out the controversial hunts in the Southern Ocean.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, Militant anti-whalers declared an end to this season's pursuit of Japanese harpoon ships in Antarctic waters, saying it was their most successful and intensely fought campaign so far.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Mar 1, In China Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized in Beijing to Chinese customers for the company's quality problems and emphasized the importance of the fast-growing market to his company.
(AP, 3/1/10)
2010 Mar 7, In the US Academy Awards the film “The Hurt Locker" triumphed with six prizes and made Kathryn Bigelow the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar. Sandra Bullock won as best actress for "The Blind Side"; Jeff Bridges as best actor for "Crazy Heart"; Mo'Nique as supporting actress for "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; and Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds." The best documentary feature was won by “The Cove," an examination of a bloody dolphin hunt filmed with hidden cameras in Taiji, Japan.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 9, Japan confirmed for the first time the existence of once-secret Cold War-era pacts with the US that tacitly allowed nuclear-armed warships to enter Japanese ports in violation of Tokyo's postwar principles.
(AP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Qatar the CITES convention said consumer appetite for caviar is pushing sturgeon to the brink of extinction. Fishing nations led by Japan rejected a US backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. A proposal to ban the int’l. sale of polar bear skins also failed to pass.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A2,5)
2010 Mar 19, Japan said it will boost its aid to quake-hit Haiti to 100 million dollars as the country's foreign minister prepared to visit the impoverished Caribbean nation this weekend.
(AFP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 22, Japan deported Abubakar Awudu Suraj, a Ghanaian who had lived illegally in Japan for 22 years and was married to a Japanese citizen. Suraj was forced onto a plane for Cairo and died shortly after his forced boarding.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.48)
2010 Mar 24, Japan’s government passed a 92 trillion yen budget for the fiscal year beginning April 1.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Mar 27, In Turin, Italy, Mao Asada (19) of Japan toppled Olympic champion Yu-Na Kim in a triumphant season finale which saw her claim her second world title at the world figure skating championships.
(AFP, 3/27/10)
2010 Mar 28, The Pritzker Architecture Prize was awarded to Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, partners in Sanaa Ltd. of Tokyo. Their work included NYC’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, completed in 2007.
(SFC, 3/29/10, p.A6)
2010 Mar 29, In Japan more than 2,000 people who suffer from a rare neurological disorder agreed to accept a settlement proposal and abandon their lawsuits against the Japanese government and the company they say made them sick by dumping mercury. Minamata disease was first diagnosed in 1956 and later was linked to the consumption of fish from southern Kyushu island's Minamata Bay, where chemical company Chisso Corp. dumped tons of mercury compounds.
(AP, 3/29/10)
2010 Mar 30, Japan’s government approved a plan to halt the privatization of Japan Post, the world’s biggest bank, and increased the amount of deposits it can take from a customer to 20 million yen. The government will retain a stake of over one-third, giving it veto power.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.77)
2010 Apr 6, China said it had executed a Japanese man for drug smuggling, the first execution of a Japanese citizen since the countries established relations in 1972. Mitsunobu Akano (65) was convicted in 2008 of attempting to smuggle 2.5 kg (4.8 pounds) of drugs from China to Japan in 2006. He was executed in Liaoning province.
(AP, 4/6/10)
2010 Apr 7, Auto giants Renault, Nissan and Daimler launched a partnership to save billions of euros and accelerate sales of low-pollution electric cars.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 25, In Japan nearly 100,000 protesters attended a rally on Okinawa to demonstrate against Futenma, a US air base, in a row that is dominating Japan's national politics and souring its ties with Washington.
(AP, 4/25/10)(Econ, 5/1/10, p.46)
2010 May 7, Japanese researchers said they had found high mercury levels in residents of the dolphin-hunting town of Taiji, but no cases of related illness.
(AFP, 5/7/10)
2010 May 16, Thousands of Japanese linked hands and encircled a Marine Corps base in Okinawa to protest its presence on the island, putting more pressure on Tokyo to resolve an impasse over the base's future.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 21, In China some 1900 workers at a Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province went on strike demanding higher pay. Monthly pay at the facility in Foshan city was about $117 per month. Similar companies paid between $292 and $365 a month. Honda announced a settlement on June 4.
(www.china.org.cn/business/2010-05/28/content_20133668.htm)(SSFC, 5/30/10, p.A4)(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 May 28, Japan and Washington agreed to keep a contentious US Marine base in Okinawa, with PM Yukio Hatoyama highlighting the importance of the Japanese-American security alliance amid rising tension on the nearby Korean peninsula.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 28, Australia said it will challenge Japan's whale hunting in the Antarctic at the International Court of Justice, a major legal escalation in its campaign to ban the practice despite Tokyo's insistence on the right to so-called scientific whaling.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 30, In Japan a small party decided to leave PM Yukio Hatoyama's ruling coalition over his broken campaign promise to move a US Marine base off Okinawa island, as he faced calls Sunday to resign and dim prospects in upcoming elections.
(AP, 5/30/10)
2010 May 31, Australia filed an international lawsuit against Japan arguing that its whale cull does not qualify for a scientific exemption to a 1986 ban. Japan said the next day that it would staunchly defend its research hunt that kills hundreds of whales per year.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 Jun 2, Japanese PM Yukio Hatoyama resigned to improve his party's chances in an election next month, after his popularity plunged over his broken campaign promise to move a US Marine base.
(AP, 6/2/10)
2010 Jun 4, In Japan Naoto Kan (63), a straight-talking populist, was named the new prime minister. He faced a host of daunting tasks, from reviving the nation's stagnant economy to cutting back its ballooning national debt.
(AP, 6/4/10)
2010 Jun 11, Japan's new PM Naoto Kan pledged a fiscal policy overhaul to reduce the country's massive public debt mountain, warning of a Greece-style meltdown.
(AFP, 6/12/10)
2010 Jun 13, Japan’s Hayabusa space probe, which scientists hope contains material from the surface of an asteroid returned to Earth, landed in the remote Australian outback following a 7-year journey.
(AFP, 6/13/10)(SFC, 6/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 17, Japanese PM Naoto Kan's ruling party outlined its determination to rebuild the nation's finances and slash its deficit in its new manifesto ahead of elections next month.
(AFP, 6/17/10)
2010 Jun 21, The Japanese distributor for the “The Cove," a documentary about dolphin hunting in Japan, said the film would be in 6 Japanese theaters on July 3.
(SFC, 6/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Jun 23, Japan placed Paul Watson (59), the Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a US-based anti-whaling organization, on an international wanted list for allegedly masterminding the group's disruption of Japanese whale hunts in the Antarctic Ocean.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 23, South Korean and Japanese activists floated hundreds of thousands of leaflets by balloon toward the border with North Korea to condemn the country's government amid tensions over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jul 1, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. said it's jumping into the battery business for electric vehicles in a development deal with Mitsubishi Motors Corp.
(AFP, 7/1/10)
2010 Jul 4, In Japan Toyota started recalling more than 90,000 luxury Lexus and Crown vehicles over defective engines.
(AP, 7/4/10)
2010 Jul 7, A Tokyo court convicted a New Zealand activist of assault and obstructing Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic Ocean, and sentenced him to a suspended prison term. Peter Bethune (45) was also found guilty on three other charges: trespassing, vandalism and possession of a knife. Bethune was deported 2 days later.
(AP, 7/7/10)(AP, 7/9/10)
2010 Jul 11, In Japan the center-left government of new PM Naoto Kan lost its majority in parliament's upper house in elections, spelling the threat of legislative paralysis.
(AFP, 7/11/10)
2010 Jul 12, In China a strike began at the Atsumitec Co. in the city of Foshan, with about 90 of the plant's 200 workers stopping work to demand a nearly 60% pay increase. The plant supplied parts for Japan's Honda Motor. On July 14 nearly all of the remaining employees joined the stoppage in response to a threat from factory management to fire the strikers.
(AP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 25, In Japan 5 people died when a rescue helicopter sent to help a party of climbers crashed in mountains near Tokyo.
(Reuters, 7/25/10)
2010 Jul 27, Japan and China agreed in Tokyo to seek an early conclusion to talks over plans to jointly exploit oil and gas fields in a disputed area of the East China Sea.
(AFP, 7/27/10)
2010 Jul 28, Japan hanged two convicted killers, including a man who burned six women to death, in the country's first executions in a year. The justice minister said she wants renewed debate on whether to continue the punishment.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, Japan’s Nissan said is new car models will feature air conditioners that pump breathable vitamin C and stress-reducing seats.
(AFP, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, In the waters off Oman an explosion damaged an oil tanker carrying 270,000 tons of oil, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines said the blast on its tanker M. Star caused one minor injury but did not cause an oil leak. Officials said the damage was caused by a freak wave. Japan's ministry said "A crew member saw light on the horizon just before the explosion, so (Mitsui O.S.K.) believes there is a possibility it was caused by an outside attack." On Aug 4 an obscure al-Qaida-linked group said one of its suicide bombers attacked the Japanese oil tanker, a claim that, if true, would be the first time the terror network has attacked the Japanese. On Aug 6 the Emirates' WAM news agency quoted an unnamed government official as saying the investigation revealed traces of homemade explosives on the hull of the tanker.
(AP, 7/28/10)(Reuters, 7/28/10)(AP, 8/4/10)(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Jul 29, Toyota Motor Corp said it would recall nearly 417,000 high-end passenger cars and SUVs in the United States and Canada to fix steering problems.
(AP, 7/29/10)
2010 Jul 30, It was reported that China has overtaken Japan to become the world's second-largest economy.
(Reuters, 7/30/10)
2010 Aug 2, In the Philippines the 2010 winners of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards were announced. Winners included Tadatoshi Akiba, the three-term mayor of Hiroshima, who spearheaded a global campaign for nuclear disarmament, and photographer Huo Daishan (56), who documented river pollution in his native China. The awards are considered Asia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Other awardees were physicists Christopher Bernido and wife Maria Victoria Carpio-Bernido of the Philippines, who introduced a novel way of teaching science, and Bangladeshi A.H.M. Noman Khan, who set up service-and-training centers for helping persons with disabilities.
(AP, 8/2/10)
2010 Aug 6, The US for the first time attended a ceremony commemorating its atomic bombing of Hiroshima, 65 years after the Japanese city's obliteration rang in the nuclear age.
(AFP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 10, Japan apologized to South Korea for its colonial rule over the country, seeking to strengthen ties between the two countries ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula.
(AP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 11, Toyota said it has suspended auto exports to Iran indefinitely in line with global sanctions against Tehran's nuclear program.
(AFP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 16, Mazda Motor Corp announced a recall of 215,000 Mazda 3 and Mazda 5 vehicles sold in the United States because of the risk that they could lose power steering without warning.
(AP, 8/18/10)
2010 Aug 24, Researchers in Japan reported the creation of a highly accurate sensor that can detect smells and gases using genetically engineered frog eggs.
(Reuters, 8/24/10)
2010 Sep 3, Japan imposed new sanctions against Iran, including an assets freeze on people and entities linked to its contentious nuclear program and tighter restrictions on financial transactions.
(AFP, 9/3/10)
2010 Sep 6, A Japanese court convicted two members of Greenpeace of stealing whale meat they claim was intended for illegal consumption, giving each suspended jail terms. Junichi Sato (33) and Toru Suzuki (43) were found guilty of stealing 50 pounds (23 kg) of whale meat from a delivery service company warehouse in April 2008. The meat came from whales killed during Japan's controversial government-backed research hunts.
(AP, 9/6/10)
2010 Sep 7, A Health Ministry official said Japan has confirmed the nation's first case of a new gene in bacteria that allows the microorganisms to become drug-resistant superbugs, detected in a man who had medical treatment in India.
(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 7, A Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands. On Nov 1 Japanese lawmakers said a coast guard video shows a Chinese trawler intentionally ramming Japanese vessels in the incident, which sparked the worst row in years between the Asian powers.
(AFP, 11/1/10)
2010 Sep 8, Diplomatic tensions between China and Japan escalated when Beijing called in Japan's ambassador for a second time after a Chinese fishing boat collided with two Japanese patrol vessels near a chain of disputed islands.
(AP, 9/8/10)
2010 Sep 11, Japan launched a rocket carrying a satellite intended to improve global positioning systems.
(AFP, 9/11/10)
2010 Sep 13, Japan freed 14 crew members of a Chinese fishing ship nearly a week after their vessel and two Japanese patrol boats collided near disputed southern islets. But China lashed out at Tokyo's decision to keep the captain in custody.
(AP, 9/13/10)
2010 Sep 17, Japan's PM Naoto Kan named a new cabinet, including a hawkish foreign minister to handle an escalating row with China.
(AFP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 18, In China protesters in several cities marked a politically sensitive anniversary, the start of a brutal Japanese invasion in 1931, with anti-Japan chants and banners, as authorities tried to stop anger over a diplomatic spat between the Asian giants from getting out of control.
(AP, 9/18/10)
2010 Sep 19, China said it has suspended high-level contacts with Japan over the extended detention of a Chinese fishing boat captain arrested after a Sep 7 collision near disputed islands.
(AP, 9/19/10)
2010 Sep 22, San Francisco’s Recurrent Energy said it has agreed to be purchased by Sharp Corp., Japan’s biggest solar panel manufacturer for as much as $305 million.
(SFC, 9/23/10, p.D1)
2010 Sep 23, China detained four Japanese citizens for allegedly videotaping at a military installation in Hebei province. 3 of the men were released on Sep 30. The 4th was held as investigations continued. The 4th Japanese contractor was freed on Oct 9.
(SFC, 10/1/10, p.A4)(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Sep 24, Japan said it would free Zhan Qixiong (41), a Chinese fishing boat captain, whose arrest in disputed waters over two weeks ago sparked the worst row in years between the Asian giants.
(AFP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 25, Japan refused to apologize for detaining a Chinese boat captain, showing no signs of softening in a dispute between the two economic powers after Japan gave ground and released him. China made a second call for an apology and compensation from Tokyo, demanding "practical steps" to resolve the diplomatic row.
(Reuters, 9/25/10)(AFP, 9/25/10)
2010 Sep 30, Japanese researchers said they had developed a hybrid vehicle motor that is free of rare earths, the minerals that are now almost exclusively produced by China.
(AFP, 9/30/10)
2010 Oct 4, Japan issued a travel alert for Europe, joining the United States and Britain in warning of a possible terrorist attack by al-Qaida or other groups, but tourists appeared to be taking the mounting warnings in stride.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 4, Tokyo-based Toshiba unveiled the world's first high definition liquid crystal display 3-D television that does not require special glasses, one of the biggest consumer complaints about the technology.
(AP, 10/4/10)
2010 Oct 6, An American and two Japanese scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for finding new ways to bond carbon atoms together, methods now widely used to make medicines and in agriculture and electronics. Richard Heck, Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki were honored for their development in the 1960s and '70s of one of the most sophisticated tools available to chemists today, called palladium-catalyzed cross coupling.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 12, In Japan residents of Taiji village, notorious for the dolphin hunt documented in the film "The Cove," slaughtered a pod of dolphins but spared the youngest animals.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 16, Thousands of Chinese marched in the streets in sometimes violent protests against Japan and its claim to disputed islands. Thousands of protesters marched through Tokyo to demonstrate against what they called China's invasion of disputed islands that both countries claim. Beijing expressed "deep concern" at anti-China protests by Japanese nationalists over a diplomatic spat centered on a group of disputed islands.
(AP, 10/16/10)(Reuters, 10/16/10)(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 16, German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said Germany will help Japan gain access to vital rare earth minerals which are being withheld by China in a territorial dispute.
(AFP, 10/16/10)
2010 Oct 21, Toyota said it is recalling 1.53 million Lexus, Avalon and other models, mostly in the US and Japan, for brake fluid and fuel pump problems, the latest in a string of quality lapses for the world's No. 1 automaker.
(AP, 10/21/10)
2010 Oct 25, The leaders of India and Japan signed a broad agreement in Japan aimed at increasing trade and agreed to speed up talks toward a civilian nuclear energy deal despite sensitivity in Japan over India's past atomic test blasts. PM Naoto Kan and PM Manmohan Singh also agreed to speed up talks toward a civilian nuclear cooperation deal that would allow Japanese companies to export nuclear power generation technology and equipment to India.
(AP, 10/25/10)
2010 Oct 27, Japan offered $2 billion in aid to help developing nations reach species-preserving goals that are being debated at a UN conference, a move that could jolt the stalled talks forward.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 29, A feud between China and Japan deepened at the East Asian Summit in Vietnam, as China accused its rival of making false comments and hopes for landmark talks between their leaders evaporated.
(AFP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Japan representatives to a UN conference on biodiversity agreed to expand protected areas on land and at sea in the hopes of slowing the rate of extinction of the world’s animals and plant. Scientists have estimated that the Earth is losing species at 100 to 1,000 times the historical average.
(SFC, 10/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 31, Japan’s PM Naoto Kan said Vietnam has chosen Japan as a partner to mine rare earth metals and develop nuclear power.
(SFC, 11/1/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 1, Russia's Pres. Medvedev visited Kunashiri Island in the Pacific Ocean claimed by both Russia and Japan, triggering immediate protests from Tokyo, which is already involved in a heated dispute with China over islands to the south.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 2, Russia said Pres. Medvedev planned more trips to a group of islands seized by the Soviet Union from Japan at the end of World War Two, deepening a serious rift with Tokyo.
(Reuters, 11/2/10)
2010 Nov 13, In Japan thousands of demonstrators waving Japanese flags and shouting anti-China slogans marched against Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit for an economic summit that comes as a territorial dispute strains ties between the Asian giants.
(AP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 13, Japan's PM Naoto Kan strongly protested Russian Pres. Medvedev's Nov 1 visit to the disputed island of Kunashiri and said in a meeting on the sidelines of a Pacific Rim leaders' conference that the two nations must build mutual trust. Pres. Obama attended the 2-day APEC summit in Yokohama.
(AP, 11/13/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.48)
2010 Nov 14, Japan and Peru said they have reached an agreement on a free-trade deal. The 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group ended their summit in Japan with pledges to press ahead with moves toward freer trade, with an eventual goal of a region-wide free trade zone.
(AFP, 11/14/10)(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 23, Australia promised to be a future long-tem supplier of rare earths to Japan, after China suspended shipments of the minerals to its neighbor.
(Reuters, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 26, The Japanese parliament passed an extra budget worth 58 billion dollars to cover a new stimulus package aimed at averting the threat of a "double-dip" recession.
(AFP, 11/26/10)
2010 Nov 28, In Japan the governor of Okinawa island was reelected and immediately called for the removal of a controversial US military base which has strained ties between Tokyo and Washington.
(AFP, 11/28/10)
2010 Dec 6, The US, South Korea and Japan all urged China to help rein in its ally North Korea and vowed solidarity in defending Seoul from any further attacks from the North.
(AFP, 12/7/10)
2010 Dec 8, Japan’s space agency said its “Akatsuki" space probe has hurtled past Venus after failing to enter the planet's orbit as planned, but it voiced hope for a successful rendezvous six years from now.
(AFP, 12/8/10)
2010 Dec 9, In Japan the 3rd International Pole Dancing Championships concluded. The competition was held in a large arena near the Tokyo Dome, the Japanese capital's main sports stadium, with competitors from countries ranging from Malaysia to Moldova. Japan's Mai Sato defended her title as the women's champion, and Duncan West of Australia won in men's. This year also had a disabled division, which was won by hearing-impaired Eri Kamimoto of Japan.
(AP, 12/10/10)
2010 Dec 13, The Oriental Rose, Japanese-operated chemical tanker, was strafed by gunfire from an unidentified vessel off the Somali coast slightly wounding two crew members.
(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 15, In Japan the city of Tokyo restricted the sale of manga comics and anime films with extreme depictions of rape, incest and other sex crimes, despite industry charges of censorship.
(AFP, 12/15/10)
2010 Dec 16, India's Hero Group said it was ending a 26-year-old joint venture with Honda Motor and buying out the Japanese firm's stake in the biggest Indian motorcycle manufacturer by sales.
(AFP, 12/16/10)
2010 Dec 21, Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay the US government a record $32.4 million in additional fines to settle an investigation into its handling of two recalls at the heart of its safety crisis. The latest settlement, on top of a $16.4 million fine Toyota paid earlier in a related investigation, brought the total penalties levied on the company to $48.8 million.
(AP, 12/21/10)
2010 Dec 28, Japan postponed the creation of a greenhouse gas emission trading system by a year until after April 2014 in the face of strong resistance from the business lobby.
(AFP, 12/30/10)
2010 Jeff Kingston authored “Contemporary Japan: History, Politics and Social Change Since the 1980s."
(Econ, 8/21/10, p.68)
2010 Kosuke Motani authored “The Real Face of Deflation," in which he argued that deflation in Japan is a structural problem linked to bad business decisions and demography.
(Econ, 2/12/11, p.85)
2010 Japan’s new capital could be built by this time.
(WSJ, 9/24/96, p.B12)
2010 Japan’s nominal GDP of $5.474 trillion in 2010 put it behind China's $5.879 trillion. China first eclipsed Japan in the second quarter.
(AP, 2/14/11)
2010 Japan extended its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) to cover a Japanese-held island claimed by Taiwan.
(Econ., 6/20/20, p.34)
2010 Japan’s population was about 127 million. Some 2 million foreigners lived there legally. It was expected to fall to around 100 million by 2050.
(Econ, 5/15/10, p.49)(Econ, 7/17/10, p.68)
2011 Jan 1, Japan said it has logged 1.19 million deaths in 2010, the biggest number since 1947 when the health ministry's annual records began. As a result the population contracted by 123,000 people, which was the most ever and the fourth consecutive year of decline.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 1, Japanese whalers shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists, hours after the activists tracked down the hunting fleet in the remote and icy seas off Antarctica.
(AP, 1/1/10)
2011 Jan 5, In Japan a giant bluefin tuna fetched a record 32.49 million yen, or nearly $396,000, in Tokyo, in the first auction of the year at the world's largest wholesale fish market.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 11, Japan said it plans to buy at least a fifth of the initial installment of the bonds being sold to finance Europe's bailout fund, which is aimed at rescuing Ireland.
(AP, 1/11/11)
2011 Jan 17, Japanese researchers said they will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 22, A Japanese rocket carrying supplies for the International Space Station lifted off from a remote island on a mission designed to help fill a hole left by the retirement of NASA's space shuttle program.
(AP, 1/22/11)
2011 Jan 26, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. said it was recalling a wide range of models, including the IS and GS Lexus luxury models in North America and the Avensis sedan and station wagon models in Europe for various defects that may cause fuel leakage.
(AP, 1/26/11)
2011 Jan 27, Standard & Poor's cut Japan's credit rating for the first time since 2002, saying Tokyo had no plan to deal with its mounting debt, a warning that could rattle other heavily indebted rich countries.
(Reuters, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 28, In Cambodia a tribunal statement said Japan has agreed to make a contribution of $11.7 million to the UN-assisted genocide tribunal that is trying former leaders of Cambodia's communist Khmer Rouge. Japan has provided a total of about $67 million to the tribunal, about 49 percent of all contributions.
(AP, 1/28/11)
2011 Jan 31, Japanese ruling party powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa was charged over a funding scandal, adding to PM Naoto Kan's woes as he struggles to survive in the face of a divided parliament and sagging support.
(Reuters, 1/31/11)
2011 Feb 3, In Japan a proposed merger was announced between Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest steelmaker, and rival Sumitomo Metals.
(Econ, 2/5/11, p.76)
2011 Feb 7, Japan's PM Naoto Kan led a large rally demanding the return of the southern Kuril islands held by Russia since the end of World War II and calling the recent visit there by Russia's president an outrage. Japan has designated Feb. 7 as "Northern Territories Day," saying that a treaty dating back to that day in 1855 supports its claim to the islands.
(AP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 9, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made it clear he will not give up the southern Kuril islands to Japan. In fact, he said Russia will send more weapons to the disputed islands to keep them secure.
(AP, 2/9/11)
2011 Feb 14, A group of Japanese citizens filed a lawsuit challenging a civil law that effectively stops women from keeping their surnames when they marry.
(AP, 2/14/11)
2011 Feb 15, Japanese police sought charges against two senior sumo wrestlers in an alleged gambling scam.
(AP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 16, A government official said Japan, as of Feb 10, has temporarily suspended its annual Antarctic whaling after repeated harassment by a conservationist group.
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 24, In Japan the world's first robot marathon kicked off in Osaka, with five two-legged participants racing on an indoor track. The race was expected to last through Feb 27.
(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 24, Toyota Motor Corp. recalled 2.17 million vehicles in the United States to address accelerator pedals that could become entrapped in floor mats or jammed in driver's side carpeting, prompting federal regulators to close its investigation into the embattled automaker.
(AP, 2/24/11)
2011 Feb 26, In Japan Nintendo's latest game machine, offering glasses-free 3-D images, went on sale ahead of a global rollout. Analysts said it promises to be the world's first 3-D mass-market product.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Mar 3, Japanese researchers said they have developed a human-shaped mobile phone with a skin-like outer layer that enables users to feel closer to those on the other end.
(AFP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 6, Japan's foreign minister Seiji Maehara suddenly quit for having accepted a political donation from a foreigner, a violation of Japanese law, dealing another blow to the embattled administration of PM Naoto Kan.
(AP, 3/6/11)(SFC, 3/7/11, p.A2)
2011 Mar 7, Japan's health ministry halted the use of vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and Sanofi-Aventis SA that prevent meningitis and pneumonia following the recent deaths of four children. The deaths happened between March 2 and March 4.
(Reuters, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 7, Ten Japanese companies said they plan to install electric vehicle chargers at the sites of beverage vending machines across Japan in a cost-cutting tie-up.
(AFP, 3/7/11)
2011 Mar 9, Japan's center-left government named as its new foreign minister Takeaki Matsumoto, who hails from a powerful political family but faces tricky relations with the US, China and Russia.
(AFP, 3/9/11)
2011 Mar 11, A ferocious tsunami spawned by an 8.9 earthquake, one of the largest ever recorded, slammed Japan's eastern coast, killing hundreds of people as it swept away boats, cars and homes while widespread fires burned out of control. At least 574 people were killed including 74 elementary school students and 10 teachers at the Okawa primary school. Estimates put the toll as high as 1300. At least 10,000 people were missing. Japan declared states of emergency for five nuclear reactors at two power plants after the units lost cooling ability in the aftermath of the earthquake. The quake (the fourth-largest recorded since 1900) was caused when the Pacific tectonic plate dove under the North American plate, which shifted Eastern Japan towards North America by about 13 feet. The disaster, which became known as 3/11, killed 180 villagers at Ukedo. It killed 15,856 people and left another 2,643 missing.
(AP, 3/11/11)(AP, 3/12/11)(http://tinyurl.com/5sphrbr)(SFC, 1/25/12, p.A3)(Econ, 3/10/12, p.35)(Econ, 3/9/13, p.86)(Econ, 1/18/14, p.81)
2011 Mar 12, In Japan an explosion at the the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station destroyed a building housing the reactor, but a radiation leak was decreasing despite fears of a meltdown from damage caused by a powerful earthquake and tsunami. Japanese nuclear agency spokesman Shinji Kinjo acknowledged there were still fears of a meltdown.
(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 13, People across a devastated swath of Japan suffered for a third day without water, electricity and proper food, as the country grappled with the enormity of a massive earthquake and tsunami that left more than 10,000 people dead in one area alone. Japanese officials raised their estimate of the quake's magnitude to 9.0. Japan also fought to avert a meltdown at three earthquake-crippled nuclear reactors.
(AP, 3/13/11)(Reuters, 3/13/11)
2011 Mar 14, In Japan a second hydrogen explosion in three days rocked the Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima, devastating the structure housing one reactor and injuring 11 workers. Water levels dropped precipitously at another reactor, completely exposing the fuel rods and raising the threat of a meltdown.
(AP, 3/14/11)
2011 Mar 15, Japan faced a potential catastrophe after a quake-crippled nuclear power plant exploded and sent low levels of radiation floating toward Tokyo, prompting some people to flee the capital and others to stock up on essential supplies.
(Reuters, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 16, Japanese emergency workers forced to retreat from the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant when radiation levels soared prepared to return tonight after emissions dropped to safer levels. Japan's national news agency, Kyodo, said that 33 percent of the fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor were damaged and that the cores of both reactors were believed to have partially melted. Nearly 3,700 people were officially listed as dead. Officials believed the toll will climb over 10,000 since several thousand more were listed as missing.
(AP, 3/16/11)
2011 Mar 17, Japan tried high-pressure water cannons, fire trucks and even helicopters that dropped batches of seawater in increasingly frantic attempts to cool an overheated nuclear complex as US officials warned the situation was deteriorating. More than 5,300 people were officially listed as dead, but officials believed the toll will climb to well over 10,000.
(AP, 3/17/11)
2011 Mar 18, The Japanese government acknowledged that it was overwhelmed by the scale of last week's twin natural disasters. The earthquake and tsunami has now officially left more than 6,900 dead and more than 10,700 missing. Japanese engineers conceded that burying a crippled nuclear plant in sand and concrete may be a last resort to prevent a catastrophic radiation release. Authorities raised the rating of the nuclear crisis to a Level 5 from a Level 4 on a seven-point international scale. Radiation at the crippled Fukushima No.2 nuclear reactor was recorded at 500 microsieverts per hour.
(AP, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/18/11)(Reuters, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 18, The US Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada confirmed that they had intervened to cool the soaring yen, in concert with other G7 central banks.
(AFP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 19, One of Japan's six tsunami-crippled nuclear reactors appeared to stabilize but the country suffered another blow after discovering traces of radiation in food and water from near the stricken power plant. Crews fighting to cool reactors managed to connect a power line. Japan halted sales of food products near Fukushima because of contamination by a radioactive element which can pose a short-term health risk. Japan's police agency said 7,348 are dead and 10,947 are missing after last week's earthquake and tsunami.
(AP, 3/19/11)(AFP, 3/19/11)(Reuters, 3/19/11)
2011 Mar 20, Japan’s ministry official Yoshifumi Kaji said that tests found excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens, in addition to spinach. He said the areas where the tainted produce was found included three prefectures that previously had not recorded such contamination. Tokyo Electric Power Company said two of the six reactor units are now safely under control after their fuel storage pools cooled down. The toll of dead or missing from Japan's worst natural disaster in almost a century neared 21,000.
(AP, 3/20/11)(Reuters, 3/20/11)(AFP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 21, In Japan gray smoke rose from two reactor units, temporarily stalling critical work to reconnect power lines and restore cooling systems to stabilize the Fukushima radiation-leaking nuclear complex. Police officials estimated that the toll from the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami will exceed 18,000 deaths.
(AP, 3/21/11)
2011 Mar 22, Japanese crews connected all six reactors at the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant to the electrical grid, a day after smoke triggered an evacuation from the facility. But the plant's operator cautioned that pumps, motors and other equipment must be checked before the power can be turned on. It's likely to be days or weeks before cooling systems can resume functioning. A Japanese nuclear safety official said a pool for storing spent fuel at the crippled nuclear plant is heating up, with temperatures around the boiling point. Police said nearly 9,100 people are dead after an earthquake and tsunami with almost 13,800 are missing.
(AP, 3/22/11)
2011 Mar 23, Japan said the cost of rebuilding the country after its biggest recorded earthquake could be as much as 25 trillion yen ($309 billion). A spike in radiation levels in Tokyo tap water, twice the level acceptable for infants, spurred new fears about food safety. Rising smoke forced another evacuation of workers trying to stabilize the Fukushima nuclear plant. Police said nearly 9,500 people are dead after an earthquake and tsunami with over 16,000 still missing.
(AFP, 3/23/11)(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 25, Japanese officials said a suspected breach in Unit 3 reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, as PM Naoto Kan called the country's ongoing fight to stabilize the plant "very grave and serious." The official death toll jumped past 10,000. With the cleanup and recovery operations continuing and more than 17,400 listed as missing, the final number of dead was expected to surpass 18,000.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 26, Japanese officials said radiation levels have surged in seawater near the tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Fukushima, as engineers battled to stabilize the plant in hazardous conditions.
(AFP, 3/26/11)
2011 Mar 27, In Japan emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from the stricken Fukushima nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity, a spike that officials later apologetically said was inaccurate. Police said the death toll from earthquake and tsunami stood at 10,668, with more than 16,574 people missing. Hundreds of thousands of people remained homeless.
(AP, 3/27/11)
2011 Mar 28, In Japan power company officials said plutonium has been detected in 5 locations in the soil outside of the stricken Fukushima nuclear complex. A TEPCO official said the amounts were very small and were not a risk to public health. TEPCO said highly radioactive water has leaked from the reactor. Environmental group Greenpeace said it had detected high levels of radiation outside an exclusion zone.
(AP, 3/28/11)(Reuters, 3/28/11)
2011 Mar 30, Japan weighed a series of creative solutions to its unfolding nuclear disaster, from draping reactors with special fabric to sending in military robots to do the risky work. TEPCO said 4 of the 6 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plants were damaged beyond repair. UN nuclear agency officials said that readings outside the exclusion zone of the Japan nuclear disaster showed radiation exceeding recommended evacuation levels by the agency.
(AP, 3/30/11)(SFC, 3/31/11, p.A4)
2011 Mar 31, Japan said that its crisis-hit nuclear plant must be scrapped, but currently had no plans to evacuate more people, despite calls for a larger exclusion zone around the crippled facility.
(AFP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 2, In Japan highly radioactive water spilled into the ocean from the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex as PM Naoto Kan surveyed the damage in a town gutted by the wave.
(AP, 4/2/11)
2011 Apr 3, Workers at Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant struggled to stop a radioactive water leak into the Pacific, as the government warned the facility may spread contamination for months. TEPCO workers used a polymer and even newspapers to try to close off pipes through which the water has flowed into a cracked concrete pit, from where it has run into the sea. An earlier attempt to seal the crack with cement failed to stop the leak.
(AFP, 4/3/11)
2011 Apr 4, Japanese engineers were forced to release radioactive water into the sea while resorting to desperate measures to try to find the source of leaks at a crippled Fukushima nuclear power complex hit by a tsunami on March 11. Tokyo Electric Power said it had found radioactive iodine-131 at 7.5 million times the legal limit in seawater near the facility. Biologists admitted that the contamination could eventually find its way into the ocean food chain.
(Reuters, 4/4/11)(SFC, 4/6/11, p.A3)(SFC, 4/6/11, p.A1)
2011 Apr 4, BP said that it has agreed to sell its ARCO Aluminum unit to a Japanese consortium for $680 million ($421 million) as it seeks to meet the costs of last year's disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
(AFP, 4/4/11)
2011 Apr 5, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, said it had reduced the flow of highly radioactive water out of a reactor. The government set its first radiation safety standards for fish after the nuclear plant reported radioactive contamination in nearby seawater measuring at several million times the legal limit.
(Reuters, 4/5/11)(AP, 4/5/11)
2011 Apr 6, In Japan workers halted a leak of highly radioactive water into the ocean that had raised concerns about the safety of seafood. Officials did not rule out the chance of contaminated water still leaking into the sea from other points. Engineers prepared to inject nitrogen into containment vessels around the cores to deter any hydrogen explosions.
(AP, 4/6/11)
2011 Apr 7, Japan was rattled by a strong 7.1 magnitude aftershock and tsunami warning nearly a month after a devastating earthquake and tsunami flattened the northeastern coast. At least 4 people died in the aftershock, the worst since the March 11 9.0 quake.
(AP, 4/7/11)(AFP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 11, In Japan a strong 7.0 earthquake rattled the northeast as the government urged more people living near a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant to leave, citing concerns about long-term health risks from radiation.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 11, Australia fined Japan Airlines (JAL) Aus$5.5 million (US$5.8 million) after the carrier admitted its role in a long-running cargo cartel case involving 15 airlines. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said JAL admitted to "making and giving effect to illegal price-fixing understandings with other international airlines" on fuel, insurance and security surcharges.
(AFP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 12, Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater. Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7, the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents.
(AP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 12, In Japan a powerful 6.0 earthquake struck near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, shaking buildings in Tokyo. No tsunami warning was issued and no damage immediately reported.
(AFP, 4/12/11)
2011 Apr 13, Japan's government downgraded its assessment of the economy for the first time in six months to reflect last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami. Wholesale prices rose at the fastest pace in more than two years in an ominous sign for company profit margins.
(Reuters, 4/13/11)
2011 Apr 15, Japan's government ordered the embattled operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to offer payouts to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the ongoing crisis.
(AP, 4/15/11)
2011 Apr 16, TEPCO, the Japanese operator of a stricken nuclear plant, said it has started dumping a mineral into the sea that absorbs radioactive substances, aiming to slow down contamination of the ocean.
(AFP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 16, A strong earthquake of magnitude 5.8 hit central Japan.
(AP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 16, A Qatari state-controlled gas producer said it has agreed to send Japan more than 60 extra tanker shipments of liquefied natural gas to help power the Asian nation in the wake of its tsunami disaster.
(AP, 4/16/11)
2011 Apr 17, TEPCO, the operator of Japan's crippled nuclear plant, laid out a blueprint for stopping radiation leaks and stabilizing damaged reactors within the next six to nine months as a first step toward allowing some of the tens of thousands of evacuees to return to the area.
(AP, 4/17/11)
2011 Apr 18, In Japan a pair of thin robots on treads sent to explore buildings inside the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor came back with disheartening news: Radiation levels are far too high for repair crews to go inside.
(AP, 4/18/11)
2011 Apr 21, A group of Japanese internet service providers started blocking access to child porn websites as part of efforts to crack down on the spread of sexually explicit images of children.
(AFP, 4/21/11)
2011 Apr 22, Japan announced a $49 billion special budget for areas devastated by last month's quake and tsunami and said it would extend an evacuation zone around a nuclear plant crippled by the disaster.
(AP, 4/22/11)
2011 Apr 23, In Japan former Sony president Norio Ohga (81), died. He served as president from 1982 to 1995 and led the evolution of the electronics manufacturer into a global entertainment empire covering music, movies and computer games. Ohga helped transform the music industry with the development of the compact disc format (1982).
(AFP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 24, In Japan thousands of people marched in Tokyo to demand an end to nuclear power and a switch to alternative energy after the crisis at an atomic plant hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
(AFP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr 25, Japan sent nearly 25,000 soldiers to recover bodies killed in last month’s earthquake and tsunami. Some 14,300 were confirmed dead with 12,000 still missing.
(SFC, 4/25/11, p.A2)
2011 Apr 26, Japanese electronics and entertainment giant Sony unveiled its first tablet computers, codenamed S1 and S2, in a direct but belated challenge to Apple's iPad.
(AFP, 4/26/11)
2011 Apr 27, Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on Japan's sovereign debt following last month's quake-tsunami disaster and warned that reconstruction costs could pass $600 billion.
(AFP, 4/27/11)
2011 Apr 29, In Japan senior nuclear advisor Toshiso Kosako resigned saying the government was not adequately protecting the public from radiation.
(SSFC, 5/1/11, p.A7)
2011 May 1, In Japan Sony executives bowed in apology for a security breach in the company's PlayStation Network that caused the loss of personal data of some 77 million accounts on the online service. Sony suspected it was under attack by hackers starting April 17.
(AP, 5/1/11)
2011 May 2, Japan's parliament passed a $48 billion tsunami recovery budget that will only start to cover the cost of what was the most expensive disaster ever.
(AP, 5/2/11)
2011 May 3, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper said Israel's Teva Pharmaceutical Industries has decided to buy Japan's third-largest generic drug company Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry for about $500 million.
(AFP, 5/3/11)
2011 May 4, New computer modeling showed that Japan's many language variants descended from a common ancestor some 2,182 years ago -- coinciding with the major wave of migration from the Korean Peninsula.
(AP, 5/5/11)
2011 May 6, Japan's PM Naoto Kan ordered the suspension of operations at an ageing nuclear power plant southwest of Tokyo because it is located close to a dangerous tectonic faultline.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 7, In Japan thousands of people rallied to demand a shift away from nuclear power after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl a quarter-century ago.
(AFP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 9, The operator of Japan's ageing Hamaoka nuclear plant, located near a tectonic faultline southwest of Tokyo, said it would temporarily shut down its last two running reactors.
(AP, 5/9/11)
2011 May 10, Japan’s PM Naoto Kan said Japan will scrap a plan to obtain half of its electricity from nuclear power and will instead promote renewable energy and conservation as a result of its ongoing nuclear crisis. The president of TEPCO submitted a request for Japanese government aid in compensating those affected by its stricken nuclear power plant, as the utility said it faced funding problems.
(AP, 5/10/11)(AFP, 5/10/11)
2011 May 11, Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, said it accepted the government-set reorganization plan. TEPCO agreed to drastic restructuring and cost-cutting in exchange for a government plan to support the company in its obligations to compensate people affected by the crisis. The government planned to inject about $62 billion into a fund to help TEPCO compensate victims.
(AP, 5/11/11)(Reuters, 5/11/11)
2011 May 12, In Japan TEPCO officials said one of the reactors at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant has been damaged more severely than originally thought, a serious setback for efforts to stabilize the radiation-leaking complex.
(AP, 5/12/11)
2011 May 13, Japan announced a plan to help Tokyo Electric Power compensate victims of the crisis at its tsunami-crippled nuclear plant without going broke while it struggles to resolve the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
(Reuters, 5/13/11)
2011 May 14, Japan shut down the final working reactor at a nuclear plant near a tectonic faultline as PM Naoto Kan pledged a new law to help compensate victims of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. A worker at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant died, bringing the death toll at the complex to 3 since a massive earthquake and tsunami in March.
(AFP, 5/14/11)(Reuters, 5/14/11)
2011 May 15, Japan started the first evacuations of homes outside the 20-km government exclusion zone radius from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami crippled one of the country's nuclear power plants.
(AFP, 5/15/11)
2011 May 19, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said it will buy Switzerland's Nycomed for $13.6 billion, giving Japan's biggest drugmaker coveted access to emerging markets.
(AP, 5/19/11)
2011 May 20, Japan's Cabinet approved a plan to join a global child custody treaty, amid foreign pressure on Tokyo to revise policies some say allow Japanese mothers to too easily take their children away from foreign fathers.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, Japan's Tokyo Electric Power posted a record $15 billion loss and Masataka Shimizu, its under-fire president, resigned to take responsibility for the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl 25 years ago.
(AFP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 20, BP said that it had recovered more than $1.0 billion in costs linked to last year's devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill from a US subsidiary of Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. MOEX USA Corporation held a 10-percent stake in the Macondo well project.
(AP, 5/20/11)
2011 May 21, The leaders of Japan, China and South Korea travelled to Fukushima in a show of solidarity over the ongoing nuclear crisis, visiting evacuees left homeless by the quake and tsunami.
(AFP, 5/21/11)
2011 May 22, In Japan the leaders of China and South Korea agreed to bolster efforts to aid disaster recovery as they met with the Japanese prime minister to smooth over differences on Tokyo's handling of its post-tsunami nuclear crisis.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 23, In Japan furious parents at the center of the atomic crisis and hundreds of their supporters rallied in Tokyo against revised nuclear safety standards in schools they say are putting children at risk. A new limit allowed exposure of up to 20 millisieverts a year, 20 times the radiation that was permissible before the March 11 tsunami caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
(AFP, 5/23/11)
2011 May 24, In Japan major international mission to investigate the flooded, radiation-leaking nuclear complex began as new information suggested that nuclear fuel had mostly melted in two more reactors in the early days after the March 11 tsunami.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 24, Japan’s Sony Corp. said it discovered a security breach affecting 8,500 user accounts in a music entertainment website in Greece that comes on the heels of a hacker attack which forced its flagship gaming site offline.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May 26, Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, detailed a new leak of radioactive water as Greenpeace slammed the country's "inadequate response" to a growing threat to sea water and health.
(Reuters, 5/26/11)
2011 May 27, Japan's PM Naoto Kan used a G8 summit in France to reassure Tokyo's most powerful allies that his country would learn the lessons of its nuclear disaster and recover fully.
(AP, 5/27/11)
2011 May 28, Japan and the EU agreed at a summit meeting to begin negotiations on a free trade agreement that would deepen economic ties between two of the world's largest economies. As a bloc, the EU is the world's largest economy; Japan is number four.
(AP, 5/28/11)
2011 May 30, European anti-trust regulators launched in-depth probes into proposed US takeovers of South Korean and Japanese businesses manufacturing computer hard disk drives (HDD). The planned acquisitions of the hard disk drive operations of South Korean electronics giant Samsung by Seagate Technology, and the storage business of Japan's Hitachi by Western Digital Corporation in a sector with just five manufacturers worldwide have raised concerns. Brussels officials have until October 10 to decide what action if any they will take.
(AFP, 5/30/11)
2011 May 31, In northeastern Japan an oil spill and a small explosion caused limited damage, but no further radiation leaks. TEPCO said damage to a gas cylinder caused a loud noise outside a reactor building at the Fukushima nuclear plant as rubble was being cleared away.
(AP, 5/31/11)(Reuters, 5/31/11)
2011 Jun 4, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that Japan has frozen $4.4 billion in assets belonging to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and his entourage under the terms of a UN Security Council resolution.
(AFP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 11, In Japan protesters held mass demonstrations across the country against nuclear power in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left over 23,000 dead.
(SSFC, 6/19/11, p.A7)
2011 Jun 18, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. halted an operation to clean highly contaminated waste water at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi facility due to higher-than-expected radiation levels.
(AFP, 6/18/11)
2011 Jun 19, Japanese game maker Sega said hackers have stolen the personal data of some 1.29 million customers of the, in a theft via a website of its European unit.
(AP, 6/19/11)
2011 Jun 20, RIKEN and Fujitsu took first place on the 37th TOP500 list at the 26th International Supercomputing Conference (ISC'11) held in Hamburg, Germany. This ranking is based on a performance measurement of the "K computer," currently under their joint development.
(www.fujitsu.com/global/news/pr/archives/month/2011/20110620-02.html)
2011 Jun 21, Japan and the United States agreed to drop a 2014 deadline for building a new airstrip on Okinawa and transferring US Marines from that Japanese island to Guam.
(Reuters, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 21, Japanese researchers said they had developed a self-propelled remote controlled capsule endoscope that can "swim" through the digestive tract.
(AFP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 22, Japan passed legislation easing the process for non-profit organizations to get favorable tax status.
(Econ, 7/9/11, p.39)
2011 Jun 22, In Japan TEPCO, owner of the tsunami-damaged nuclear plant, said it will pay an estimated $1 billion (88 billion yen) to thousands of residents who evacuated homes near the radiation-leaking plant and don't yet know when they can return.
(AP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 22, Iraq said it would donate 10 million dollars in disaster relief to Japan and offered oil sales, as Tokyo struggles with the devastation of a March 11 tsunami.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 23, Japanese inventors were reported to have pushed the frontiers of technology with the ultimate companion for lonely singles, a wired torso-shaped device that you can hug and that hugs you back.
(AFP, 6/23/11)
2011 Jun 23, In Japan a 6.7 earthquake rattled the northeast, that same area of march 11 quake, which triggered a massive tsunami.
(SFC, 6/23/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 24, UNESCO added the Ningaloo Coast in Western Australia, Japan's remote Ogasawara Islands and the Kenya Lake System in the Rift Valley province, to its heritage list.
(AFP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 26, In Japan angry parents of children in Fukushima city marched along with hundreds of people to demand protection for their children from radiation more than three months after a massive quake and tsunami triggered the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.
(Reuters, 6/26/11)
2011 Jul 10, In Japan a 7.1 earthquake hit the northeastern coast. There were no reports of immediate damage.
(SSFC, 7/10/11, p.A6)
2011 Jul 11, Japanese scientists were reported to have found a "superbug" strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics. They said it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.
(Reuters, 7/11/11)
2011 Jul 13, In Japan radiation fears mounted after news that contaminated beef from a farm just outside the Fukushima nuclear no-go zone has been shipped across the country and probably eaten.
(AFP, 7/13/11)
2011 Jul 17, Japan’s female soccer team, fourth place finishers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, came from behind twice to beat world-number ones and twice champions the United States 3-1 on penalties in the final of the World Cup in Frankfurt. It was the first football World Cup title for any Asian country.
(AFP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 29, Yahoo Inc., Japan's Softbank Corp. and the China’s Alibaba Group said they have agreed on a compensation plan involving the Web payment service Alipay.
(AP, 7/29/11)
2011 Jul 31, Japan’s PM Naoto Kan criticized the country's nuclear safety agency for allegedly trying to plant questions aimed at supporting atomic energy at public forums. An estimated 1,700 people rallied in the capital of the Fukushima region, home to a crippled atomic power plant, calling for an end to nuclear energy.
(AP, 7/31/11)(AFP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 2, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its 2nd deadly radiation reading in as many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
(SFC, 8/3/11, p.A2)
2011 Aug 3, Japan’s Parliament passed legislation allowing the use of public money to shore up Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the company operating the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant to help it pay expected billions in compensation claims.
(SFC, 8/4/11, p.A5)
2011 Aug 26, Japanese PM Naoto Kan announced he would resign after almost 15 months in office amid plunging approval ratings over his government's handling of the tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis. He would officially quit as prime minister after the ruling party votes on Aug 29 to pick a new leader, the country's sixth prime minister in five years.
(AP, 8/26/11)
2011 Aug 30, Japan’s Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda (Democratic Party of Japan) became the country’s sixth new prime minister in five years, inheriting an in-tray groaning with disaster recovery, nuclear crisis and economic gloom in the ageing, debt-choked nation.
(AFP, 8/30/11)(SSFC, 9/4/11, p.A4)
2011 Aug 31, Britain's biggest retailer Tesco announced that it is pulling out of Japan after eight years and putting its 129 small supermarkets on sale to focus on other operations in Asia.
(AP, 8/31/11)
2011 Aug, in Japan Mitsubishi Heavy was attacked with viruses apparently programmed to breach its computers and servers to gain unauthorized access to protected data. The attack was not made public until September when it was reported that no sensitive information was known to have been lost.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Sep 3, Typhoon Talas cut across western Japan leaving at least two people dead and five missing after heavy rains and fierce winds.
(AFP, 9/3/11)
2011 Sep 4, In Japan record rain and mudslides from powerful Typhoon Talas left at least 37 people dead as the storm moved slowly northward past the country's western coast. Over 50 others remained missing.
(AP, 9/4/11)(AFP, 9/5/11)
2011 Sep 10, Japan's new trade minister, Yoshio Hachiro, resigned over a remark seen as insensitive to nuclear evacuees, dealing a blow to a government that took office just eight days ago in the hopes it could better tackle the daunting tsunami recovery.
(AP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 13, Nine North Koreans who spent five days at sea in a small wooden boat were towed to a Japanese port after they were spotted off the coast of central Japan.
(AP, 9/13/11)
2011 Sep 14, Japanese researchers from Hitachi working with university scientists unveiled a headset they say can measure activity in the brain and could be used to improve performance in the classroom or on the sports field.
(AFP, 9/14/11)
2011 Sep 15, Japan's Fisheries Agency said that its fleet has harvested 49 minke, 95 sei and 50 Bryde's whales and one sperm whale during its three-month Pacific expedition.
(AP, 9/15/11)
2011 Sep 19, In Japan Kyodo news agency said websites of some Japanese government agencies were hit by cyberattacks over the weekend, temporarily blocking access to them.
(AFP, 9/19/11)
2011 Sep 21, Typhoon Roke slammed into Japan, leaving at least 13 people dead or missing in south-central regions and halting trains in Tokyo before grazing a crippled nuclear plant in the tsunami-ravaged northeast. Over 1.2 million people were evacuated from the area.
(AP, 9/21/11)(SFC, 9/22/11, p.A6)
2011 Sep 28, ANA, a Japanese airline, flew the first commercial Dreamliner into Tokyo.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.42)
2011 Oct 1, The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a multi-national agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement, was signed in Tokyo. Ratification by 6 countries was required for the convention to come into force.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement)
2011 Oct 14, Japan's Olympus Corp fired Michael Woodford (51), its CEO and president, blaming the Briton in unusually blunt terms for trying to shake up 92 years of the firm's management culture. The 30-year Olympus veteran only became president in April and CEO this month with glowing reports on his performance.
(Reuters, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 18, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda started a visit to South Korea aimed at smoothing prickly relations, bringing with him a set of historic books seized by his country decades ago.
(AFP, 10/18/11)
2011 Oct 25, Japanese officials said computers in the parliament have been found to be infected with a virus.
(SFC, 10/26/11, p.A4)
2011 Oct 27, France's nuclear monitor said that the amount of cesium 137 that leaked into the Pacific from the Fukushima disaster was the greatest single nuclear contamination of the sea ever seen.
(AFP, 10/27/11)
2011 Oct 31, Japan and Vietnam agreed to move ahead with a plan to export Japanese nuclear technology to build reactors in Vietnam despite Japan's ongoing nuclear crisis. PM Yoshihiko Noda and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung also agreed to jointly mine rare earth minerals in Vietnam.
(AP, 10/31/11)
2011 Nov 1, Japan approved a plan to send a unit of ground troops to South Sudan as part of a UN nation-building force, where they are expected to help construct infrastructure for the fledgling nation.
(AFP, 11/1/11)
2011 Nov 2, Japan restarted its first nuclear reactor since the Fukushima disaster in March, in a boost to its beleaguered atomic power industry faced with a deeply skeptical public.
(AFP, 11/2/11)
2011 Nov 4, Japan agreed to give TEPCO, the operator of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant, $11.5 billion to help it pay compensation to those affected by the worst atomic disaster in 25 years.
(AFP, 11/4/11)
2011 Nov 6, Japan's coastguard arrested the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that allegedly intruded into Japanese territorial waters.
(AFP, 11/6/11)
2011 Nov 9, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. said it is recalling about 550,000 vehicles worldwide, mostly in the United States, for problems that could make it harder to steer. Toyota has received a total of 79 reports about the defect dating back to 2007, but there have been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the problems.
(AP, 11/9/11)
2011 Nov 10, In Japan American scientist John W. Cahn received Japan's annual Kyoto Prize, winning 50 million yen, or about $650,000, for his contributions in materials science that led to the creation of stronger, lighter alloys used in cellphones and many electronic devices. Astrophysicist Rashid Sunyaev (68), a dual citizen of Russia and Germany, was awarded the basic sciences prize for his contributions in astronomy. Tamasaburo Bando V, a Japanese kabuki actor who specializes in female roles, was presented with the arts and philosophy prize.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 19, Japan’s the new Institute of Science and Technology was inaugurated as a graduate university in Okinawa.
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.91)
2011 Nov 22, The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) announced a merger with the Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE).
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.87)
2011 Nov 30, Amid fears of a eurozone collapse, central banks of the United States, the eurozone, Britain, Japan, Canada and Switzerland said that they would cut the cost of providing dollars to banks. The move pushed the DJIA up 490 points, its biggest gain since March 2009.
(AFP, 12/1/11)(SFC, 12/1/11, p.D1)
2011 Dec 6, Japan's whaling fleet left port for the country's annual hunt in Antarctica.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 6, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said it believes 150 liters (40 US gallons) of waste water including highly harmful strontium, linked with bone cancers, has spread to the open ocean. The announcement came a day after TEPCO said it found 45 tons of waste water pooled around the leaky water-treatment system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. In the weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami hit the plant, TEPCO dumped 10,000 tons of lower-level radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 12/6/11)
2011 Dec 7, Japan offered a "heartfelt apology" for the systematic mistreatment of Canadian prisoners during World War Two, helping to heal ties between the two nations.
(Reuters, 12/8/11)
2011 Dec 9, In Japan Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa and Kenji Yamaoka, the minister for consumer affairs were censured. Ichikawa was slapped down for a series of gaffes that riled the people of Okinawa, reluctant hosts to a large US military presence. Yamaoka was admonished for alleged ties with shady business groups. The main opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has threatened to boycott parliament from January if the pair stay in place.
(AFP, 12/9/11)
2011 Dec 9, Japanese workers discovered a nuclear plant leak. 1.8 ton of radioactive water leaked from the cooling system at the idled reactor at the Genkai nuclear plant in Saga prefecture in the southern Kyushu region. The leak was contained within the system.
(AFP, 12/10/11)
2011 Dec 13, Japanese news reports said Japan's government has selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter to bolster its aging air force and is likely to announce the multibillion-dollar deal by the end of the week.
(AP, 12/13/11)
2011 Dec 16, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda announced that the country's Fukushima Dai-ichi tsunami-damaged nuclear plant has achieved a stable state of "cold shutdown," a crucial step toward the eventual lifting of evacuation orders and closing of the plant.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 20, Japan chose the as-yet unproven F-35 stealth jet for its next-generation mainstay fighter.
(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, The Japanese government set a 40-year timeline for cleanup of the Dai-ichi nuclear plant at Fukushima.
(SFC, 12/22/11, p.A5)
2011 Dec 25, China and Japan announced an agreement to let Japan buy Chinese sovereign debt. No sum or timetable was disclosed.
(Econ, 12/31/11, p.59)
2011 Dec 25, Russian and Japanese rescue vessels and a helicopter searched for five people missing in a fierce storm off Russia's east coast after a Cambodia-flagged fishing ship, the Ginga, sank early in the day. 3 bodies were recovered from the icy waters of the La Perouse Strait, between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, Anti-whaling activists intercepted Japan's harpoon fleet far north of Antarctic waters, with the help of a military-style drone.
(AFP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 25, Sori Yanagi (96), the pioneer of Japan's industrial design, died. His designs for stools and kitchen pots brought the simplicity and purity of Japanese decor into the everyday.
(AP, 12/26/11)
2011 Dec 31, In Japan Makoto Hirata (46), a senior member of the doomsday cult behind the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways, surrendered to police. Akemi Saito, also a member of Aum Shinrikyo, was arrested on Jan 10, 2012, for helping him evade police for nearly 17 years. On Jan 20 Hirata was indicted for his role in the abduction and confinement of a follower's relative in 1995.
(AP, 1/10/12)(AP, 1/20/12)
2011 In Japan Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" was first published.
(AP, 7/24/18)
2011 Mark West authored “Lovesick Japan: Sex, Marriage, Romance, Law."
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.92)
2011 In Japan the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s largest, was shut down along with the rest of Japan’s nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident.
(Econ, 10/15/16, p.35)
2011 Japanese accounted for 73 percent of the 1.1 million visitors to Guam in this fiscal year.
(AP, 2/12/13)
2011 Japanese and Dutch scientists said had created a version of bird flu that could be transmitted between mammals by the respiratory route. The announcement prompted the Netherlands to treat the relevant academic papers as sensitive goods subject to export controls.
(Econ, 4/25/20, p.20)
2012 Jan 4, Anti-whaling activists claimed a small victory in their Antarctic campaign with the discovery of a Japanese harpoon ship.
(AFP, 1/4/12)
2012 Jan 5, In Japan a deep-pocketed restaurateur shelled out nearly $750,000 for a tuna at the Tsukiji fish market, smashing the record price for a single bluefin.
(AFP, 1/5/12)
2012 Jan 8, The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd said three Australian activists were being held as "prisoners" by the Japanese harpoon fleet after sneaking aboard one of their vessels overnight to protest. The activists were transferred to an Australian customs vessel on Jan 13.
(AFP, 1/8/12)(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 13, Japan's PM Yoshihiko Noda said the government has yet to decide on whether it will reduce oil imports from Iran in line with US sanctions, saying businesses implications need to be considered.
(AP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 13, Japanese energy firm Inpex and French giant Total announced a huge $34 billion gas project in Australia, as Tokyo looks for alternatives to nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
(AFP, 1/13/12)
2012 Jan 18, A book titled "My Father, Kim Jong Il and Me," by Tokyo-based journalist Yoji Gomi, went on sale. The author said it is based primarily on email exchanges he had with Kim Jong Nam over many years.
(AP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 20, In Japan Estonian sumo wrestler Baruto won his first tournament, logging an unbeatable 13th straight victory with only two bouts to go in the New Year basho.
(AFP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 23, Japanese high-tech giant Hitachi said it will stop making televisions by the end of September as intense price competition hurts TV earnings at many electronics manufacturers worldwide.
(AFP, 1/23/12)
2012 Jan 25, Japan’s Nissan said it will invest $2 billion in a new auto plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico.
(SFC, 1/26/12, p.A5)
2012 Jan 28, The foreign ministers of Japan and Russia agreed to strengthen economic and security cooperation but made no progress on resolving a long-standing territorial dispute that has kept the two nations from concluding a peace treaty.
(AP, 1/28/12)
2012 Feb 1, In northern Japan an avalanche killed three bathers at a hot spring in Akita, where heavy snow also paralyzed traffic and forced schools to close.
(AP, 2/2/12)
2012 Feb 8, Japan and the United States agreed to proceed with plans to transfer thousands of US troops out of the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, leaving behind the stalled discussion about closing a major US Marine base there.
(AP, 2/8/12)
2012 Feb 11, In Japan thousands demonstrated in Tokyo against nuclear power generation, 11 months after a massive earthquake and tsunami sparked reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
(AFP, 2/11/12)
2012 Feb 21, The Times of India said Tsutomi Omori (49), managing director of Olympus Medical Systems in India, was found hanging from iron railings within his luxury apartment complex in Delhi's satellite city of Gurgaon. Police said Omori appeared to have committed suicide late on Feb 19.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 22, Anti-whaling campaigners Sea Shepherd attacked a Japanese whaling ship in the Antarctic Ocean by firing paint bombs at it and trying to jam its propeller with ropes.
(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, Elpida, a Japanese maker of DRAM memory chips, filed the biggest bankruptcy claim of any Japanese manufacturer sine WWII.
(Econ, 3/3/12, p.84)
2012 Feb 29, In Japan construction of the Tokyo Sky Tree, the world's tallest communications tower and second-highest building, finished. It was two months late because of the earthquake and tsunami that struck last March. Broadcasting was scheduled to begin May 22.
(AFP, 2/29/12)(Econ, 4/28/12, p.45)
2012 Mar 9, Japan said its Antarctic whaling fleet has killed less than a third of the animals it planned to because of sabotage by activists, as it announced the end of the season's hunt. Whalers killed 266 minke whales and one fin whale, well below the approximately 900 they had been aiming for when they left Japan in December.
(AFP, 3/9/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan said it had won approval from Beijing to buy Chinese government bonds for the first time, in a move aimed at binding Asia's two biggest economies and traditional rivals closer together.
(AFP, 3/13/12)
2012 Mar 13, Japan, the EU and the US brought a case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) alleging that China was exporting too little of tungsten, molybdenum and 17 rare earth elements.
(Econ, 3/17/12, p.86)
2012 Mar 21, Japan's foreign ministry said it would close its embassy in Syria, citing deteriorating security conditions amid a brutal crackdown on anti-government protestors.
(AFP, 3/21/12)
2012 Mar 29, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, asked the Japanese government for a capital injection of $12 billion in a bid to avoid insolvency.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 29, South Korean activists burned pictures of Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda and scuffled with police in a protest against Tokyo's claims to disputed islands. The demonstration was sparked after Japan's education ministry this week announced the results of its review of a school history book reasserting Japan's claim to islets, known as Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese, in the Sea of Japan (East Sea).
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Apr 3, In Japan a typhoon-strength storm brought travel chaos to the country, as violent winds and rain left least 4 people dead and tens of thousands stranded.
(AFP, 4/3/12)(AP, 4/4/12)
2012 Apr 5, Japan passed a 90.3 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) budget, with about half the spending expected to be financed by new bonds that will add to its massive debt mountain.
(AFP, 4/5/12)
2012 Apr 9, Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported that Sony will cut 10,000 jobs worldwide this year as it attempts to carry out sweeping reforms aimed at reviving the iconic but loss-making Japanese electronics giant.
(AFP, 4/9/12)
2012 Apr 10, Britain and Japan pledged to expand collaboration on defense equipment as PM David Cameron looked to open Tokyo's potentially lucrative arms market.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 12, Japan’s Sony Corp. said it will slash 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global workforce, and try to turn around its money-losing TV business over the next two years.
(AP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 12, In Japan 8 people died when an apparently epileptic driver crashed his minivan into a crowd of pedestrians in the temple-spotted ancient capital of Kyoto.
(AFP, 4/12/12)
2012 Apr 13, A Japanese "black widow" was sentenced to death in a case known by the name of the female spider that eats its partner after mating. Kanae Kijima (37) was convicted of murdering three men, aged 41, 53 and 80, whom she met through Internet dating sites.
(AFP, 4/13/12)
2012 Apr 17, Japan said it would pledge $60.0 billion to the International Monetary Fund, saying it was a critical part of the organization's bid to boost a global firewall against Europe's debt crisis.
(AFP, 4/17/12)
2012 Apr 21, Japan said it will take steps to forgive about 300 billion yen ($3.7 billion) of Myanmar's debt and resume full-fledged development aid as a way to support the country's democratic and economic reforms.
(AP, 4/21/12)
2012 Apr 26, In Japan Ichiro Ozawa (69), the veteran Japanese lawmaker who engineered the ruling party's rise to power, was acquitted in a political funding scandal that has damaged his chances of becoming prime minister.
(AP, 4/26/12)
2012 Apr 29, In Japan a bus carrying dozens of vacationers to Tokyo Disneyland has crashed on a highway, killing 7 passengers.
(AP, 4/29/12)
2012 Apr 30, Pres. Obama met with visiting Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda. Both leaders re-affirmed US-Japan ties.
(SFC, 5/1/12, p.A2)
2012 May 6, A tornado ripped through eastern Japan, killing a teenager, destroying dozens of homes and cutting power to around 20,000 households. Television footage from Tsukuba showed houses swept from their foundations, overturned cars in muddy debris and fallen concrete power poles.
(AFP, 5/6/12)
2012 May 9, Japan's government approved a plan to take a controlling stake in the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, effectively nationalizing one of the world's largest utilities. Tokyo will inject one trillion yen ($12 billion) as part of a 10-year restructuring aimed at preventing the vast regional power monopoly from going bankrupt.
(AFP, 5/9/12)
2012 May 10, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala wrapped up a three-day visit to Japan, having secured up to $250 million worth of loans for infrastructure projects.
(AFP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 13, In southwestern Japan 6 people were killed when a fire swept through their hotel in Fukuyama.
(AFP, 5/13/12)
2012 May 13, Leaders of China, Japan and South Korea, during their 5th annual trilateral summit, said they will work together to calm tensions on the Korean peninsula.
(SFC, 5/14/12, p.A2)
2012 May 13, Japanese artist Mao Sugiyama (22) had his penis and testicles surgically removed in March and kept them frozen for two months before dishing them out, seasoned and braised, to customers at an event hall. Diners paid 20,000 yen ($250) for the plate with a portion of genitals. Police in Tokyo said they knew of the episode, but added that it had not broken the law as cannibalism was not illegal in Japan.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 May 16, In French Guiana an Ariane 5 rocket successfully launched two Asian telecoms satellites into orbit from the Kourou space center. It placed into orbit two geostationary satellites, the JCSAT-13 for the Japanese SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, and the VINASAT-2 of the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group.
(AFP, 5/16/12)
2012 May 17, Japan and Australia signed an agreement in Tokyo that will allow them to share intelligence as the Asia-Pacific region adapts to the rising power of China.
(AFP, 5/17/12)
2012 May 18, A pair of Japanese whaling vessels left for the northwestern Pacific aiming to catch 260 whales for "scientific research."
(AFP, 5/18/12)
2012 May 22, In Japan a new 634-meter (2,080-foot) tower with special technology meant to withstand earthquakes, opened to the public. The Tokyo Skytree became the world's second-tallest structure behind the 828-meter (2,717-foot) Burj Khalifa in Dubai, according to owner Tobu Tower Skytree Co.
(AP, 4/17/12)(AP, 5/22/12)
2012 May 24, In Japan Nicola Furlong (21), an Irish fan of Rapper Nicki Minaj, was found dead in a Tokyo hotel after attending a concert. Police arrested two American men, dancer James Blackston (23) and a musician, 19, as part of an investigation into her death. On June 14 police arrested a 19-year-old American musician on suspicion of murdering Furlong.
(AFP, 6/1/12)(AFP, 6/14/12)
2012 May 25, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of 9 South Koreans who demanded Japanese firms Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Nippon Steel pay them for forced labor from 1941-1945.
(SFC, 5/26/12, p.A2)
2012 May 26, Japan pledged aid worth up to half a billion dollars to Pacific island nations at a summit stressing the importance of maritime law in a region warily eyeing China's growing might at sea. At the close of a two-day meeting on Okinawa, leaders from 16 nations and one territory produced a joint declaration emphasizing the need for international rules to be obeyed on the oceans.
(AFP, 5/26/12)
2012 May 29, Japanese police uncovered the frozen corpse of a woman and arrested Masaichi Yamada, her 80-year-old husband, on suspicion of strangling her and keeping her body in the freezer for up to 10 years.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 29, Japanese film director Kaneto Shindo (100), known for hard-hitting works dealing with human nature and the effects of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, died at his home in Tokyo. Shindo directed nearly 50 films, with his final work, "A Postcard" winning the special jury prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2011.
(AFP, 5/30/12)
2012 May 30, Japan ordered the Syrian ambassador in Tokyo to leave the country because of concerns about violence against civilians.
(AP, 5/30/12)
2012 Jun 1, China and Japan started direct currency trading as Beijing marked another stage on its journey to foster the yuan's use internationally in line with its growing economic clout.
(AFP, 6/1/12)
2012 Jun 3, Japanese police arrested Naoko Kikuchi (40), a former member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that released the nerve gas sarin in Tokyo's subways in 1995, killing 13 people and injuring more than 6,000.
(AP, 6/4/12)
2012 Jun 6, Authorities in Oregon confirmed that a 66-foot-long pier, that floated onto a beach near Newport, came from Japan following the tsunami in March 2011.
(SFC, 6/7/12, p.A9)
2012 Jun 7, Japan’s coastguard plucked British adventurer Sarah Outen to safety after she got into trouble in the northern Pacific during her attempt to row solo across the ocean. A patrol boat was also heading towards fellow Briton Charlie Martell, who was separately attempting to row solo across the Pacific when he was also caught in bad weather.
(AFP, 6/8/12)
2012 Jun 15, In Japan Katsuya Takahashi (54), the last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult's deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways in 1995, was caught at a comic book cafe, closing a chapter on Japan's worst terrorist attack.
(AP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 16, Japan started work to put nuclear reactors back online, despite public distrust of the technology after last year's meltdowns at Fukushima.
(AFP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 7, In Japan Govinda Prasad Mainali (45) was released from jail after DNA tests confirmed he could not have committed the killing of a 39-year-old Japanese woman in 1997. The Nepalese migrant worker had served 15 years in a Japanese jail. Mainali was acquitted in April 2000 but remained in prison pending an appeal by prosecutors, who maintained he had robbed and murdered the victim because he was short of cash.
(AFP, 6/16/12)
2012 Jun 15, PM Noda’s Democratic Party of Japan (DJP) agreed with the main opposition parties to raise the sales tax from 5% to 8% in April, 2014, and to 10% in October, 2015.
(Econ, 6/23/12, p.43)
2012 Jun 15, In Japan Katsuya Takahashi (54), the last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult's deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo's subways in 1995, was caught at a comic book cafe, closing a chapter on Japan's worst terrorist attack.
(AP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 19, Typhoon Guchol cut across Japan's main island of Honshu, as flights were cancelled and evacuations ordered.
(AFP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 27, TEPCO, the operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, said record amounts of radiation had been detected in the basement of reactor number 1, further hampering clean-up operations.
(AFP, 6/27/12)
2012 Jun 29, In Japan tens of thousands of people rallied outside PM Noda’s residence in Tokyo in one of the largest demonstrations held against the restart of nuclear reactors.
(AFP, 6/29/12)
2012 Jul 1, Japanese engineers began refiring an atomic reactor, despite growing public protests in the aftermath of meltdowns at Fukushima, ending nearly two months in which the country was nuclear-free.
(AFP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jul 1, In Japan the governor of Okinawa rejected a US plan to deploy Osprey military aircraft on the sub-tropic island chain amid safety concerns.
(AFP, 7/1/12)
2012 Jul 2, In Japan Ichiro Ozawa (70) and 49 other lawmakers quit the ruling party and said they will likely form their own rival bloc, dealing a blow to PM Yoshihiko Noda. Ozawa has been a vocal critic of Noda's plan to double Japan's sales tax to 10 percent by 2015.
(AP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 5, Japan resumed nuclear operations at its No. 3 reactor in Ohi.
(SFC, 7/6/12, p.A5)
2012 Jul 6, Japan, Norway and their allies blocked a bid to give the UN a greater role in protecting whales, as sought by conservationists frustrated by deep polarization over whaling as the International Whaling Commission closed its latest annual meeting in Panama marred by intense divisions.
(AFP, 7/6/12)
2012 Jul 8, Donor nations meeting in Tokyo pledged $16 billion for Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into turmoil when foreign combat troops depart, but called on Kabul to implement reforms to fight graft. The conference hosted representatives from about 80 nations and international organizations in a gathering aimed at adopting the "Tokyo Declaration," pledging support and cash.
(AFP, 7/8/12)
2012 Jul 12, In southern Japan heavy rain triggered flash floods and mudslides, causing at least 20 deaths. At least 6 people remained missing.
(AP, 7/12/12)(AFP, 7/13/12)
2012 Jul 14, In southwest Japan about 400,000 people were ordered or advised to leave their homes in as heavy rain pounded the area for a third day at least 26 people dead.
(AFP, 7/14/12)(AP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 16, In Japan tens of thousands of people rallied in Tokyo demanding an end to nuclear power, the latest in a series of anti-atomic gatherings following the tsunami-sparked disaster at Fukushima last year.
(AFP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 16, Heavy rain again lashed southwest Japan, triggering fears of more landslides and hampering the clean-up operation after a record deluge that left at least 32 people dead or missing.
(AFP, 7/16/12)
2012 Jul 21, A Japanese H-IIB rocket blasted off from the southern island of Tanegashima to deliver an unmanned supplies vessel to the International Space Station.
(AFP, 7/21/12)
2012 Jul 24, Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp said it will invest more than $100 million to expand Lexus production in Canada.
(Reuters, 7/24/12)
2012 Jul 29, In Japan thousands of people formed "a human chain" around the parliament complex to demand the government abandon nuclear power.
(AP, 7/29/12)
2012 Jul 31, The Japanese operator of the nuclear power plant devastated in last year's disasters received a 1 trillion yen ($12.8 billion) bailout, putting it under government ownership, while international experts visited another plant that survived the tsunami's impact.
(AP, 7/31/12)
2012 Aug 3, In Japan thousands of people staged a rally in front of the prime minister's office, maintaining anti-nuclear sentiment triggered by last year's atomic crisis at Fukushima.
(AFP, 8/3/12)
2012 Aug 10, South Korea’s Pres. Lee Myung-bak visited islets, locally called Dokdo, also claimed by Japan, where they are called Takeshima.
(SFC, 8/11/12, p.A3)
2012 Aug 15, Japan made 14 arrests after pro-China activists from Hong Kong landed on Senkaku (aka Diaoyu) island at the center of a bitter territorial dispute. On Aug 17 half of the group were put aboard a commercial airliner in the Okinawan main city of Naha and arrived in Hong Kong. The other half were taken back to their boat in Ishigaki.
(AFP, 8/15/12)(AFP, 8/17/12)
2012 Aug 15, China and South Korea pressed Japan to face up to its wartime past, as festering territorial disputes flared and Asia marked the anniversary of Tokyo's World War II surrender.
(AFP, 8/15/12)
2012 Aug 18, A flotilla of boats carrying Japanese nationalists and lawmakers set sail for islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and as Diaoyu in China, at the heart of a vitriolic diplomatic row with China, despite warnings from Beijing. China demanded that Japan cease actions "harming" its territorial sovereignty.
(AFP, 8/18/12)
2012 Aug 19, Japanese nationalists raised flags on an island at the heart of a corrosive territorial row, sparking street protests in China and an angry reaction from Beijing.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 19, Japanese officials said 7 people, most of them elderly women, died after eating pickles contaminated with E. coli in Sapporo. This was the country's deadliest mass food poisoning in 10 years.
(AFP, 8/19/12)
2012 Aug 20, In Syria Mika Yamamoto (45), a veteran Japanese war reporter, died after she was shot in the neck when coming under fire from up to 15 apparently pro-government troops in Aleppo.
(AFP, 8/21/12)
2012 Aug 26, In Japan Typhoon Bolaven, one of the most powerful typhoons in decades, hit Okinawa, with meteorologists warning it could bring record rain and wind to the southern region and waves of up to 13 meters (43 feet).
(AFP, 8/26/12)
2012 Aug 28, The government-linked Japan Bank for International Cooperation said it would purchase a 26% stake in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corp. (DMIC).
(AFP, 8/28/12)
2012 Aug 29, Japan and North Korea held their first face-to-face talks in four years, in an attempt to lay the groundwork to overcome decades of mutual distrust.
(AFP, 8/29/12)
2012 Sep 5, Japanese media reports said Japan’s government has agreed to buy three of the five privately owned islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, from the Kurihara family for 2.05 billion yen ($26 million). China responded by calling the reported purchase "illegal and invalid."
(AP, 9/5/12)
2012 Sep 9, In Japan tens of thousands of people rallied against US plans to deploy 12 MV-22 Osprey aircraft on Okinawa.
(SFC, 9/10/12, p.A2)
2012 Sep 10, Japan Airlines (JAL) emerged from bankruptcy (2010) in an initial public offering (IPO) at $8.5 billion.
(Economist, 9/15/12, p.64)
2012 Sep 11, Japan's Cabinet formally announced that the government will purchase several disputed islands from a private Japanese family. China sent two patrol ships to the waters near the disputed islands in a show of its “undisputable sovereignty."
(AP, 9/11/12)(SFC, 9/12/12, p.A6)
2012 Sep 12, In Japan Toru Hashimoto (43), the right-wing populist mayor of Osaka, formally launched his national party, Nihon Ishin no Kai (the Japan Restoration Party, or JRP).
(Economist, 9/15/12, p.14)
2012 Sep 14, A Japanese Cabinet panel called for phasing out of nuclear power over the next three decades in a major shift for Japan as it overhauls energy policy following the Fukushima meltdowns.
(AP, 9/14/12)
2012 Sep 15, In China protests against Japan over its control of disputed islands spread across more than two dozen cities and turned violent at times, with protesters burning Japanese flags and clashing with Chinese paramilitary police at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing before order was restored.
(AP, 9/15/12)
2012 Sep 19, Japan’s government stopped short of formally adopting a goal to phase out nuclear power by 2040, a goal that had been announced a week earlier. The government opened its new Nuclear Regulation Authority, which pledged never to allow another disaster like the Fukushima triple meltdown.
(SFC, 9/20/12, p.A5)(SSFC, 9/23/12, p.A4)
2012 Oct 8, Scientists from Britain and Japan shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine. John Gurdon (79) of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, Britain, and Shinya Yamanaka (50) of Kyoto University in Japan, discovered ways to create tissue that would act like embryonic cells, without the need to harvest embryos. Dr. Yamanaka called his cells “induced pluripotent stem cells".
(AP, 10/8/12)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.19)
2012 Oct 10, Toyota recalled 7.43 million cars, trucks and SUVs worldwide to fix faulty power window switches that can cause fires. This was the largest recall in Toyota's 75-year history.
(AP, 10/10/12)
2012 Oct 13, In Japan global financial ministers ended their annual IMF meeting with a call for quick and effective action to safeguard faltering economic growth.
(SSFC, 10/14/12, p.A7)
2012 Oct 15, Japanese mobile company Softbank offered a $20 billion deal for a 70 percent stake in US mobile carrier Sprint.
(AP, 10/15/12)
2012 Oct 16, In Japan two US sailors were arrested for the alleged rape of a Japanese woman on Okinawa.
(SFC, 10/18/12, p.A2)
2012 Oct 30, Hitachi won a bid to take over a company building up to six nuclear power plants in Britain, reviving hopes for investment in the UK's ageing energy infrastructure but leaving doubts they will come online in time.
(AP, 10/30/12)
2012 Nov 4, In Japan thousands of people rallied in Tokyo against American deployment of Osprey military aircraft on Okinawa.
(SFC, 11/5/12, p.A2)
2012 Nov 10, Japan’s Inamori Foundation awarded its Kyoto Prizes. The advanced technology prize went to US computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who developed the graphic interface program Sketchpad in 1963. Gayatri Chakrovoty Spivak, an Indian literary critic and professor at Columbia University, won the arts and philosophy prize. Yoshinori Ohsumi, a molecular biologist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, received the basic sciences prize for his work on autophagy, a cell-recycling system that could be used to help treat neurodegenerative and age-related diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer.
(AP, 11/10/12)
2012 Nov 16, Japanese PM Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of parliament, paving the way for elections in which his ruling party will likely give way to a weak coalition government divided over how to solve the nation's myriad problems.
(AP, 11/16/12)
2012 Nov 17, In Japan nationalist Shintaro Ishihara said he is joining the Japan Restoration party formed in September by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto seeking to become a 3rd force in the country’s politics.
(SSFC, 11/18/12, p.A6)
2012 Nov 21, Arysta, the Japanese maker of the pesticide methyl iodide, agreed to remove all of its products from the US market and end sales permanently. Exposure to the fumigant was shown to have caused thyroid cancer, miscarriages and nervous system damage on rats and rabbits.
(SFC, 11/22/12, p.A15)
2012 Nov 30, Japan’s space agency said that information on one of its newest rockets was stolen from a desktop computer by someone using a computer virus at the Tsukuba Space Center.
(SFC, 12/1/12, p.A2)
2012 Dec 2, In Japan 9 people were killed after about 150 concrete panels fell from a 130-meter stretch of roof of the Sasago Tunnel 80 km (50 miles) outside Tokyo.
(AP, 12/2/12)(SFC, 12/3/12, p.A2)(Econ, 1/12/12, p.64)
2012 Dec 7, A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Japan’s Miyagi prefecture. This was the same Japanese coast devastated by last year's massive quake and tsunami. There were no reports of deaths or serious damage.
(Reuters, 12/7/12)
2012 Dec 12, Japan’s Honda Motor Co said it will recall 871,000 vehicles that could roll away after the ignition key has been removed, including 807,000 in the United States.
(Reuters, 12/12/12)
2012 Dec 14, China provided the United Nations with detailed claims to waters in the East China Sea, apparently padding out its legal argument in an ongoing territorial dispute with Japan.
(AP, 12/14/12)
2012 Dec 16, In Japan exit polls showed that the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) returned to power in a landslide election victory after three years in opposition. Hawkish former PM Shinzo Abe will get a second chance to lead the nation after a one-year stint in 2006-2007. The LDP with its new Komeito ally won control of 325 of 480 seats in the lower house of the Diet.
(AP, 12/16/12)(Econ, 12/22/12, p.12)
2012 Dec 26, Shinzo Abe, head of the pro-business Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), took office as Japan's 7th prime minister in six years and vowed to overcome the deep-rooted economic and diplomatic crises facing his country. Abe unveiled a 19-member cabinet of radical nationalists.
(AP, 12/26/12)(Econ, 1/5/12, p.29)
2012 Michael Woodford authored “Exposure: Inside the Olympus Scandal: How I Went from CEO to Whistleblower."
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.88)
2013 Jan 8, The Japanese government summoned China's ambassador to protest four Chinese maritime surveillance ships that spent about 13 hours in waters near disputed islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 1/8/13)
2013 Jan 9, British health officials said a new strain of the winter vomiting disease norovirus has spread to France, New Zealand and Japan from Australia and is overtaking all others to become the dominant local strain.
(Reuters, 1/9/13)
2013 Jan 15, Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima (b.1932) died at a hospital near Tokyo. His films included “A Town of Love and Hope" (1959), “Cruel Story of Youth" (1960), “Violence At Noon" (1966), “Death by Hanging" (1968), “Three Resurrected Drunkards" (1968), “In the Realm of the Senses" (1976), “Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983) and “Taboo" (1999).
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.D7)
2013 Jan 16, Japan's two leading airlines grounded their fleets of Boeing 787s after one of the Dreamliner passenger jets made an emergency landing.
(AP, 1/16/13)
2013 Jan 17, In Thailand Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra agreed to work together to solve bilateral and regional problems.
(SFC, 1/17/13, p.A8)
2013 Jan 25, A senior japanese envoy handed China's leader, Xi Jinping, a cordial letter from PM Shinzo Abe in the highest-level contact between the sides since tensions spiked in September over an island dispute, though the meeting yielded little beyond commitments to hold further contact.
(AP, 1/25/13)
2013 Jan 31, Australia’s government received confirmation that the Shonan Maru No. 2, a support vessel for the Japanese whaling fleet, had entered Australia's exclusive economic zone near Macquarie Island in the Antarctic Ocean. The Australian embassy in Tokyo protested to the Japanese government.
(AP, 2/1/13)
2013 Jan, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced a ¥10.3 trillion fiscal stimulus.
(Econ, 5/18/13, p.24)
2013 Feb 6, US wildlife conservation group Int’l. Fund for Animal Welfare said Japan has been propping up its whaling industry with nearly $400 million in tax money in recent years.
(SFC, 2/7/13, p.A2)
2013 Feb 20, An anti-whaling activist group accused a Japanese whaling vessel of intentionally ramming two of its ships in waters near Antarctica. Japan's Fisheries Agency, however, insisted the protesters were responsible for the collisions.
(AP, 2/20/13)
2013 Feb 21, Japan’s government unexpectedly announced that it had hanged 3 men for murder.
(Econ, 2/23/13, p.40)
2013 Mar 1, In Japan US Seaman Christopher Browning (24), of Athens, Texas, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Skyler Dozierwalker (23), of Muskogee, Oklahoma, were found guilty by the Naha District Court of raping and robbing a woman in her 20s in a parking lot in October. Both admitted committing the crime. Browning was sentenced to 10 years and Dozierwalker received nine years.
(AP, 3/1/13)
2013 Mar 3, In northern Japan heavy snow over the weekend killed eight people on Hokkaido island, including a family whose car became buried.
(AP, 3/4/13)
2013 Mar 9, In Japan thousands of people rallied in a Tokyo park, demanding an end to atomic power and vowing never to give up the fight, despite two years of little change after the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(AP, 3/9/13)
2013 Mar 17, Japanese architect Toyo Ito (71) won the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
(SFC, 3/18/13, p.A4)
2013 Mar 27, In Japan Takafumi Horie, the former chief executive of Internet portal Livedoor, was released from prison. He was jailed in 2011 for fraud. While in prison he gathered almost one million Twitter followers.
(Econ, 4/6/13, p.74)
2013 Apr 6, Tokyo Electric Power said almost 32,000 gallons of radioactive water has leaked from a large underground storage pool at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Tepco said emptying the pool could take 5 days and another 12,000 gallons could leak.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.A9)
2013 Apr 11, Four Japanese automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp, and Nissan Motor Co., announced a recall of 3.4 million vehicles sold around the world because airbags supplied by Takata Corp are at risk of catching fire or injuring passengers.
(AP, 4/11/13)
2013 Apr 23, Chinese marine surveillance vessels drove away Japanese nationalists who had entered the waters of the Diaoyu Islands.
(SSFC, 4/28/13, p.A4)
2013 Apr 28, Japan's All Nippon Airways successfully conducted its first test flight of the Boeing 787 aircraft since battery problems grounded the planes earlier this year.
(AP, 4/28/13)
2013 May 15, The Arctic Council, meeting in Sweden, agreed to expand membership and provide observer status to 6 new nations including China, India, Italy, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.
(SFC, 5/16/13, p.A4)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Council)
2013 May 16, In Cambodia the ceiling of a factory, a Taiwanese-owned operation called Wing Star, collapsed on workers, killing 2 people and injuring 7. The firm made sneakers for Asics, a Japanese sportswear label.
(AP, 5/16/13)
2013 May 23, In Japan a radiation leak took place at the Hadron Experimental Facility in Tokaimura.
(SSFC, 5/26/13, p.A6)
2013 May 26, Myanmar’s Pres. Thein Sein welcomed Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe to Naypyidaw. Abe became the first Japanese PM to visit Myanmar since 1977. He cancelled $1.8 billion of debt and promised another $500 million in aid loans.
(Econ, 6/1/13, p.44)
2013 Jun 1, In Japan officials from 50 African nations gathered for a 3-day talk about trade, growth and other issues. 3.2 trillion yen ($32 billion) in government and private-sector aid was announced.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 2, Japan announced a plan to provide 100 billion yen ($1 billion) in aid over the next five years to northern Africa for economic development and humanitarian efforts, and help with security and counter-terrorism. This was part of the $32 billion package announced a day earlier.
(AP, 6/2/13)
2013 Jun 5, In Japan PM Shinzo Abe announced the “third arrow" (fiscal stimulus) of Abenomics, his plan to pull the country out of its long slump.
(Econ, 6/15/13, p.37)
2013 Jun 12, Jiroeman Kimura (b.1897), the oldest man in the world and the oldest man ever, died in Japan at age 116.
(SFC, 6/13/13, p.A2)
2013 Jun 19, Japan’s nuclear watchdog formally approved a set of new safety requirements for the country’s nuclear plants.
(SFC, 6/20/13, p.A3)
2013 Jul 10, A South Korean court ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. of Japan to pay $89,800 to each of four South Korean plaintiffs for forced labor during the colonial from 1910 to 1945.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 15, Nissan launched a new Datsun in India, three decades after shelving the brand that helped win Western acceptance of Japanese autos. The reimagined Datsun, a five-seat hatchback, will go on sale in India next year for under 400,000 rupees (about $6,670).
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition won a majority in the upper house of parliament, giving it control of both chambers and a mandate to press ahead with difficult economic reforms.
(AP, 7/21/13)
2013 Jul 22, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power said its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is probably leaking contaminated water into the sea.
(SFC, 7/23/13, p.A2)
2013 Jul 26, Japan's hawkish new government released a defense paper calling for an increase in the country's military capabilities and a more assertive role in regional security due to increased threats from China and North Korea.
(AP, 7/26/13)
2013 Jul 27, In Manila Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe met with Pres. Benigno Aquino III and pledged support for Philippine maritime forces as both countries confronted China in separate territorial disputes.
(SSFC, 7/28/13, p.A6)
2013 Jul 30, In China Japan's top career diplomat met China's foreign minister in the latest bid to ease strains between Asia's two biggest economies over a bitter territorial row. A Chinese official newspaper said Beijing had ruled out a leaders' summit.
(Reuters, 7/30/13)
2013 Jul 30, A South Korean court ruled that Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries should pay compensation of $71,800 to each of five South Koreans for forced labor during the colonial period that ended with WWII.
(SFC, 7/31/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 5, Japan's nuclear watchdog said highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an "emergency" that the operator is struggling to contain.
(Reuters, 8/5/13)
2013 Aug 5, In Japan a US military helicopter crashed on the southern island of Okinawa. Three of the four crew members involved in the crash were in stable condition. One crew member was not accounted for.
(Reuters, 8/5/13)
2013 Aug 6, Japan unveiled its biggest warship since WWII. The Izumo is officially a destroyer. It was designed to carry 14 helicopters and entered service in 2015.
(Econ, 8/10/13, p.35)(Econ, 12/10/16, p.36)
2013 Aug 7, Japanese officials said highly radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant was pouring out at a rate of 300 tons a day. PM Shinzo Abe ordered the government to step in and help in the clean-up.
(Reuters, 8/7/13)
2013 Aug 20, TEPCO, the operator of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant, said that about 300 tons (300,000 liters, 80,000 gallons) of highly radioactive water have leaked from one of the hundreds of storage tanks there — its worst leak yet from such a vessel.
(AP, 8/20/13)
2013 Sep 3, Japan’s government announced that it will spend $470 mikllion on a subterranean ice wall and other steps to stop leaks of radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. One of the country’s two remaining working nuclear reactors was taken offline, with the other to be shut down later this month and no restarts in sight amid public hostility to nuclear power.
(SFC, 9/4/13, p.A4)(AFP, 9/3/13)
2013 Sep 6, South Korea extended a ban on Japanese fishery imports to a larger area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant due to growing concerns over radiation contamination.
(Reuters, 9/6/13)
2013 Sep 7, The International Olympic Committee selected Tokyo for the 2020 Games.
(AP, 9/7/13)
2013 Sep 9, In central Turkey Japanese tourist Mai Kurkiharac (22) was stabbed to death and her friend seriously wounded in an attack in Cappadocia.
(Reuters, 9/10/13)
2013 Sep 19, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe ordered the scrapping of two Fukushima nuclear reactors that survived the 2011 tsunami. The write-off threatened to complicate a turnaround plan the operator has presented to creditors.
(Reuters, 9/19/13)
2013 Sep 24, America’s Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron of Japan said they were creating a new semiconductor company worth $29 billion.
(Econ, 9/28/13, p.62)
2013 Sep 27, Japan's coastguard searched for six crew of the Eifukumaru No.18 cargo ship that capsized after colliding with a Sierra Leone-registered vessel.
(AFP, 9/27/13)
2013 Oct 1, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe declared that he would raise the consumption tax in Arpil from 5% to 8%.
(Econ, 10/5/13, p.43)
2013 Oct 3, The United States and Japan agreed to modernize their defense alliance for the first time in 16 years to address growing concerns about North Korea's nuclear program, global terrorism, cyber intrusions and other 21st century threats.
(Reuters, 10/3/13)
2013 Oct 11, In Japan a fire ripped through a hospital as patients slept killing 10 elderly people. This prompted government demands for safety reviews across the country.
(AFP, 10/11/13)
2013 Oct 16, In Japan Typhoon Wipha caused deadly mudslides that buried people and destroyed homes on Izu Oshima island leaving at least 24 people dead. A woman from Tokyo died after falling into a river and being washed 10 km downriver to Yokohama.
(AP, 10/16/13)(AP, 10/17/13)(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 25, Japanese media said Mizuho Bank will punish more than 30 executives over revelations that the lender made loans to underworld figures in the latest chapter of a headline-grabbing scandal.
(AFP, 10/25/13)
2013 Oct 27, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe warned China against forcibly changing the regional balance of power, as reports said Tokyo had scrambled fighter jets in response to Chinese military aircraft flying near Okinawa.
(AFP, 10/27/13)
2013 Oct 30, Japan’s financial watchdog said it would inspect the Mizuho Bank and two other big banks for to hunt for loans to yakuza (gangsters).
(Econ, 11/2/13, p.79)
2013 Nov 2, Meeting in Tokyo Japan and Russia held their first joint defense and foreign ministers' meeting and agreed to boost security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific as they both warily watch neighboring China's rising influence. Japan and Russia have never signed a treaty to mark the end of World War II because of a territorial dispute.
(Reuters, 11/2/13)
2013 Nov 6, Japan's hotels, restaurants and food shops were being warned over dishonest labelling amid a growing scandal that is threatening to undermine the country's reputation for safe, high-quality produce.
(AFP, 11/6/13)
2013 Nov 11, Japan switched on the first turbine at a wind farm 12 miles off the coast of Fukushima, the site of the March, 2011, earthquake and tsunami.
(SFC, 11/12/13, p.A2)
2013 Nov 13, Japan's finance minister pledged to crack down on lenders that fail to sever links with organized crime as lawmakers grilled him over mob loans by banks and other financial institutions.
(AP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 13, Fugitive eco-activist Paul Watson (62) said in France that green warriors were being classed as "terrorists" and accused Japan of coercing other countries into making demands for his arrest. The Canadian-born founder of Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation organisation, arrived in California on October 28, more than a year after fleeing arrest in Germany. Watson said he was in talks to seek refuge in France, the only country apart from the United States where he said he expects a fair trial.
(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Nov 15, Japan said it was dramatically scaling back its greenhouse gas reduction target after the Fukushima nuclear accident forced the country to turn to fossil-fuel burning energy sources, a move denounced by climate campaigners.
(AFP, 11/15/13)
2013 Nov 21, In Japan thousands of people protested in Tokyo against a proposed secrets act that critics say would stifle information on issues such as the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
(Reuters, 11/21/13)
2013 Nov 23, China declared an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) bolstering its claim to islands that Japan says it owns. The zone also included a reef know as Ieodo, claimed by China and South Korea. China warned that it would take "defensive emergency measures" against aircraft that failed to identify themselves properly in airspace over them.
(Reuters, 11/23/13)(Econ, 11/30/13, p.12)(Econ, 12/7/13, p.42)
2013 Nov 24, Japan warned of the danger of "unpredictable events" and South Korea voiced regret following China's unilateral declaration of an air defence zone over areas claimed by Tokyo and Seoul.
(AFP, 11/24/13)
2013 Nov 27, Japan’s Upper House passed into law a Japanese version of the US National Security Council.
(SSFC, 12/1/13, p.A6)
2013 Nov 28, South Korean and Japanese flights through China's new maritime air defense zone added to the international defiance of rules Beijing says it has imposed in East China Sea but that neighbors and the US have vowed to ignore.
(AP, 11/28/13)
2013 Nov 29, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe named the country's first ever female aide to the prime minister, just weeks after Caroline Kennedy arrived as the first woman US ambassador to Tokyo.
(AFP, 11/29/13)
2013 Dec 3, The US voiced solidarity with Japan against China's claim to airspace over disputed islands, vowing not to tolerate the aggressive move as VP Joe Biden prepared to deliver that message personally to Beijing.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 6, Japan enacted a state-secrets law toughening penalties for leaks, despite public protests and criticism that it will muzzle the media and help cover up official misdeeds.
(Reuters, 12/6/13)
2013 Dec 7, Two Japanese whaling ships and a surveillance vessel left for the annual hunt in the Antarctic Sea. The three ships departed from the western port of Shimonoseki to join other ships to hunt up to 935 Antarctic minke whales and up to 50 fin whales through March.
(AFP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 14, Japan and Southeast Asian countries (ASEAN) called for freedom of the air and sea, as China's military assertiveness raises regional tensions.
(AP, 12/14/13)
2013 Dec 17, Japan approved a plan to increase defense spending by 5% over the next five years to purchase its first surveillance drones, more jet fighters and naval destroyers in the face of China's military expansion.
(AP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 19, The Tokyo governor who helped his city secure the 2020 Olympics resigned after revelations that he received 50 million yen ($480,200) from a hospital company.
(AP, 12/19/13)
2013 Dec 22, Australia announced an aerial Customs and Border Protection mission to the Southern Ocean as a showdown looms between Japan's whaling fleet and Sea Shepherd activists, saying it would send a message to both sides that the world was watching.
(AFP, 12/22/13)
2013 Dec 26, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe paid his respects at the Yasukuni shrine honoring Japan's war dead in an unexpected visit that drew sharp rebukes from China and South Korea.
(AP, 12/26/13)
2013 Dec 27, In Japan the governor of Okinawa gave the go-ahead for land reclamation to begin for a new US military base, advancing the effort to consolidate the massive US troop presence on the southern Japanese island but also making protests from residents likely.
(AP, 12/27/13)
2013 In Japan “Yo-kai," a word meaning supernatural spirits, began as a cartoon series. It was later adopted for TV and made into a hit video game after which toy maker Banda Namco won merchandise rights.
(Econ, 2/25/17, p.56)
2013 Japan passed an anti-bullying law that required schools to report cases of bullying. This led to a sharp rise in the number of known cases. 224,450 were reported in 2015.
(Econ, 4/15/17, p.35)
2014 Jan 13, Japan said it has signed an agreement with Palau to allow Japanese companies to earn carbon credits by helping the small Pacific island cut greenhouse gas emissions.
(Reuters, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 14, Japanese engineering giant JGC Corp. said it has won a contract to help build a Canadian liquefied natural gas plant in a deal reportedly worth $9.4 billion.
(AFP, 1/14/14)
2014 Jan 21, Fishermen in Japan began slaughtering dozens of bottlenose dolphins in Taiji, ignoring protesters’ calls to spare the animals and a rare public show of concern by the US government.
(CSM, 1/21/14)
2014 Jan 22, The New York Yankees signed Japanese pitching ace Masahiro Tanaka to a $155 million contract.
(SSFC, 1/26/14, p.A4)
2014 Jan 23, Japanese fishermen in Taiji killed more than two dozen striped dolphins, as global outrage over the slaughter grew.
(AFP, 1/23/14)
2014 Jan 28, The Vatican library and four Japanese historical institutes agreed to inventory, catalogue and digitize 10,000 documents from a lost Japanese archive detailing the persecution of Christians in Japan in the 17th-19th centuries.
(AP, 1/28/14)
2014 Jan 30, In Japan about 1,400 people filed a joint lawsuit against three companies that manufactured reactors at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, saying they should be financially liable for damage caused by their 2011 meltdowns.
(AP, 1/30/14)
2014 Jan 30, Nature published two papers by a team led by Haruko Obokata of the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Japan. The team claimed to have found a simple way to reprogram ordinary mouse cells, persuading them to transform themselves into pluripotent cells.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.79)
2014 Jan, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe visited the Ivory Coast, Mozambique and Ethiopia to counter China’s success in building diplomatic support and winning access to raw materials.
(Econ, 1/25/14, p.34)
2014 Feb 5, Japanese composer Mamoru Samurogochi (50) confessed that he had employed a ghostwriter since the 1990s to compose most of his music. The ghostwriter then came forward and accused Samurogochi of faking his deafness.
(SFC, 2/7/14, p.A7)
2014 Feb 16, Japanese media said the second heavy snowfall in a week has killed up to a dozen people and injured hundreds over the weekend, while paralyzing traffic and causing power outages. A record 45 inches of snow fell on Yamanashi.
(AP, 2/16/14)(SFC, 2/17/14, p.A2)
2014 Feb 25, Japan’s government published a draft energy plan which put nuclear power at the core.
(Econ, 3/8/14, p.43)
2014 Feb 25, The website of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was returning a blank page today. The disappearance of the site follows the Feb 23 resignation of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group seeking legitimacy for the currency, and a withdrawal ban imposed at the exchange earlier this month.
(AP, 2/25/14)
2014 Feb 28, Japan-based Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange in Tokyo filed for bankruptcy protection and chief executive Mark Karpeles said 850,000 bitcoins, worth several hundred million dollars, are unaccounted for. On March 11 Mt Gox filed for bankruptcy in the US.
(AP, 2/28/14)(Econ, 3/15/14, p.71)
2014 Mar 1, Hundreds rallied in Tokyo to protest Japanese prosecutors' decision to drop charges over the Fukushima nuclear crisis, with no one yet punished nearly three years after the "man-made" disaster.
(AFP, 3/1/14)
2014 Mar 1, Japan pledged more than $200 million in aid to help the Palestinian Authority, as representatives in Indonesia from 22 nations reiterated their support of the Palestinians' quest for their own state.
(AP, 3/1/14)
2014 Mar 7, Mark Karpeles, head of the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange, said 200,000 missing bitcoins, valued at $116 million, were found in old format wallets. Some $378 million of bitcoin currency remained missing.
(SFC, 3/22/14, p.C1)
2014 Mar 9, In Japan thousands of people rallied in Tokyo and marched to parliament to demand an end to nuclear power.
(SFC, 3/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 9, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata (50) assumed command of the Int’l. Space Station (ISS).
(SSFC, 3/16/14, p.A4)
2014 Mar 17, Toyota said it has shut down production at its two auto-assembly plants in India, locking out 6,400 workers amid testy wage negotiations and allegations of threats against management.
(AP, 3/17/14)
2014 Mar 19, The US government announced a $1.2 billion settlement with Toyota Motor Corp. and filed a criminal charge alleging the company defrauded consumers by issuing misleading statements about safety issues in Toyota and Lexus vehicles. From 2010 through 2012, Toyota Motor Corp. paid fines totaling more than $66 million for delays in reporting unintended acceleration problems.
(AP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 19, The European Union said it has fined two EU and four Japanese companies a total of nearly 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for rigging the market of key components in the car and truck industry at the expense of consumers.
(AP, 3/19/14)
2014 Mar 20, Japan’s NTT Data Corp. agreed to digitize some 3,000 historical Vatican manuscripts and make them available online.
(SFC, 3/21/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 24, Japanese and US leaders said Japan will turn over hundreds of kilograms of sensitive atomic material of potential use in bombs to the United States to be downgraded and disposed. This was shortly before leaders from 53 countries, including Obama and Abe, were due to hold a two-day summit at The Hague aimed at preventing al Qaeda-style militant groups from acquiring nuclear bombs.
(Reuters, 3/24/14)
2014 Mar 25, In the Netherlands US President Barack Obama, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye met to discuss North Korea's security threat.
(AP, 3/26/14)
2014 Mar 27, Japan’s Shizuoka District Court suspended the death sentence and ordered a retrial for Iwao Hakamada (78). The world's longest-serving death row inmate had been convicted in the 1966 murder of a family and was sentenced to death in 1968. The judge who freed him found that police and prosecutors had fabricated evidence in the original trial.
(AP, 3/27/14)(Econ, 12/5/15, p.39)
2014 Mar 30, Japan and North Korea started high-level government talks for the first time in more than a year that were expected to focus on abductions of Japanese by North Korea decades ago.
(AP, 3/30/14)
2014 Mar 31, The International Court of Justice ordered a temporary halt to Japan's Antarctic whaling program, ruling that it is not for scientific purposes as the Japanese government had claimed.
(AP, 3/31/14)
2014 Apr 1, Japan eased its weapons export restrictions in the first major overhaul of arms transfer policy in nearly half a century.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, Japan raised its sales tax to 8% from 5%, moving to stabilize government finances and reduce soaring debt, but at the risk of undermining a shaky economic recovery.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, People in Japan began their first homecomings in three years to a small area evacuated after the Fukushima disaster.
(Reuters, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 1, Japan’s government-funded Riken Center said data in a widely heralded stem-cell research paper was falsified. Haruko Obokata, the lead researcher accused of the malpractice, denied any wrongdoing.
(AP, 4/1/14)
2014 Apr 7, Japan and Australia clinched a basic trade deal to cut import tariffs. US and Japanese officials stepped up efforts to reach a parallel agreement that would re-energize stalled talks on a broader regional pact.
(Reuters, 4/7/14)
2014 Apr 9, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. said it is recalling 6.39 million vehicles globally for a variety of problems spanning nearly 30 models in Japan, the US, Europe and other places.
(AP, 4/9/14)
2014 Apr 13, Japan’s Agricultural Ministry said two chickens have tested positive for avian influenza at a farm where more than 1,000 chickens have died, marking the country's first case of bird flu in three years.
(Reuters, 4/13/14)
2014 Apr 15, Hundreds of pro-whaling Japanese officials, lawmakers and lobby group members vowed to continue whale hunts despite a world court ruling that ordered the country to halt its Antarctic whaling program.
(AP, 4/15/14)
2014 Apr 16, Japanese small-car maker Suzuki Motor Corp said it will introduce an affordable, simplified gas-electric hybrid technology in its cars, joining rivals in the race for fuel efficiency.
(Reuters, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 16, Mt. Gox said the Tokyo District Court decided the company, which was a trading platform and storehouse for the bitcoin virtual currency, would not be able to resurrect itself under a business rehabilitation process filed for in February.
(AP, 4/16/14)
2014 Apr 19, A Chinese maritime court in Shanghai seized a ship owned by Japanese shipping firm Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a move that Japan warned could have an adverse impact on its businesses in China. The court said the company had failed to pay compensation stemming from a WWII contractual obligation. On April 24 China said Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd has paid about $29 million for the release of the ship.
(Reuters, 4/21/14)(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe sent a religious offering to a Tokyo shrine that honors the dead, including executed war criminals — long a source of tension with Japan's neighbors China and South Korea.
(AP, 4/21/14)
2014 Apr 22, Nearly 150 Japanese lawmakers paid homage at the Yasukuni shrine which honors the nation's war dead, raising the stakes in an already tense region on the eve of US President Barack Obama's visit.
(AFP, 4/22/14)
2014 Apr 23, President Barack Obama opened a four-country Asia tour in Japan aimed at reassuring allies in the region that the US remains a committed economic, military and political partner that can serve as a counterweight to China's growing influence.
(AP, 4/23/14)
2014 Apr 24, Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari said that the US and Japan made progress in trade talks but did not reach a final deal.
(Reuters, 4/24/14)
2014 Apr 25, President Barack Obama wrapped up a state visit to Japan during which he assured America's ally that Washington would come to its defense, but failed to clinch a trade deal key to both his "pivot" to Asia and PM Shinzo Abe's economic reforms.
(Reuters, 4/25/14)
2014 Apr 26, A Japanese whaling fleet of four ships left port under tight security in the first hunt since the UN's top court last month ordered Tokyo to stop killing whales in the Antarctic.
(AFP, 4/26/14)
2014 May 11, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Tokyo for a summit with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe at which he is expected to raise the Iranian nuclear talks and economic cooperation.
(AFP, 5/11/14)
2014 May 23, China warned Japan to stay out of a growing dispute with its neighbors over the South China Sea, as the Philippines implicitly accused Beijing of delaying talks aimed at a solution.
(Reuters, 5/23/14)
2014 May 24, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is ready for talks with Japan over disputed Pacific Islands, but Japan may not be ready for negotiations. Japan has imposed a set of measures against Russia for its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.
(Reuters, 5/24/14)
2014 May 29, Japan and North Korea agreed to a deal in which Japan will relax sanctions in return for a North Korean investigation of abductions in the 1970s and 1980s.
(Econ, 6/7/14, p.43)
2014 Jun 5, In Japan billionaire Masayoshi Son's mobile phone company Softbank unveiled a robot dubbed Pepper that can decipher emotions. It will go on sale in Japan in February for 198,000 yen ($1,900). Overseas sales plans are under consideration but undecided.
(AP, 6/5/14)
2014 Jun 11, Japanese and Australian ministers meeting in Tokyo agreed to jointly develop stealth submarine technology. They agreed to begin the research next year.
(AP, 6/11/14)
2014 Jun 18, Japan's parliament passed a law which bans possession of child pornography, but excludes sexually explicit depictions of children in comics, animation and computer graphics.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 21, Albie Sachs (79), the South African judge who rose to fame for his role in the anti-apartheid struggle, was awarded the Tang Prize, touted as Asia's version of the Nobels, for his contributions to human rights and justice. Earlier this week, Norwegian ex-premier Gro Harlem Brundtland was named as the first recipient of the prize for her work as the "godmother" of sustainable development, while noted Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih was awarded for his accomplishment in sinology. Immunologists James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan became joint recipients in the biopharmaceutical sciences category for their contributions in the fight against cancer. Named after China's Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), the Asian prize was founded by Taiwanese billionaire Samuel Yin in 2012 with a donation of Tw$3 billion.
(AP, 6/21/14)
2014 Jun 24, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe unveiled a fresh round of reforms, in the latest bid to cement a fragile recovery, his second attempt to fire the "third arrow" of his economic action plan.
(AFP, 6/24/14)
2014 Jun 29, In Japan a man set himself on fire at a busy intersection in Tokyo in an apparent protest against PM Shinzo Abe's plans to ease limits of the country's pacifist constitution. It was not immediately clear whether the man survived.
(Reuters, 6/29/14)
2014 Jun 30, In Japan thousands of people protested outside the PM Shinzo Abe's office in anticipation his government will reinterpret the constitution to allow Japan's military a larger international role.
(AP, 6/30/14)
2014 Jul 1, Japan’s cabinet approved a reinterpretation of the constitution ending a ban that has kept the military from fighting abroad since 1945, a victory for PM Shinzo Abe but a move that has riled China and worries many Japanese voters.
(Reuters, 7/1/14)(Econ, 7/5/14, p.34)
2014 Jul 3, Japan eased some sanctions on North Korea in return for its reopening of a probe into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by the reclusive state decades ago, as a fresh report emerged that some of them were alive.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Jul 8, Typhoon Neoguri pounded across the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa, as residents took refuge from destructive winds, towering waves and storm surges.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 8, In Australia Japan's PM Shinzo Abe met with Australian PM Tony Abbott to sign agreements bolstering defense and trade ties between the countries.
(AP, 7/8/14)
2014 Jul 17, Japan said it would join forces with Britain to jointly develop missile technology for fighter jets, while also moving to export Japanese-made parts for US surface-to-air missiles.
(AFP, 7/17/14)
2014 Jul 25, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe struck a series of energy deals with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the start of a five-country Latin American tour.
(AFP, 7/26/14)
2014 Jul 27, In Japan Aiwa Matsuo (15) was found with her head and left hand severed on a bed in a suspect's apartment A schoolgirl (15) was arrested on suspicion of murdering her classmate and dismembering the body in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture.
(AFP, 7/27/14)
2014 Jul 28, Japan said it is imposing more sanctions against Russia over its support for pro-Moscow rebels in Ukraine who are accused of shooting down a Malaysian jet.
(AP, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 29, Japan announced that it had wrapped up a whale hunt in the Pacific, the second campaign since the UN's top court ordered Tokyo to halt a separate slaughter in the Antarctic. The country's fisheries agency said 115 whales were killed during the two-and-a-half month campaign.
(AFP, 7/29/14)
2014 Jul 29, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met with Japan's PM Shinzo Abe, calling for accelerated bilateral trade talks and more investment by the Asian economic powerhouse.
(AFP, 7/30/14)
2014 Jul, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi was arrested after she mailed 3-D data of a kayak in the shape her vagina to supporters. She was interrogated for 23 days and then released. In December Igarashi was arrested again for suspicion of displaying an obscene object. Her trial opened in April, 2015.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megumi_Igarashi)(Econ, 6/13/15, p.41)
2014 Aug 1, Japan named five uninhabited small isles belonging to an island group in the center of a dispute with China as part of efforts to reinforce its claim, a move likely to spark anger from Beijing and another claimant, Taiwan.
(AP, 8/1/14)
2014 Aug 1, Japan announced that it will give Vietnam six naval gunboats to boost its patrol capacity.
(Econ, 8/16/14, p.33)
2014 Aug 5, Japan unveiled details of financial sanctions against 40 individuals and two groups involved in the annexation of Crimea and destabilization of eastern Ukraine.
(AFP, 8/5/14)
2014 Aug 8, Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Japan and the United States will jointly develop a fuel-cell powered submarine that can run for a month under the sea on a single charge an unmanned. The 10-meter (33-feet) long sub would be able to chart a pre-programmed course before returning to base.
(AFP, 8/8/14)
2014 Aug 9, Japan and South Korea vowed to "deepen communication" in the future during a rare meeting in Myanmar ahead of the ASEAN Regional Forum.
(AFP, 8/9/14)
2014 Aug 12, Russia said it has begun military exercises in the Kurile Islands in the Pacific Ocean, a move likely to anger Japan, which also lays claim to them.
(Reuters, 8/12/14)
2014 Aug 15, Japan froze the assets of Ocean Maritime Management, operator of the North Korean ship seized for smuggling arms detained near the Panama Canal a year ago carrying Soviet-era arms.
(Reuters, 8/15/14)
2014 Aug 15, A Japanese whaling vessel, the 712-ton Shonan-maru No.2, was ordered into a Russian port after sailing through the Sea of Okhotsk off Sakhalin island without going through the proper procedures.
(AFP, 8/21/14)
2014 Aug 19, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that the Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for detaining Haruna Yukawa, a doctor an d a journalist, in Syria in a post on the Internet.
(Reuters, 8/19/14)
2014 Aug 20, In Japan more than 50 people, including several children, were killed when landslides triggered by torrential rain slammed into the outskirts of the western city of Hiroshima. 28 people remained missing. On Aug 24 another landslide in the north killed 2 women.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 25, Japan said it is ready to provide a Japanese-developed anti-influenza drug as a possible treatment for the rapidly expanding Ebola outbreak.
(AP, 8/25/14)
2014 Aug 29, Japan executed a mobster and a killer arsonist, bringing to 11 the total number of death sentences carried out since PM Shinzo Abe took power in 2012.
(AFP, 8/29/14)
2014 Aug 30, India’s PM Narendra Modi was welcomed by Japanese PM Shinzo Abe as he began a five-day visit to the country.
(Reuters, 8/30/14)
2014 Sep 1, Japan and India agreed to step up their economic and security cooperation as visiting PM Narendra Modi won pledges of support for his effort to revitalize the lagging Indian economy.
(AP, 9/1/14)
2014 Sep 1, Japan urged local authorities to be on the lookout for further outbreaks of dengue fever, after confirming another 19 cases contracted at a popular local park in downtown Tokyo. The health ministry earlier reported three local cases, the first in nearly 70 years.
(AP, 9/1/14)
2014 Sep 2, Japanese researchers said they have developed a new method to detect the presence of the Ebola virus in 30 minutes, with technology that could allow doctors to quickly diagnose infection.
(AFP, 9/2/14)
2014 Sep 3, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe picked five women for his Cabinet, matching the past record.
(AP, 9/3/14)
2014 Sep 5, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe won Dhaka's support for Tokyo's bid for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council as he began a visit to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka aimed at offsetting China's mounting influence in South Asia.
(AFP, 9/6/14)
2014 Sep 7, Four Japanese ships left the northern island of Hokkaido to start the seasonal "research" whaling hunt in Pacific coastal waters.
(AFP, 9/7/14)
2014 Sep 7, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse held talks with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe. The two leaders agreed to forge stronger maritime links between their countries in a move seen as countering China's influence in the region.
(AFP, 9/8/14)
2014 Sep 7, Japanese film idol Yoshiko Yamaguchi (94) died of heart failure. She was known as Rikoran and symbolized Japan's wartime dreams of Asian conquest. Known as Shirley Yamaguchi in the US she was one of biggest Japanese film stars during and after World War II.
(AP, 9/14/14)
2014 Sep 9, Japan released a 12,000-page history of Emperor Hirohito (d.1989). His 62-year reign spanned Japan’s invasion of much of Asia and its post WWII recosntruction.
(SFC, 9/10/14, p.A2)
2014 Sep 10, In southern Japan the Sendai Nuclear Power Station's two reactors won regulators' approval under new safety standards imposed after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, a key step toward becoming the first to restart under the tighter rules.
(AP, 9/10/14)
2014 Sep 16, In Japan the first dolphins of the season were slaughtered in the small town of Taiji.
(AFP, 9/16/14)
2014 Sep 17, Japan agreed to cut purchases of eel fry from neighboring countries by 20 percent as part of moves to protect the endangered species. The agreement with China, South Korea and Taiwan called for reducing eel hauls by 20 percent for one year, beginning in November.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 18, In Slovenia an international whaling conference voted against Japan's highly criticized plans to resume whaling in the Antarctic next year, but Japan vowed to go ahead anyway.
(AP, 9/18/14)
2014 Sep 24, Japan said that it has stepped up sanctions against Russia over the unrest in Ukraine to be in line with other Group of Seven nations before their upcoming meeting in New York.
(AP, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 24, Japan’s economy minister stormed out of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks in Washington DC. The TPP involved a dozen countries on a proposed free trade area.
(Econ, 10/4/14, p.47)
2014 Sep 25, Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co said it would cut access to its grid for renewable energy suppliers, the third of Japan's 10 regional monopolies to place limits on their cleaner energy intake because of network limitations.
(Reuters, 9/25/14)
2014 Sep 27, In central Japan the Mount Ontake volcano erupted in spectacular fashion, catching mountain climbers by surprise. At least 51 people were killed with 63 injured.
(AP, 9/27/14)(Reuters, 10/1/14)(AP, 10/4/14)
2014 Oct 5, In Japan Typhoon Phanfone washed away 3 US Air Force members on Okinawa as it headed for Tokyo.
(AP, 10/5/14)
2014 Oct 6, Typhoon Phanfone lashed Japan with torrential rain after killing at least one person, forcing the cancellation of flights and prompting warnings to more than 200,000 people to evacuate their homes.
(Reuters, 10/6/14)
2014 Oct 7, Two Japanese scientists and a Japanese-born American won the Nobel Prize in physics for inventing blue light-emitting diodes. Isamu Akasaki (85), Hiroshi Amano (54) and naturalized US citizen Shuji Nakamura (54) revolutionized lighting technology two decades ago when they came up with a long-elusive component of the white LED lights.
(AP, 10/7/14)
2014 Oct 8, South Korean prosecutors indicted Japanese journalist Tatsuya Kato for defamation of President Park Geun-hye over an article he wrote about her personal life and whereabouts on April 3, the day of a deadly ferry disaster. On Dec 17, 2015, a Seoul court cleared Kato of the charges.
(Reuters, 10/8/14)(SFC, 12/19/15, p.A4)
2014 Oct 9, A Japanese judge ordered Google to remove search results of a man's unflattering past in an order the plaintiff's lawyer compared to Europe's "right to be forgotten" ruling.
(AP, 10/10/14)
2014 Oct 12, In Japan at least 35 people were reported injured as Typhoon Vongfong, packing winds of up to 180 km (110 miles) per hour and heavy rain, hit the southern island of Okinawa.
(AP, 10/12/14)
2014 Oct 13, Typhoon Vongfong barreled into Japan's main islands, with at least 2 people killed, one person missing and scores injured while more than 550 flights were grounded.
(AFP, 10/13/14)(Reuters, 10/14/14)
2014 Oct 18, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries unveiled first passenger aircraft to be made in Japan in nearly four decades as Mitsubishi pushed into the booming regional jet sector with an eye to taking on industry giants Embraer and Bombardier.
(AFP, 10/18/14)
2014 Oct 20, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe suffered a double setback with the resignations of two female cabinet ministers over claims they misused political funds, dealing a blow to his proclaimed gender reform drive.
(AFP, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 28, Japanese and North Korean officials held talks in Pyongyang for the first time in 10 years, meeting to assess progress into North Korea's investigation into the fates of Japanese citizens who were abducted in the 1970s and '80s.
(AP, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 28, In southwest Japan the town of Satsumasendai became the first to approve the restart of a nuclear power station.
(Reuters, 10/28/14)
2014 Oct 31, The Bank of Japan unexpectedly announced a new stimulus package to boost the country's struggling economy. The announcement came after economic data showed that Japan's economy remained in the doldrums following a sales tax hike in April.
(AP, 10/31/14)
2014 Oct, Kenji Goto, a veteran Japanese war correspondent was captured by the militants late this month when he went to Syria seeking the release of Haruna Yukawa. Yukawa was seized by militants in August after going to Syria to launch a security company.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2014 Nov 7, China said it has reached agreement with Japan to ramp up high-level contacts. China and Japan jointly announced that they are seeking to improve relations and set up a system to prevent minor maritime contingencies from escalating into true warfare.
(AP, 11/7/14)(SFC, 11/8/14, p.A3)
2014 Nov 8, The foreign ministers of China and Japan held talks ahead of a hoped-for meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe after more than two years of frozen high-level contacts.
(AP, 11/8/14)
2014 Nov 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that he would call an early election to seek a fresh mandate for his economic policies, and postpone an unpopular sales tax rise, a day after data showed the economy had slipped back into recession.
(Reuters, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 18, Japan slashed its whale catch target in the Antarctic by two-thirds in a bid to resume its annual whale hunt, which an international court ruled must stop.
(AP, 11/18/14)
2014 Nov 19, In Japan millionair Chisako Kakehi (67) was arrested on suspicion of poisoning her husband with cyanide as it emerged six former partners had already died.
(AP, 11/19/14)
2014 Nov 21, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe dissolved parliament's lower house for a snap election on Dec. 14, seeking a fresh mandate for his struggling "Abenomics" revival strategy.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 21, Japan's transport ministry said it has ordered air bag maker Takata to conduct an internal investigation after cases of its air bags exploding triggered safety concerns in the US and other countries.
(AP, 11/21/14)
2014 Nov 22, In central Japan a magnitude-6.8 earthquake struck near Nagano city causing at least one building to collapse. At least 50 homes were destroyed in two villages, and 41 people injured across the region.
(AP, 11/22/14)(AP, 11/23/14)
2014 Nov 24, In southern California workers at Sony Pictures discovered that its computer system had been beached. They were greeted with an image of a skeleton and a message that said “Hacked by #GOP," a reference to a group calling itself Guardians of Peace.The cyberattack was later expected to cost the studio tens of millions. On Feb 4, 2015, Sony Corp. said it has spent an estimated 15 million in investigating and recovering from the cyberattack.
(SFC, 12/6/14, p.D4)(SFC, 2/5/15, p.C3)
2014 Nov 25, Japanese police arrested four South Korean men at a harbor where ferries depart for Busan on suspicion of stealing an ancient Buddha statue. A 5th man was arrested the next day. The stolen "Birth of Buddha" statue dates to sometime between the 9th and 11th centuries.
(AP, 11/25/14)
2014 Nov 27, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. recalled more than 40,000 vehicles as part of a worldwide scare over defective air bags and is investigating a new type of air bag problem that could lead to further recalls.
(AP, 11/27/14)
2014 Nov 28, In southern Japan the Mount Aso volcano blasted out chunks of magma in the first such eruption in 22 years, causing flight cancellations and prompting warnings to stay away from its crater.
(AP, 11/30/14)
2014 Nov, Japan’s national debt stood at over 240% of GDP.
(Econ, 11/15/14, p.42)
2014 Dec 1, Moody’s downgraded Japan’s credit rating in response to PM Abe’s moved to delay last month a second rise in the consumption tax, which had been due in 2015.
(Econ, 12/6/14, p.41)
2014 Dec 3, A Japanese space explorer took off on a six-year journey to blow a crater in a remote asteroid and bring back rock samples in hopes of gathering clues to the origin of Earth. Hayabusa2, is expected to reach the asteroid in mid-2018.
(AP, 12/3/14)
2014 Dec 10, Japanese prosecutors charged a 68-year-old woman with murder, weeks after she was arrested on suspicion of poisoning her husband, one of at least six men who have died while in a relationship with her over the past 20 years. Chisako Kakehi has denied responsibility for the deaths.
(AP, 12/10/14)
2014 Dec 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition cruised to a big election win, but record low turnout could weaken his claim of a mandate for reflationary policies to revive the economy.
(Reuters, 12/14/14)
2014 Dec 19, Japanese researcher Haruko Obokata said in a statement that she was leaving the Riken Center for Developmental Biology after the lab concluded the stem cells she said she had created probably never existed. The center said it had stopped trying to match Obokata's results.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 24, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was re-elected by parliament to serve another term. He unveiled a new cabinet, appointing as defense chief, Gen Nakatani, whose desire for a stronger pre-emptive strike capability could rile neighbor China.
(Reuters, 12/24/14)(SFC, 12/25/14, p.A9)
2014 Dec 25, Citigroup said it has agreed to sell its retail banking business in Japan to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.
(AP, 12/25/14)
2014 Dec 27, Japan's Cabinet approved 3.5 trillion yen ($29 billion) in fresh stimulus for the ailing economy.
(AP, 12/27/14)
2014 David Pilling authored “Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Adversity."
(Econ, 1/18/14, p.81)
2014 Japan-based Aizu Electric installed its first solar farm 125 km west of Fukushima. The company was formed in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.28)
2014 Japan-based Sony Corp. failed to pay a dividend this year for the first time since it bacem listed as a public company in 1958.
(Econ, 9/20/14, p.62)
2015 Jan 6, Japan-based Toyota said it will give away thousands of patents for its fuel-cell cars, in an effort to encourage other automakers into the new industry. The cost-free licenses will be allowed "through the initial market introduction period" of fuel cell vehicles (FCV).
(AFP, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 8, The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it has fined Honda $70 million for failing to submit reports of fatal accidents and injuries to the government.
(SFC, 1/9/15, p.C3)
2015 Jan 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe pledged $2.5 billion in humanitarian and development aid for the Middle East as he launched a regional tour that includes visits to Jordan and Israel.
(AFP, 1/17/15)
2015 Jan 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe flew into Tel Aviv at the start of a three-day official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
(AFP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 20, The militant group Islamic State released an online video purporting to show two Japanese captives and threatening to kill them unless it received $200 million in ransom. The footage named the men as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
(Reuters, 1/20/15)
2015 Jan 24, Japan strongly criticized a recording purporting to announce the execution of a Japanese citizen held by Islamic State militants and demanded the immediate release of another captive depicted as appearing on the image. The recording appeared to show captive Haruna Yukawa being killed.
(Reuters, 1/24/15)
2015 Jan 25, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe branded the murder of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa by Islamic State militants as "outrageous and unforgivable" and demanded the immediate release of a second captive, amid a tide of global revulsion.
(AFP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 29, Two pilots soaring over the Pacific traveled farther than the 5,209-mile official world distance record for human flight in a gas balloon. The Two Eagles balloon passed a record set by the Double Eagle in 1981. Troy Bradley of Albuquerque and Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia began their flight from Saga, Japan, on Jan 25. On Jan 30 they surpassed the 1978 duration record by spending over 138 hours in the air.
(SFC, 1/30/15, p.A8)(SFC, 1/31/15, p.A10)
2015 Jan 31, Islamic State militants said they had beheaded a second Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto, prompting PM Shinzo Abe to vow to step up humanitarian aid to the group's opponents in the Middle East and help bring his killers to justice.
(Reuters, 2/1/15)
2015 Feb 7, Kenji Ekuan (85), Japanese industrial designer, died in Tokyo. His works ranged from a bullet train to the red-capped Kikkoman soy sauce dispenser as familiar as the classic Coca-Cola bottle. A former monk, Ekuan crafted a tabletop bottle for Kikkoman Corp. in 1961, winning international popularity both for the handy, flask-shaped dispenser.
(AP, 2/9/15)
2015 Feb 10, Japan and Mongolia signed a free trade agreement.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2015 Feb 20, The US government said it will fine Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp. $14,000 per day for failing to fully cooperate in a long-running investigation of faulty and potentially dangerous air bag inflators.
(AP, 2/20/15)
2015 Feb 22, Japan’s Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said sensors at the Fukushima nuclear plant have detected a fresh leak of highly radioactive water to the sea. The firm said it has shut the gutter to prevent radioactive water from going into the Pacific Ocean.
(AFP, 2/22/15)
2015 Feb 24, Finmeccanica, Italy’s state-controlled aerospace and defense groups said Japan’s Hitachi will buy its rail businesses.
(Econ., 2/28/15, p.58)
2015 Mar 13, Japan and France signed an arms transfer agreement, paving the way to develop drones and other unmanned equipment together as Japan seeks to play a greater international military role.
(AP, 3/13/15)
2015 Mar 19, In South Korea the foreign ministers of China, Japan and South Korea held their first trilateral talks in four years.
(Econ., 3/28/15, p.46)
2015 Mar 21, The foreign ministers of South Korea, Japan and China agreed that a summit meeting of their leaders, on hold for nearly three years because of tensions over history and territory, should be held soon to mend the countries' ties.
(Reuters, 3/21/15)
2015 Mar 23, In Japan the governor of Okinawa ordered the suspension of work on a new US airfield at Camp Schwab.
(SFC, 3/23/15, p.A4)
2015 Mar 28, Japan opened what organizers billed as the world's first "Otaku" (geeks) summit, drawing visitors from around the world as the country looks to boost the international fan base for Japanese comic books and anime.
(AFP, 3/28/15)
2015 Mar 31, In Japan a landmark vote by the assembly of Tokyo's Shibuya ward, the district famous as a mecca for trendy youngsters became the first locale in Japan to recognize same sex partnerships as the "equivalent of a marriage," guaranteeing the identical rights of married couples, including hospital visitations and apartment rentals.
(AP, 3/31/15)
2015 Apr 1, In Japan Misao Okawa (117), identified as the world’s oldest person, died in Osaka a few weeks after celebrating her birthday.
(SFC, 4/2/15, p.A2)
2015 Apr 9, A Japanese research team said it has developed a field test for Ebola that gives results in just over 11 minutes -- down from the 90-minute test used now.
(AFP, 4/9/15)
2015 Apr 10, In Japan frantic rescue efforts saved just 3 dolphins after about 150 mostly melon-headed whales, or blackfish beached themselves and became stranded on a northeastern coast in Hokota.
(AP, 4/10/15)
2015 Apr 14, A Japanese court issued an injunction ordering two nuclear reactors in western Japan to stay offline, rejecting regulators' safety approval of the reactors' planned restart later this year.
(AP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 14, Japan and South Korea held their first high-level security talks in more than five years despite simmering tensions over territorial and historical disputes.
(AFP, 4/14/15)
2015 Apr 21, Japan’s maglev train set a world speed record during a test run near Mount Fuji, clocking 375 mph.
(SSFC, 4/26/15, p.A4)
2015 Apr 22, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of a summit in Indonesia.
(Reuters, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 22, A Japanese court rejected an injunction requested by local residents opposed to resuming operations of two nuclear reactors, giving the go-ahead for their restart as planned this summer.
(AP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 22, Japanese authorities said they were investigating after a small drone laced with traces of radiation was found on the roof of the prime minister's office, sparking concerns about drones and their possible use for terrorist attacks.
(AP, 4/22/15)
2015 Apr 27, The United States and Japan unveiled new guidelines for defense cooperation, reflecting Japan's willingness to take on a more robust international role amid growing Chinese power and rising concerns about nuclear-armed North Korea. This was the first revision to the guidelines since 1997.
(Reuters, 4/27/15)
2015 Apr 28, President Barack Obama welcomed Japanese PM Shinzo Abe with full pomp and ceremony. Trade and security issues topped their agenda.
(AP, 4/28/15)
2015 Apr 29, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe sought support for a trans-Pacific trade pact that has divided US lawmakers as he made the first address by a Japanese leader to a joint meeting of Congress. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) would encompass 12 countries in Asia and the Americas and apply to 40% of the world’s economy.
(AP, 4/29/15)(Econ, 10/10/15, p.71)
2015 May 6, Japan-based Toyoto said that eight California dealerships will be the first in the US to ofer the $57,500 Mirai fuel-cell vehicle with deliveries to begin in October.
(SFC, 5/7/15, p.C1)
2015 May 13, Japan-based Toyota and Mazda announced an expansion of their partnership and a joint committee to figure out how best to work together.
(SFC, 5/14/15, p.C6)
2015 May 14, Japan's cabinet approved a set of bills bolstering the role and scope of the military, as the pacifist country redefines its position in the increasingly roiled Asia-Pacific region.
(AFP, 5/14/15)
2015 May 20, Japan's association of zoos and aquariums said it will stop buying dolphins taken in the controversial hunt at Taiji, possibly raising pressure to halt the annual event said to be a tradition.
(Reuters, 5/20/15)
2015 May 21, In Japan the mayor of the fishing town of Taiji said dolphin hunts will not stop, even after Japan's aquariums decided to stop buying captured dolphins under international pressure sparked by cruelty concerns.
(AP, 5/21/15)
2015 May 23, Japan pledged 55 billion yen ($450 million) in aid to Pacific island nations, including Fiji, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands and others, that are battling rising sea levels and natural calamities as a result of global warming.
(AP, 5/23/15)
2015 May 27, In southern Japan a nuclear plan obtained the final permit needed to restart its reactors, paving the way for it to become the first to go back online under new safety standards introduced after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
(AP, 5/27/15)
2015 May 29, Japanese and European leaders agreed to step up defense and economic ties, and expressed concern about rising tensions in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 29, In Japan Mount Shindake erupted on Kuchinoerabu island spewing out rocks and sending black clouds of ash 9 km (5.6 miles) into the sky.
(AP, 5/29/15)
2015 May 30, A magnitude 8.5 earthquake struck off the east coast of Japan, shaking buildings in Tokyo.
(Reuters, 5/30/15)
2015 May, Masayoshi Son, the Japanese founder and CEO of SoftBank, named Nikesh Arora, Google’s former chief business executive, as his successor and gave him the title of president. Mr. Arora’s pay for the first his first six months of work was nearly $140 million.
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.64)
2015 Jun 2, Philippine President Benigno Aquino began a four-day visit to Japan that will see him court investment and seek support for his opposition to China's land reclamation in the South China Sea.
(AFP, 6/2/15)
2015 Jun 4, Japan and the Philippines agreed to start talks on transferring Japanese military hardware and technology to the Southeast Asian country trying to upgrade its defenses.
(AP, 6/4/15)
2015 Jun 5, Japanese automaker Mazda said it is recalling nearly 540,000 older cars and pickup trucks in the US and Canada, adding to the growing list of models under recall for air bags that potentially can explode with too much force. Last month Takata and the US government agreed to double the number of inflators it recalled to 33.8 million.
(AP, 6/5/15)
2015 Jun 6, Chinese and Japanese finance ministers held talks in Beijing to deepen economic cooperation that had been delayed for about two years over strained relations between the Asian giants.
(AP, 6/6/15)
2015 Jun 17, Japan’s Diet enacted legislation to lower the voting age to 18 from 20.
(SSFC, 6/21/15, p.A4)
2015 Jun 17, Japan warned China that its extensive land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea does not make ownership a done deal.
(AFP, 6/17/15)
2015 Jun 18, In Japan Julie Hamp (55), Toyota's highest ranking female executive, was arrested on suspicion of importing oxycodone, a narcotic pain killer. On July 8 Hamp was released from custody without charges. She had resigned from Toyota a week earlier.
(AP, 7/8/15)
2015 Jun 25, Mitsubishi said it is recalling about 460,000 cars in the US because the air bags have the potential to push sun visors into passengers and cause injuries in a crash. The company is also recalling about 75,000 later-model Eclipses and Spyders for anti-lock braking problems.
{Japan, USA, Cars}
2015 Jun 25, Subaru said it is recalling about 72 thousand 2015 vehicles to fix a software problem that could cause the automatic braking system to fail.
(AP, 6/25/15)
2015 Jun 30, In Japan a man set himself on fire on a high-speed bullet train heading from Tokyo to Osaka, killing himself and another passenger as the coach filled with smoke.
(AP, 6/30/15)
2015 Jun, Freelance Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda was last heard from in Syria. A video released on August 31, 2018, said he was in harsh environment and needed an immediate rescue.
(AP, 8/1/18)
2015 Jul 5, In Japan the world's oldest man, a retired educator, died. Sakari Momoi (112) died from kidney failure at a nursing home in Tokyo.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 5, The UNESCO World Heritage Committee approved a collection of almost two dozen Japanese sites, as a world heritage site, illustrating the country’s industrial revolution during the 1868-1912 era of the Meiji Emperor.
(SFC, 7/6/15, p.A5)
2015 Jul 7, Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co. began loading fuel into a nuclear reactor where operations are scheduled to resume next month in the country's first restart under safety requirements set following the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
(AP, 7/7/15)
2015 Jul 9, Honda said it is recalling 4.5 million vehicles in Japan and other markets outside North America to replace airbags supplied by Takata. Some 40 million vehicles have been affected in what has become the world’s most extensive auto-safety recall.
(SFC, 7/10/15, p.C3)
2015 Jul 11, In Japan Satoru Iwata (55), head of Nintendo Co., died at Kyoto University Hospital after a lengthy illness. He had led the video game company through years of growth with its Pokemon and Super Mario franchises.
(AP, 7/13/15)
2015 Jul 15, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling 625,000 Prius hybrid vehicles worldwide because they can stall without warning.
(AP, 7/15/15)
2015 Jul 17, Japan scrapped the design of the Olympic stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Games because of soaring costs and said it will reopen bidding for a new plan, in a stunning reversal that leaves the 2019 Rugby World Cup without a main venue. The $13.6 billion design by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid was likened to a giant turtle.
(Econ, 6/20/15, p.38)(AP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 17, Powerful Typhoon Nangka lashed Japan, killing at least 2 people and triggering floods.
(AFP, 7/17/15)
2015 Jul 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's support rate fell nearly 10 points to 37.7 percent in a poll released today, the first since his ruling bloc pushed forward legislation marking a dramatic shift in the nation's post-war defense policy.
(Reuters, 7/18/15)
2015 Jul 20, In Japan about 10,000 spectators watched the purification rite at the annual Marine Day at the Hamaori Festival in Chigasaki. This also marked the arrival of summer in the Chigasaki region.
(AP, 7/20/15)
2015 Jul 21, Japan-based Toshiba Corp. acknowledged a systematic cover-up, which began in 2008. Toshiba's CEO and eight other executives resigned to take responsibility for doctored books that inflated profits at the Japanese technology manufacturer by 152 billion yen ($1.2 billion) over several years. Regulators imposed a record fine of $60 million on the company.
(AP, 7/21/15)(Econ, 1/7/17, p.50)
2015 Jul 22, In Japan an outside director of Mitsubishi Materials said that the company hopes to apologize to former British, Dutch and Australian World War II POWs, and also reach an amicable agreement with Chinese forced laborers, following a landmark apology to American POWs earlier this week.
(AP, 7/22/15)
2015 Jul 23, Pearson PLC, the owner of the Financial Times, said it has agreed to sell FT Group to Nikkei Inc. for 844 million pounds ($1.3 billion), payable in cash.
(AP, 7/23/15)
2015 Jul 26, In Japan a small plane crashed into a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo, killing the pilot, a passenger and a woman on the ground. Three people were pulled alive from the wreckage.
(AP, 7/26/15)
2015 Jul 28, Japan approved an increase in compensation payments for the Fukushima crisis to 7.07 trillion yen ($57.18 billion), as tens of thousands of evacuees remain in temporary housing more than four years after the disaster.
(Reuters, 7/28/15)
2015 Jul 29, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe outlined the largest increase in the country’s minimum wage since 2002 from ¥780 (about $6.30 an hour) to ¥798,( 6.45/hr).
(Econ, 8/15/15, p.66)
2015 Jul 31, WikiLeaks said the US National Security Agency targeted Japanese politicians, its top central banker and major firms for years, in the latest revelations about Washington's snooping on allies.
(AFP, 7/31/15)
2015 Aug 1, Japanese police arrested Mark Karpeles, head of the MtGox Bitcoin exchange, after a series of fraud allegations led to its spectacular collapse and hammered the digital currency's reputation.
(AFP, 8/1/15)
2015 Aug 11, In Japan control rods were lifted from the reactor core at the Sendai nuclear plant, ending a ban on nuclear power following meltdowns at Fukushima.
(AP, 8/11/15)
2015 Aug 19, The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched an unmanned transport vehicle that is carrying water, parts and other supplies to the International Space Station.
(AP, 8/19/15)
2015 Aug 22, Japan lodged a protest over Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev's visit to one of four disputed Pacific islands which have strained ties between the two countries since the end of World War Two. The islands are known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles and referred to as the Northern Territories in Japan.
(Reuters, 8/22/15)
2015 Aug 28, Japanese lawmakers approved a law requiring large employers to set and publicize targets for hiring or promoting women as managers.
(AP, 8/28/15)
2015 Aug 30, In Japan tens of thousands of protesters rallied outside parliament to oppose security legislation in one of this summer's biggest protests ahead of its anticipated passage next month.
(AP, 8/30/15)
2015 Aug 31, The Hotel Okura, a favored Tokyo lodging for US presidents, movie stars and other celebrities, closed the doors of its landmark main building to make way for a pair of glass towers ahead of the 2020 Olympics. The building had opened in 1962, ahead of the 1964 Games.
(AP, 8/31/15)
2015 Sep 5, Japan's government lifted a 4 1/2-year-old evacuation order for the northeastern town of Naraha that had sent all of the town's 7,400 residents away following the disaster at the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant.
(AP, 9/5/15)
2015 Sep 10, Central and eastern Japan were doused with unusually heavy rains over the last two days on the heels of Tropical Storm Etau that triggered flooding and landslides. Rising waters of the Kinugawa River broke through a flood berm, sending water gushing into Joso city where 22 people were left missing.
(AP, 9/10/15)
2015 Sep 15, Vietnam agreed with Japan to step up security cooperation, becoming the latest Southeast Asian country to seek closer ties with Tokyo as China maintains an assertive posture in disputed waters in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 9/15/15)
2015 Sep 17, Japan’s police said Jonathan Nakada (30), who threw himself out a second-story window as police pursued him, is being investigated in the slayings of 3 people inside the house and 3 more this week in the neighborhood near Tokyo.
(AP, 9/17/15)
2015 Sep 19, Japan passed security bills that reinterpret the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution and that allow its military to engage in fighting abroad even if Japan is not attacked.
(AP, 9/19/15)
2015 Sep 24, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe announced an updated plan for reviving the world's third-largest economy, setting a GDP target of 600 trillion yen ($5 trillion).
(AP, 9/24/15)
2015 Oct 5, Irish-born William Campbell (85) and Japan's Satoshi Omura (80) won half of the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. China's Tu Youyou (84) was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths.
(AP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 5, Twelve Pacific rim countries sealed the deal on creating the world's largest free trade area (TPP), delivering President Barack Obama a major policy triumph. The Trans-Pacific Partnership included Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.
(AFP, 10/5/15)
2015 Oct 6, The Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Japanese researcher Takaaki Kajita and Canadian Arthur McDonald for discovering that tiny particles called neutrinos change identities as they whiz through the universe, proving that they have mass.
(AP, 10/6/15)
2015 Oct 15, Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay were elected to the UN Security Council during an uncontested vote for the non-permanent seats.
(AFP, 10/15/15)
2015 Oct 21, Japanese Buddhist monk Kogen Kamahori (41) finished a grueling nine-day ritual without eating, drinking, or sleeping as he chanted sutras 100,000 times at Mount Hieizan.
(AFP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 21, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. said it is recalling 6.5 million vehicles worldwide for a defective power window switch that can overheat, melt and lead to fires.
(AP, 10/21/15)
2015 Oct 22, US safety regulators said 8 people have died and 98 people have been injured by exploding air bag inflators made by Takata Corp. About 23.4 million Takata driver and passenger air bag inflators have been recalled on 19.2 million US vehicles sold by 12 auto and truck makers.
(AP, 10/22/15)
2015 Oct 22, Masayoshi Son (58), the Japanese founder and CEO of SoftBank, proposed that the artifical intelligence will exceed the human kind by about 2055 in an event call the Singularity.
(Econ, 11/14/15, p.64)
2015 Oct 23, Japan and Turkmenistan signed deals worth over $18 billion on a package of projects in the energy-rich central Asian nation, which has become an important supplier of natural gas to China.
(Reuters, 10/23/15)
2015 Nov 1, The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea pledged to work toward greater economic integration at their first joint meeting in over three years. China and Japan agreed to restart mutual visits of their foreign ministers and hold bilateral high-level economic dialogue early next year in a meeting between Premier Li Keqiang and PM Shinzo Abe in Seoul, South Korea.
(Reuters, 11/1/15)
2015 Nov 3, US auto safety regulators fined Japan’s Takata Corp. $70 million for concealing evidence for years that its air bags are prone to explode. The defect was linked to 8 deaths and over 100 injuries worldwide.
(SFC, 11/4/15, p.C2)
2015 Nov 6, Toyota said it is investing $1 billion in a research company it's setting up in Silicon Valley to develop artificial intelligence and robotics, underlining the Japanese automaker's determination to lead in futuristic cars that drive themselves and apply the technology to other areas of daily life.
(AP, 11/6/15)
2015 Nov 17, Japan sued its southern region of Okinawa over local resistance to a new US military base.
(AFP, 11/17/15)
2015 Nov 24, A Japanese rocket lifted off and successfully put the national space program's first commercial satellite into orbit.
(AFP, 11/24/15)
2015 Nov 27, Japan said it is investigating nearly a dozen suspicious boats recently found drifting off the country's coastline, some with decaying bodies aboard. At least 11 cases involving wooden boats, some badly damaged, with 20 bodies on board have been reported during October and November. Korean writing was visible on the boats as well as clothes left inside the vessels.
(AFP, 11/27/15)
2015 Nov 29, Environmental activist group Sea Shepherd warned Japan against resuming "research" whaling in the Antarctic and called on the Australian government to intervene.
(AFP, 11/29/15)
2015 Dec 1, Japan's whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic to resume a hunt for the mammals after a year-long hiatus.
(Reuters, 12/1/15)
2015 Dec 9, Japan's space agency said its "Akatsuki" probe had successfully entered into orbit around Venus after an initial attempt at reaching the second planet from the sun failed five years ago.
(AFP, 12/9/15)
2015 Dec 12, India and Japan signed agreements in New Delhi that could pave the way for Tokyo to supply New Delhi with military aircraft and high-speed trains, as PM Shinzo Abe promised to fully support India's efforts to become an economic powerhouse.
(AP, 12/12/15)
2015 Dec 15, Japan-based SoftBank said SB Energy, a three way joint venture of Japan's SoftBank Group, Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology Co Ltd, has won an order to develop a solar plant in India, marking SoftBank's first foray into renewable energy there.
(Reuters, 12/15/15)
2015 Dec 16, Japan's Supreme Court ruled that requiring married couples to have the same surname is constitutional, dealing a blow to a longtime effort for gender equality in choosing names.
(AP, 12/16/15)
2015 Dec 18, Japan executed two people by hanging, including one who was convicted in a jury trial for the first time under a new system that began six years ago.
(AP, 12/18/15)
2015 Dec 19, In Japan about 20 anti-Christmas protesters calling themselves "Losers with Women" marched through Tokyo's streets, bashing the upcoming holiday as a capitalist ploy that also discriminates against singletons.
(AFP, 12/19/15)
2015 Dec 21, Japan’s scandal-plagued manufacturer Toshiba Corp. said it is cutting 6,800 jobs after projecting a net loss of 550 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March 2016.
(AP, 12/21/15)
2015 Dec 24, Japan's Cabinet approved a record-high military spending plan, endorsing proposals to purchase pricey US surveillance drones and F-35 fighter jets as Tokyo steps up cooperation with Washington amid China's increasingly assertive activity in regional seas.
(AP, 12/24/15)
2015 Dec 25, In Japan local authorities on Okinawa sued the central government in an attempt to stop the relocation of a US air base.
(AP, 12/25/15)
2015 Dec 26, Japanese authorities said that for the first time, an armed Chinese coast guard vessel entered its territorial waters off islands claimed by both countries.
(AP, 12/26/15)
2015 Dec 28, South Korea and Japan reached a landmark agreement to resolve the issue of "comfort women", as those who were forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels were euphemistically known.
(Reuters, 12/28/15)
2015 Taggart Murphy authored “Japan and the Shackles of the Past."
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.74)
2015 Susan Southard authored “Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War."
(Econ, 8/1/15, p.74)
2015 Japan’s sovereign debt this year reached 240% of GDP, the highest in the world, and continued to grow.
(Econ, 11/7/15, p.72)
2015 Reporters without Borders ranked Japan in 61st place this year, a fall of 50 places in five years.
(Econ, 5/16/15, p.37)
2015 A record 19.7 million people visited Japan this year, up from 13.4 million in 2014. Travelers from China topped the list.
(SSFC, 1/24/16, p.A4)
2016 Jan 6, A group of elderly Filipino women raped by Japanese troops during World War II called for compensation from Japan, following Tokyo's pledge of $8.3 million for South Korean women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during the war.
(AP, 1/6/16)
2016 Jan 15, In central Japan an overnight tour bus slid down a mountainside killing at least 14 passengers near Karuizawa.
(SFC, 1/15/16, p.A2)
2016 Jan 28, Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari resigned abruptly to take responsibility for a political funding scandal that has rocked the government, but denied having taken bribes.
(Reuters, 1/28/16)
2016 Jan 29, The Bank of Japan said it will charge lenders that leave too much cash on idle deposit with it, introducing a negative interest rate policy for the first time as it seeks to shore up a stumbling economic recovery.
(AP, 1/29/16)
2016 Jan 30, In South Korea the education ministers of South Korea, Japan and China held the first three-way meeting among the countries that often spar over how their wartime past is described in textbooks.
(AP, 1/30/16)
2016 Feb 2, A Japanese special police unit that deals with alleged espionage arrested an ethnic Korean resident on suspicion of fraud. Kyodo News agency soon reported his name as Pak Chae-Hun.
(AFP, 2/3/16)
2016 Feb 5, Japan deported Ric O'Barry, the star of an Oscar-winning documentary that shows how dolphins are hunted in a Japanese village, after Tokyo airport officials barred his entry and he was held in detention for more than two weeks.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 5, Honda Motor Co. said that it would recall 5.7 million cars worldwide in the latest round of recalls involving Takata Corp. air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel into the vehicle.
(AP, 2/5/16)
2016 Feb 10, Japan announced that it will impose new sanctions on North Korea to protest a rocket launch seen as a test of missile technology.
(AP, 2/10/16)
2016 Feb 17, A Japanese satellite, developed in collaboration with NASA and various other groups, was launched. It was designed to observe X-rays emanating from black holes and galaxy clusters. On March 27 the director of Japan’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science said the satellite has disappeared.
(AP, 3/28/16)
2016 Feb 18, Panasonic Corp. said it will recognize same-sex marriages in its employment policies in a rare move for a major Japanese manufacturer.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 18, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling nearly 2.9 million sports utility vehicles, including more than 1.1 million in the US, because of seat belts that might fail in a crash.
(AP, 2/18/16)
2016 Feb 21, In Japan thousands of people surrounded parliament to protest against government plans to relocate a US military base on Okinawa island.
(Reuters, 2/21/16)
2016 Feb 29, Japan signed an agreement to supply defense equipment to the Philippines, the first such Japanese defense pact in a region where the US allies have been alarmed by China's advance in disputed territories.
(AP, 2/29/16)
2016 Mar 4, The Japanese government said it had accepted a court-mediated settlement plan to halt construction work related to the relocation of a US airbase on Okinawa and resume talks with local authorities who want the base off the island.
(Reuters, 3/4/16)
2016 Mar 7, Japanese telecommunications and Internet company SoftBank Group Corp. said it will reorganize into two new 100 percent-owned subsidiaries, with its global investment business separated from its domestic operations.
(AP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 7, Japanese police set up a special unit to oversee efforts to stem what they are describing as a full-fledged "war" between rival organized crime groups. The Yamaguchi-gumi gang based in the western city of Kobe has been rocked by internal strife since late last year following the defection of several top leaders who formed a rival splinter group.
(AFP, 3/7/16)
2016 Mar 8, Japanese women still faced a 100 day wait before they can remarry following legal changes approved by the country’s cabinet, a move condemned as discriminatory by a UN rights group.
(AFP, 3/8/16)
2016 Mar 9, A Japanese court issued an unprecedented order for a nuclear reactor near Kyoto to stop operating and ordered a second one to stay offline.
(AP, 3/9/16)
2016 Mar 10, Japan-based Honda rolled out a new fuel cell vehicle, the first of its kind to be a five-seater. The zero-emissions Clarity may not sell in big numbers, however, given its price tag of 7.66 million yen ($67,000).
(AP, 3/10/16)
2016 Mar 13, In Japan Okinawa police arrested Justin Castellanos (24) a US Navy seaman at Camp Schwab. Police said he is suspected of sexually assaulting a Japanese tourist in her 40s as she slept at her hotel earlier that morning. On July 15 Castellanos was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
(AP, 3/14/16)(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Mar 24, Japan's whaling fleet returned with 333 whales it caught in its first Antarctic harvest since an international court ruling stopped its hunt two years ago.
(AP, 3/24/16)
2016 Mar 27, In Japan girl (15) escaped from suspect Kabu Terauchi's apartment in downtown Tokyo while he was shopping in Akihabara. She had been held captive for nearly two years. Investigators captured Terauchi in the early hours of March 28 near a forest west of Tokyo.
(AP, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 28, Japan switched on a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of islands disputed by Japan and China, drawing an angry response from Beijing. The new Self Defense Force base is on the island of Yonaguni.
(Reuters, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 28, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe welcomed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe -- the 92-year-old former guerrilla fighter who is widely shunned in the West but frequently courted in Asia.
(AFP, 3/28/16)
2016 Mar 29, In Japan a new security law took effect. Several security bills, passed in 2015, loosened constraints on Japan's military that were imposed after WW II and allows its troops to engage in overseas conflicts for reasons other than self-defense. Protesters and opposition politicians asked for the law to be scrapped and for PM Abe's administration to step down.
(AP, 3/29/16)(Econ, 2/18/17, p.35)
2016 Mar 30, Japanese regulators approved the use of a giant refrigeration system to create an unprecedented underground frozen barrier around buildings at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant in an attempt to contain leaking radioactive water. The system was switched on the next day.
(AP, 3/30/16)(AP, 3/31/16)
2016 Apr 3, A Japanese submarine made a port call in the Philippines, the first in 15 years, in a show of growing military cooperation amid tension triggered by China's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
(Reuters, 4/3/16)
2016 Apr 6, A Japanese military jet carrying six airmen disappeared from radar over southern Japan.
(AP, 4/6/16)
2016 Apr 14, In southern Japan an earthquake of magnitude 6.2 struck 11 km (7 miles) east of Kumamoto, bringing down some buildings. 9 people were killed. More than 100 aftershocks continued to rattle the region.
(Reuters, 4/14/16)(AP, 4/15/16)(AFP, 4/16/16)
2016 Apr 16, In southern Japan a magnitude 7.3 earthquake killed at least 32 people just two days after a 6.2 quake. The death from the two quakes rose to 41 and scores of people were feared buried alive. 11 people remained missing.
(AFP, 4/16/16)(Reuters, 4/17/16)
2016 Apr 19, Japan's southern quake-hit area was rattled by a strong aftershock and searchers found a woman's body buried under landslide rubble. The death toll soon rose to 48 from two powerful earthquakes last week. Three people remained missing.
(AP, 4/19/16)(AP, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 20, Japan-based Mitsubishi Motors admitted that it had used improper methods to test the fuel economy of cars sold in Japan for 25 years.
(SFC, 4/27/16, p.C6)(Econ, 4/30/16, p.58)
2016 Apr 20, An earthquake measuring 6.1 magnitude struck off northeastern Japan.
(Reuters, 4/20/16)
2016 Apr 22, Japanese Transport Minister Keiichi Ishii said he wanted Mitsubishi Motors Corp to respond "with integrity" after revelations that it cheated on test to measure fuel economy, including by possibly buying back the cars in question.
(Reuters, 4/22/16)
2016 Apr 23, Japan’s first stealth fighter jet, a prototype called the X-2 built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, took its maiden flight.
(CSM, 4/24/16)
2016 Apr 28, In Japan Rina Shimabukuro (20) went missing, after she messaged her boyfriend that she was going for a walk. On May 19 police arrested Kenneth Shinzato, aka Kenneth Franklin Gadson (32), an American working as a computer and electrical contractor on the Kadena Air Base. After he was questioned investigators found the body at a location he provided, a forest in central Okinawa.
(AP, 5/20/16)(http://tinyurl.com/hezwoak)(Econ, 6/25/16, p.35)
2016 Apr 30, China laid out firm conditions for improved ties with Japan, telling Tokyo's visiting foreign minister Fumio Kishida that there could be "no ambiguity or vacillation" in meeting Beijing's demands over historical interpretation, relations with Taiwan and other key matters.
(AP, 4/30/16)
2016 May 3, The Philippine defense chief said his government has agreed in principle to lease five Japanese surveillance planes to be used in patrolling disputed areas of the South China Sea and in search-and-rescue missions during disasters.
(AP, 5/3/16)
2016 May 4, The US government said Japanese-based Takata Corp. will recall another 35-40 million air bag inflators bringing the total recall to as many as 69 million.
(SFC, 5/5/16, p.C1)
2016 May 9, Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi (44), who makes objects shaped like her vagina, was convicted after a high-profile obscenity trial. The Tokyo District Court slapped her with a 400,000 yen ($3,700) fine. The court fined her for distributing digital data of her genitals but said her figurines, decorated with fake fur and glitter, could be considered "pop art".
(AFP, 5/9/16)(Reuters, 5/9/16)
2016 May 12, Japan-based Nissan said it is investing $2.2 billion to take a 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors.
(SFC, 5/13/16, p.C2)
2016 May 12, French prosecutors said that $2 million tied to Tokyo's winning bid for the 2020 Olympics was apparently paid to an account linked to Papa Massata Diack (50), the son of disgraced former IAAF president Lamine Diack, in the months immediately before and after the Japanese capital won the games.
(AP, 5/12/16)
2016 May 13, Japan-based Honda said it would recall millions more cars equipped with airbags made by crisis-hit supplier Takata, in a widening of a scandal that has already led to the biggest auto recall in US history.
(AFP, 5/13/16)
2016 May 15, Japanese banks lost some 1.8 billion yen ($16.5 million) when fake overseas cards were used at convenience store ATMs. Fake cards of a South African bank were used. Police later arrested three suspects.
(AP, 6/7/16)
2016 May 20, In Japan the Group of Seven (G7) major economies showed a united front on fighting terrorist financing and tax evasion in talks that ended today, but shied away from coordinated action on policies to revive stalling growth.
(AP, 5/21/16)
2016 May 26, In Japan Group of Seven (G7) leaders agreed on the need to send a strong message on maritime claims in the western Pacific, where an increasingly assertive China is locked in territorial disputes with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations.
(Reuters, 5/26/16)
2016 May 27, President Barack Obama became the first incumbent US leader to visit Hiroshima, the site of the world's first atomic bombing. Obama paid tribute to the "silent cry" of the 140,000 victims of the atomic bomb dropped 71 years ago on Hiroshima, and called on the world to abandon "the logic of fear" that encourages the stockpiling of nuclear weapons.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, In Japan G7 countries expressed concern over China's increasingly assertive activity in the East and South China seas, renewing their warnings against one-sided attempts to change the situation, and stressed the importance of peaceful resolutions.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, Britain told the G7 industrial powers meeting in Japan to do more to fight killer superbugs as the United States reported the first case in the country of a patient with bacteria resistant to a last-resort antibiotic.
(Reuters, 5/27/16)
2016 May 27, The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted documents detailing recalls by Honda, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari and Mitsubishi. More than 12 million vehicles in the US will be recalled to replace potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators.
(AP, 5/27/16)
2016 May 28, The US military announced a 30-day period of mourning at its bases on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, where the killing of a woman has reignited resentment of the heavy US military presence in the region.
(Reuters, 5/28/16)
2016 Jun 1, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. apologized to Chinese workers who were forced to work in its predecessor company’s mines during WWII.
(SFC, 6/2/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 1, Ford Motor Co. said it is recalling nearly 1.9 million vehicles in North America to replace faulty passenger-side front air bags made by Japanese supplier Takata Corp.
(AP, 6/1/16)
2016 Jun 6, The US Navy banned drinking and restricted off-base activity for its personnel in Japan after a sailor was arrested a day earlier on suspicion of drunken driving in Okinawa.
(SFC, 6/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Jun 9, Japanese automaker Honda said it is recalling 784,000 vehicles in Japan due to faulty Takata Corp. air bag inflators for front passenger seats.
(AP, 6/9/16)
2016 Jun 15, In Japan Yoichi Masuzoe, the governor of Tokyo, resigned following a scandal over his use of public funds.
(Econ, 6/18/16, p.40)
2016 Jun 17, China’s product quality agency announced that Honda Motor Co.'s Chinese joint venture is recalling 1 million sedans and SUVs to replace possibly faulty air bags made by Takata Corp.
(AP, 6/17/16)
2016 Jun 19, In Japan tens of thousands of people on the island of Okinawa protested against the presence of US military bases there, many wearing black to mourn the rape and killing of a local woman in which an American contractor is a suspect.
(AP, 6/19/16)
2016 Jun 21, In Japan Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Naomi Hirose acknowledged that TEPCO’s delayed disclosure of the meltdowns at three reactors was tantamount to a cover-up and apologized for it.
(AP, 6/21/16)
2016 Jun 22, In China a six-nation security forum opened in Beijing as a multilateral forum involving high-level policymakers, defense ministry officials, military officers, and researchers from China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia, and the United States.
(AP, 6/22/16)
2016 Jun 29, Japan-based Toyota announced it is recalling 1.43 million vehicles for defective air bags and another 2.87 million vehicles for faulty fuel emissions controls.
(AP, 6/29/16)
2016 Jul 4, In Japan fourteen inmates in an immigration detention center launched a hunger strike over what they call "inhumane conditions" including poor medical care, drawing fresh attention to the country's detention system.
(Reuters, 7/8/16)
2016 Jul 5, Japan and the US announced that they will reduce the number of civilians working on American military bases who receive immunity from Japanese prosecution.
(AP, 7/5/16)
2016 Jul 6, Japan’s Nintendo video-gaming firm released Pokemon Go, an app for smart phones, in American, Australia and New Zealand. The Pokemon franchise began as a video game in 1996.
(Econ, 7/16/16, p.54)
2016 Jul 7, In Kazakhstan a Russian space capsule was launched beginning a two-day trip to the International Space Station. The Soyuz capsule carried Russian Anatoly Ivanshin, NASA's Kate Rubins and Takuya Onishi of Japan’s space agency JAXA.
(AP, 7/7/16)
2016 Jul 10, Japan's ruling coalition was a clear winner in parliamentary elections, paving the way for PM Shinzo Abe to push ahead with his economic revival policies. PM Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party won 56 of 121 upper house seats up for grabs. Coalition parnter Komeito won 14 seats.
(AP, 7/10/16)(SFC, 7/11/16, p.A2)
2016 Jul 15, Japanese messaging app Line rocketed in its Tokyo trading debut after an eye-popping jump in NY a day earlier, as investors cheered the year's biggest technology share sale.
(AP, 7/15/16)
2016 Jul 18, It was announced that ARM Holdings, a British Cambridge-based tech company, would be sold to Japan’s SoftBank for £24 billion.
(Econ, 7/23/16, p.44)
2016 Jul 26, In Japan Satoshi Uematsu (26) went on a stabbing rampage near Tokyo at the Yamayuri-en facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, killing 19 people. Months earlier he had given a letter to Parliament outlining the bloody plan and saying all disabled people should be put to death. This was Japan's deadliest mass killing in decades. In 2020 a court sentenced Uematsu to hang for the killings.
(AP, 7/26/16)(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2016 Jul 27, Thai police captured a Japanese lawyer who altered his appearance through plastic surgery to escape arrest for an alleged stock share manipulation scheme more than a decade ago. Yasuo Tsubaki (62) was sought by Japanese authorities for securities fraud amounting to more than 12 billion yen ($116 million) from 2001-2005.
(AP, 7/29/16)
2016 Jul 29, The United States military said it was preparing for the biggest land return in Okinawa since 1972, as it faces a surge in opposition to its presence following the arrest of one its civilian contractors for the murder of a local woman. The US Army said it would hand back 15 square miles to the Japanese government.
(Reuters, 7/29/16)(Econ, 8/13/16, p.20)
2016 Jul 31, In Japan veteran politician Yuriko Koike (64), fluent in English and Arabic, was elected as Tokyo's first woman governor.
(AFP, 7/31/16)
2016 Aug 2, Japan's Cabinet approved a fresh economic stimulus package worth more than 28 trillion yen ($275 billion), PM Shinzo Abe's latest effort to get the stalling recovery back on track.
(AP, 8/2/16)
2016 Aug 3, The United States and Japan called for the urgent talks after North Korea’s launch of a ballistic missile that for the first time landed in Japanese-controlled waters.
(AFP, 8/3/16)
2016 Aug 6, Japan issued a new protest to Beijing after Chinese coastguard ships and about 230 fishing vessels sailed close to what Tokyo considers its territorial waters around disputed islets in the East China Sea.
(Reuters, 8/6/16)
2016 Aug 11, The top diplomats from Japan and the Philippines called on China to avoid intimidating actions and follow the rule of law in disputed waters where Beijing has defied an arbitration ruling that invalidated its expansive territorial claims.
(AP, 8/11/16)
2016 Aug 11, A Chinese fishing boat sank after colliding with the Greek-flagged ship off the Japan-controlled Senkaku islands, which China also claims. Japanese coast guard ships rescued six crew members and searched for another eight missing.
(AP, 8/12/16)
2016 Aug 20, Japan was hit by a strong earthquake (6.0) off the northern coast one day after a magnitude 5.3 hit off the coast of Ibaraki prefecture. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
(AFP, 8/20/16)
2016 Aug 21, In Brazil the curtain descended on two weeks of high drama at the Rio Games as Tokyo took up the baton and promised to go one better in 2020.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 22, In Japan Typhoon Mindulle struck near Tokyo, the first in 11 years to come ashore in the densely populated region, temporarily shutting down a major city airport and grounding more than 500 flights nationwide.
(AFP, 8/22/16)
2016 Aug 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Kenya to launch the Tokyo Int’l. Summit on African Development which 35 heads of state are expected to attend.
(AP, 8/26/16)
2016 Aug 27, In Kenya Japanese PM Shinzo Abe told African leaders that his country will commit $30 billion in public and private support for infrastructure development, education and healthcare expansion in the continent.
(Reuters, 8/27/16)
2016 Aug 29, In western Japan a shooting at a small construction company in Wakayama killed one employee and left three others injured. On August 31 suspect Yasuhide Mizobata ended an 18-hour standoff with police by shooting himself in the stomach, and was taken to a hospital where he reportedly died.
(AP, 8/31/16)
2016 Aug 30, In northeastern Japan Typhoon Lionrock made landfall near the city of Ofunato, dumping heavy rain and generating high waves that caused flooding along the Pacific coast.
(AFP, 8/30/16)
2016 Aug 31, In Japan 9 people were killed when floods inundated an old people's home in the town of Iwaizumi, taking the death toll from Typhoon Lionock battering northern parts of the country to at least 11. As of Sep 2 the death toll reached 14.
(Reuters, 8/31/16)(AFP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 2, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin had a rare meeting with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in Vladivastok but there was no breakthrough in a territorial dispute that has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their WWII conflict.
(AP, 9/2/16)
2016 Sep 8, China's Ministry of Finance punished at least five car makers, accusing them of cheating its program to subsidize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, receiving roughly 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in illegal subsidies. By the next day it was reported that more than 20 additional car makers, including Nissan and Hyundai, were listed for breaking rules on green car subsidies, widening a scandal over a $4.5 billion annual payout program.
(Reuters, 9/9/16)
2016 Sep 15, A local Japanese official said that hundreds of horseshoe crabs -- known as "living fossils" because they are among the Earth's oldest creatures -- have been found dead near Kitakyushu city where they lay their eggs.
(AFP, 9/15/16)
2016 Oct 3, Japan's Yoshinori Ohsumi (71) won the 2016 Nobel prize for medicine for ground-breaking experiments with yeast which exposed a key mechanism in the body's defenses where cells degrade and recycle their components.
(Reuters, 10/3/16)(SFC, 10/4/16, p.A4)
2016 Oct 30, A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed in Kazakhstan, bringing astronauts Kate Rubins of NASA, Japan's Takuya Onishi and Anatoly Ivanishin of Russia back to Earth from a 115-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AP, 10/30/16)
2016 Nov 17, President-elect Donald Trump met with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe in Trump's first meeting with a world leader since his election last week.
(AP, 11/17/16)
2016 Nov 21, Japanese peacekeepers, with a broader mandate to use force, landed in South Sudan, the first overseas deployment of the country's troops with those expanded powers in nearly 70 years. The 350 Self-Defense Forces will replace a previous contingent of Japanese peacekeepers who served in the UN Mission in South Sudan, but did not have mandate to use force.
(AP, 11/21/16)
2016 Nov 22, Northeastern Japan was jolted by a magnitude-7.4 earthquake, the strongest since a devastating quake and tsunami five years ago. Only moderate tsunami waves reached shore.
(AP, 11/22/16)
2016 Nov, Russia announced the placement of missile defense systems on Etorofu and Kunashiri islands, part of the lower Kurile island chain also claimed by Japan.
(Econ, 12/10/16, p.40)
2016 Dec 6, The US and Japan said that Washington will give nearly 10,000 acres of land on Okinawa back to the Japanese government. The land had been used by Marines for jungle warfare training and the giveback will be completed by Dec 22.
(SFC, 12/7/16, p.A2)
2016 Dec 9, A Japanese capsule blasted off from the Tanegashima Space Center with much-needed supplies for the International Space Station, a week after a Russian shipment was destroyed shortly after liftoff.
(AP, 12/9/16)
2016 Dec 11, Tokyo held a groundbreaking ceremony for a $1.5 billion National Stadium to host the 2020 Olympic Games.
(AP, 12/11/16)
2016 Dec 15, Japan and Russia agreed at a hot spring resort in southwest Japan to revive security talks and start discussing economic cooperation on disputed islands at the core of a row that has kept them from signing a peace treaty formally ending WWII.
(Reuters, 12/15/16)
2016 Dec 15, Nintendo of Japan released “Super Mario Run," its latest video game.
(Econ, 12/24/16, p.69)
2016 Dec 16, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up two days of talks, with numerous economic deals but no big breakthrough on a territorial row that has overshadowed ties since World War Two.
(Reuters, 12/16/16)
2016 Dec 21, Japan's government announced that it will bolster its coast guard capabilities to defend East China Sea islands that China also claims and regularly patrols.
(AP, 12/21/16)
2016 Dec 22, Japan and the US marked a partial return of the land used by American troops to Okinawa in a ceremony on the southern island, but there was no sign the move was helping to lessen protests against the island's heavy US military presence. Nearly 10,000 acres was returned to Okinawa in exchange for six helipads for Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft being built nearby. Locals protested the ceremony.
(AP, 12/22/16)(SSFC, 12/25/16, p.A6)
2016 Dec 22, In Japan a huge fire in Itoigawa city spread to about 140 buildings. It was brought under control after authorities called in extra firefighters to fight the blaze.
(AP, 12/22/16)
2016 Dec 26, Officials said Japan and the US have agreed in principle on guidelines for limiting immunity from Japanese prosecution for civilian workers at American military bases, following a murder case this year on a southern Japanese island involving a Marine-turned-contractor.
(AP, 12/26/16)
2016 Dec 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe stopped at several memorials in Hawaii, one day before he visits the site of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor during a trip intended to show a strong alliance between his country and the United States.
(Reuters, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 27, In Hawaii Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met with President Obama to pay their respects at the site of the surprise Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor over 75 years ago that drew the United States into World War II.
(CSM, 12/28/16)
2016 Dec 27, US electric car maker Tesla and Japanese electronics company Panasonic said they plan to begin production of solar cells at a factory in Buffalo, NY.
(AP, 12/27/16)
2016 Dec 28, In Japan government authorities filed papers demanding prosecutorial charges against an unidentified Dentsu employee suspected of driving Matsuri Takahashi (24) to suicide from overwork. Takahashi was clocking 100 hours of overtime a month before she jumped from her company dorm balcony in December 2015.
(AP, 12/28/16)
2016 The Int’l. Scientific Committee reported that Pacific bluefin tuna stocks were down by 97% from their peak in the early 1960s. Japan disputed the findings.
(Econ, 9/24/16, p.39)
2017 Jan 9, Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical said it will buy US cancer drug developer Ariad Pharmaceuticals in a $5.2 billion deal that the companies expect to close by the end of February.
(AP, 1/9/17)
2017 Jan 13, The US attorney’s office in Detroit announced that Japan-based Takata has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal charge and will pay $1 billion in fines and restitution for a years-long scheme to conceal a deadly defect in its automotive bag inflators.
(SFC, 1/14/17, p.D1)
2017 Jan 14, The leaders of Australia and Japan agreed to boost cooperation between their militaries, as Japan tries to shore up security ties throughout the Asia-Pacific region amid concern over China's growing military might.
(AP, 1/14/17)
2017 Jan 15, Indonesia and Japan said they have agreed to step up maritime security and start discussions on a major railway project to link the Southeast Asian nation's capital and second-biggest city.
(Reuters, 1/15/17)
2017 Jan 16, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe promised Vietnam six new patrol boats during a visit to the Southeast Asian country, which is locked in a dispute with China over the busy South China Sea.
(Reuters, 1/16/17)
2017 Jan 22, Masaya Nakamura (91), the "Father of Pac-Man," died in Japan. He founded Namco, part of Bandai Namco, the Japanese video game company behind the hit creature-gobbling game in 1955. Pac-Man, designed by Namco engineer and video game maker Toru Iwatani, went on sale in 1980, at a time when there were few rival games, such as Space Invaders.
(AP, 1/30/17)
2017 Jan 24, Japan successfully launched its first military communications satellite. The Kirameki-2 is designed to upgrade its network in the face of China's increasingly assertive maritime activity and North Korea's missile threat.
(AP, 1/24/17)
2017 Jan 28, President Donald Trump told Japan's PM Shinzo Abe that the United States is committed to ensuring Japan's security.
(Reuters, 1/28/17)
2017 Jan 30, General Motors Co (GM) and Honda Motor Co Ltd said they will jointly produce hydrogen fuel cell power systems in the United States from around 2020, to cut costs and ramp up output in the hope of increasing take-up of the zero-emission cars.
(Reuters, 1/30/17)
2017 Feb 5, In Japan about 200 protesters marched through the streets of Tokyo's Shinjuku district carrying banners to protest a hotel chain under fire for books its president wrote denying the Nanjing Massacre in wartime China ever happened. APA group founder and president, Toshio Motoya, has placed books of his revisionist views on history in every room of the company's 400-plus APA Hotels.
(Reuters, 2/5/17)
2017 Feb 6, Cambodian police said they arrested a Japanese man and two Cambodians last week suspected of tricking Cambodian women into working in the sex trade in Japan.
(AP, 2/6/17)
2017 Feb 10, President Donald Trump and PM Shinzo Abe opened two days of talks looking to cement a decades-old alliance between Japan and the United States that has been under strain because of the Republican's positions on trade and security.
(Reuters, 2/10/17)
2017 Feb 13, Seijun Suzuki (93), Japanese B-movie director, died. His prolific output from gangster films to fantasies influenced international filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino.
(AFP, 2/22/17)
2017 Feb 27, In Detroit, Mi., Japanese auto parts maker Takata pleaded guilty to fraud and agreed to pay $1 billion in penalties for concealing an air bag defect blamed for at least 16 deaths, most of them in the US.
(SFC, 2/28/17, p.D3)
2017 Feb, Unemployment in Japan fell to 2.8%, the lowest rate since 1994.
(Econ, 4/8/17, p.63)
2017 Mar 5, Japan's ruling party approved a change in party rules that could pave the way for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to become the country's longest-serving leader in the post-World War II era.
(AP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 5, In central Japan a helicopter conducting a mountain rescue exercise crashed with nine local officials aboard. At least three people were feared dead.
(AFP, 3/5/17)
2017 Mar 6, North Korea fired four banned ballistic missiles that flew about 1,000 km (620 miles) on average, with three of them landing in waters that Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. The EU condemned North Korea for firing four banned ballistic missiles and said it would consult with Japan and international partners on how to react.
(AP, 3/6/17)
2017 Mar 10, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced that Japan is ending its peacekeeping mission in troubled South Sudan after five years. Abe said Japan would not renew the mission after the current rotation returns in May.
(AP, 3/10/17)
2017 Mar 17, Japan’s Maebashi district court held the government and the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) liable for neglecting tsunami safety measures at the Fukushima nuclear plant and ordered them to pay more money to dozens out of the thousands of people who fled radiation released during the March 2011 disaster.
(AP, 3/17/17)
2017 Mar 20, Japan and Russia agreed to step up work toward resolving a longstanding territorial dispute through cooperation in a range of areas.
(AP, 3/20/17)
2017 Mar 20, Japan-based Softbank bought a $300 million stake in WeWork, a trendy office-rental firm.
(Econ, 4/1/17, p.58)
2017 Mar 24, In Japan Le Thi Nhat Linh (9) disappeared on her way to school. Her naked body was found two days later. Autopsy results showed that the Vietnamese girl had been choked to death. On April 14 police arrested real estate salesman Yasumasa Shibuya (46) on suspicion he abandoned the girl's body in Aiko City. He headed a neighborhood initiative to watch over children walking to and from school.
(AP, 4/14/17)
2017 Mar 25, In Japan a Vietnamese man held in an immigration detention center died, drawing fresh attention to conditions in the country's detention system. Van Huan Nguyen (aka Nguyen The Hung) was one of more than 11,000 refugees that the country took in over the three decades to 2005 in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Nguyen had complained of pain throughout his detention for a week before his death. The death was the 13th in Japan's detention system since 2006.
(Reuters, 3/26/17)(Reuters, 3/28/17)
2017 Mar 27, In central Japan an avalanche killed seven high school students and a teacher who were among a group of almost 50 on mountain climbing training.
(Reuters, 3/27/17)
2017 Mar 29, Westinghouse Electric Co. the US nuclear unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection in NYC.
(SFC, 3/30/17, p.C6)
2017 Mar, In Japan a man (23) died of suicide while working at Tokyo’s new Olympic stadium. In October Japan’s labor standard office ruled that his death stemmed from overwork (karoshi) and that his family was eligible for government compensation. The man had recorded 190 hours of overtime in the month before killing himself.
(SFC, 10/11/17, p.A2)
2017 Mar 31, Japan's whaling fleet returned home after killing 333 whales in the Antarctic, achieving its goal for the second year under a revised research whaling program.
(AP, 3/31/17)
2017 Apr 17, Japan started withdrawing its 350 troops from a UN mission in war battered South Sudan, a move coinciding with escalating violence in a conflict where killings have been described as genocide.
(Reuters, 4/17/17)
2017 Apr 21, A Japanese government panel endorsed Emperor Akihito's apparent desire to abdicate as an exception, but avoided a key question of succession amid a declining royal population.
(AP, 4/21/17)
2017 Apr 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to discuss a dispute over four islands that has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty ending World War II.
(AP, 4/27/17)
2017 May 6, Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso said Japan will provide $40 million to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote high-level technology as part of efforts to boost quality infrastructure in Asia.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 6, Japan and China agreed to bolster economic and financial cooperation.
(Reuters, 5/6/17)
2017 May 8, Japan and India affirmed plans to strengthen their military cooperation amid rising tension in the Asian region.
(AP, 5/8/17)
2017 May 20, Softbank, a Japanese telecoms group, along with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and smaller investors including Apple and Sharp, launched the world’s largest technology investment fund, worth nearly $100 billion.
(Econ 5/27/17, p.59)
2017 May 21, Japan and other members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreed to pursue their trade deal without the United States. On the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific meeting in Hanoi the 11 remaining countries of the TPP agreed to explore how they could move ahead without erstwhile leader the United States.
(Reuters, 5/21/17)
2017 May 22, China confirmed that it is investigating six Japanese citizens, following a Japanese news report that Chinese authorities in March had detained six men possibly for spying.
(AP, 5/21/17)
2017 May 25, The last Japanese troops withdrew from a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
(Reuters, 5/25/17)
2017 May 26, In Sicily US President Donald Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe agreed to expand sanctions against North Korea for its continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
(AP, 5/26/17)(Reuters, 5/26/17)
2017 May 28, In Indiana Takuma Sato became the first Japanese driver to win the Indianapolis 500.
(AP, 5/29/17)
2017 May, Son Masayoshi launched his Vision Fund. The fund eventually raised $98.6 billion.
(Econ., 10/17/20, p.14)
2017 Jun 3, Japan’s Asahi Shimbun reported that Toyota has terminated its tie-up with Tesla and stepped up efforts to develop electric vehicles by itself.
(AFP, 6/3/17)
2017 Jun 6, Japan and Vietnam agreed to bolster their security ties through Japanese-funded projects including the upgrading of Vietnamese coastal patrol capabilities, defense equipment and technology transfer amid concerns about China's increasingly assertive activity in regional seas.
(AP, 6/6/17)
2017 Jun 6, Five workers at a Japanese nuclear facility that handles plutonium were exposed to high levels of radiation after a bag containing highly radioactive material apparently broke during an equipment inspection.
(AP, 6/7/17)
2017 May, Police in Japan arrested Masaaki Osaka (67) in Hiroshima, the country’s longest sought fugitive. He had killed a police officer nearly 46 years ago, but was arrested on another charge and identified through DNA testing.
(SFC, 6/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Jun 9, Japan's parliament passed a law allowing Emperor Akihito to become the country's first monarch to abdicate in 200 years, but put off a debate over how to tackle the shrinking royal population and whether to allow women to ascend the throne.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 9, Japanese internet, solar and technology company SoftBank Group Corp. said it is buying robotics pioneer Boston Dynamics from Alphabet Inc., Google's parent. As part of the deal SoftBank is also buying from Alphabet a company called Schaft that develops biped robots. Schaft's roots are in a research lab at the University of Tokyo.
(AP, 6/9/17)
2017 Jun 10, Japanese art collector Yusaku Maezawa (41) announced his purchase of a $110.5 million Basquiat masterpiece, “Untitled" (1982).
(AFP, 6/10/17)
2017 Jun 14, Japan kicked off a whaling campaign in the northwestern Pacific. Three ships left port on a three-month mission to catch 43 minke whales and 134 sei whales.
(AFP, 6/14/17)
2017 Jun 15, Japan's ruling coalition pushed a contentious bill through parliament that makes it a crime to plan a crime. The government of PM Shinzo Abe said the new law, which criminalizes the planning of 277 serious crimes, is needed to prevent terrorism.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 15, Japan's future king, Crown Prince Naruhito, started a five-day visit to Denmark after the Japanese parliament last week passed a law allowing his father, Emperor Akihito, to become the first monarch to abdicate in 200 years.
(AP, 6/15/17)
2017 Jun 17, US and Japanese vessels and aircraft searched for seven American sailors who were missing after their Navy destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, collided before dawn with the ACX Crystal, a container ship four times its size, off the coast of Japan. The search for seven US Navy sailors was called on June 18 off after several bodies were found in the ship's flooded compartments, including sleeping quarters.
(AP, 6/17/17)(AP, 6/18/17)
2017 Jun 20, Tokyo's Gov. Yuriko Koike said the giant Tsukiji fish market, popular with tourists, won't be destroyed, although it will be closed for up to five years while it is modernized and turned into a food theme park.
(AP, 6/20/17)
2017 Jun 26, Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo and the US, saying it was the only way it could keep on supplying replacements for faulty air bag inflators linked to the deaths of at least 16 people. Takata sold its surviving operations to Key Safety Systems (KSS), a Michigan-based rival recently acquired by Ningbo Joyson Electronic, a Chinese auto-parts group.
(AP, 6/26/17)(Econ 7/1/17, p.59)
2017 Jul 2, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party suffered an historic defeat in an election in Tokyo. Populist Gov. Yuriko Koike's Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First party) won a thumping victory over the scandal-laden ruling party in a closely watched assembly election that could alter national politics.
(Reuters, 7/2/17)(AP, 7/2/17)
2017 Jul 5, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said heavy rain and overflowing rivers have forced the evacuation of almost 400,000 people in southern Japan.
(Reuters, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 5, The EU said it has agreed "in principle" on a free trade deal with Japan that will affect an overwhelming majority of commerce between the two economic giants and will be officially endorsed at a summit of their leaders July 6.
(AP, 7/5/17)
2017 Jul 6, In Japan torrential rains battered the southwest for a second day, killing three people, with 100,000 ordered to evacuate their homes and while thousands of rescuers, some in helicopters, searched for survivors.
(Reuters, 7/6/17)
2017 Jul 7, Japanese rescuers searched for victims of freak rains that have killed at least 11 people and left hundreds cut off from the outside world by landslides. Public broadcaster NHK said 14 people were still unaccounted for.
(Reuters, 7/7/17)
2017 Jul 8, In southwestern Japan the death toll from several days of freak weather rose to 16 as rescue crews took advantage of a break in the weather on Saturday to search for survivors. At least 14 others remained missing.
(Reuters, 7/8/17)(SSFC, 7/9/17, p.A4)
2017 Jul 9, Japan’s tiny landmass of Okinoshima, where women are banned and male visitors must bathe naked in the sea before visiting its shrine, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage.
(http://tinyurl.com/y8y735of)(AP, 7/15/17)
2017 Jul 9, The leaders of Sweden and Japan demanded that North Korea halts missile tests, and pledged increased cooperation in the UN as PM Shinzo Abe met with PM Stefan Lofven in Helsinki.
(AP, 7/9/17)
2017 Jul 10, In Finland Japanese PM Shinzo Abe pledged to increase cooperation with Finland in Arctic issues and on furthering Russian relations, after talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
(AP, 7/10/17)
2017 Jul 13, Japanese officials said the death toll from heavy rains and flooding in the south has risen to 30, while rescue workers continued their efforts to find survivors.
(AFP, 7/13/17)
2017 Jul 13, In Australia an unidentified man (58) became the 18th death worldwide due to exploding Takata air bag inflators. The man died in a crash in a Sydney suburb after he was hit in the neck by a metal fragment after air bags deployed in a crash.
(AP, 7/22/17)
2017 Jul 23, In Japan tens of thousands of people in the northeast were told to evacuate their homes as heavy rain caused major flooding and cut some rail links.
(Reuters, 7/23/17)
2017 Jul 25, Japanese lawmakers questioned PM Shinzo Abe in parliament for a second day about a cronyism scandal, with some opposition members accusing him of testifying falsely a day earlier when he denied using his influence to help a friend.
(AP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 25, Japanese authorities said a local woman has died from SFTS, or severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, a tick-borne virus after being bitten by a stray cat in what is possibly the world's first animal-to-human transmission of the disease.
(AFP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 25, A Sydney lawyer announced a class action lawsuit against Toyota, Honda and Mazda seeking refunds for cars fitted with faulty air bags from Takata that have been linked to 18 deaths around the world.
(AP, 7/25/17)
2017 Jul 28, Japan said it will freeze the assets of five organizations and nine individuals linked to North Korea, including two Chinese entities.
(Reuters, 7/28/17)
2017 Jul 28, Japan’s Defense Minister Tomomi Inada resigned saying she accepted responsibility for a cover-up in which her ministry concealed records of the dangers faced by Japanese UN in South Sudan.
(SFC, 7/22/17, p.A2)
2017 Jul 31, Japan said the United States had returned a sliver of land at a controversial US air base on the southern island of Okinawa which has sparked a lengthy and fierce dispute.
(AFP, 7/31/17)
2017 Aug 4, Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. said they plan to spend $1.6 billion to jointly build auto manufacturing plant in the US, a move that will create up to 4,000 jobs.
(AP, 8/4/17)
2017 Aug 10, Sources said Japan's army will give thousands of helicopter parts to keep Philippine military choppers airborne, helping Tokyo gain clout with Manila in a contest with China to secure influence over the strategic South China Sea nation.
(Reuters, 8/10/17)
2017 Aug 26, A Japanese SH-60J anti-submarine warfare helicopter lost contact around 90 km (56 miles) off the coast of Aomori Prefecture. On crew member was soon rescued, but three remained missing.
(Reuters, 8/27/17)
2017 Aug 31, Britain and Japan said they would cooperate in countering the threat posed by North Korea, two days after it fired a missile over northern Japan, and will call on China to exert its leverage.
(Reuters, 8/31/17)
2017 Sep 1, Tuna fishing countries reached an agreement to gradually rebuild severely depleted bluefin stocks, while still allowing nations like Japan to catch and consume the fish following a week-long meeting in South Korea.
(SFC, 9/2/17, p.A4)
2017 Sep 12, The private Japan Art Association announced the winners of this year’s Praemium Imperiale arts prizes. Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov and Senegalese music star Youssou N'Dour were among the winners.
(AFP, 9/12/17)
2017 Sep 14, The leaders of India and Japan met in Gujarat state and agreed to deepen defense ties and push for more cooperation with Australia and the United States, as they seek to counter growing Chinese influence across Asia. Abe flew to Gujarat to lay the foundation stone of a $17 billion bullet train project, India's first, that was made possible by a huge Japanese loan.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 14, A North Korean state agency threatened to use nuclear weapons to "sink" Japan and reduce the United States to "ashes and darkness" for supporting a UN Security Council resolution and sanctions over its latest nuclear test.
(Reuters, 9/14/17)
2017 Sep 15, North Korea conducted its longest-ever test flight of a ballistic missile, sending an intermediate-range weapon 2,300 miles over US ally Japan into the northern Pacific Ocean in a launch that signals both defiance to its rivals and a big technological advance.
(AP, 9/15/17)(SFC, 9/16/17 p.A3)
2017 Sep 20, The board of Japan-based Toshiba signed off on selling its computer chip business to a group led by Bain Capital Private Equity. The deal's future remains unclear as Toshiba's US joint venture partner Western Digital opposes it.
(AP, 9/20/17)
2017 Sep 22, A Japanese court ruled that Tokyo Electric Power Co., not the government, should pay compensation to dozens of former residents of Fukushima for losses to their livelihood caused by reactor meltdowns at a nuclear plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
(AP, 9/22/17)
2017 Sep 25, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said he would dissolve parliament's lower house on Sep 28 for a snap election on Oct 22, seeking a mandate to stick to his tough stance toward a volatile North Korea and rebalance the social security system.
(AP, 9/25/17)
2017 Sep 26, Japan's government approved a revision of its 30-to-40-year plan to decommission the Fukushima nuclear plant, delaying by three more years the removal of radioactive fuel rods stored at two of the three reactors damaged in the 2011 disaster.
(AP, 9/26/17)
2017 Oct 1, Chinese authorities said Honda will recall more than 245,000 vehicles in China over concerns about airbags made by troubled Japanese giant Takata.
(AP, 10/1/17)
2017 Oct 4, The International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo organizing committee wrapped up a two-day project review vowing to cut costs for the 2020 Games and address concerns over water pollution in Tokyo Bay.
(AP, 10/4/17)
2017 Oct 5, Mitsubishi said it is recalling 66,000 cars for a second time to replace faulty Takata front passenger air bag inflators.
(AP, 10/5/17)
2017 Oct 6, Japan-based automotive supplier Denso announced plans to invest $1 billion and create more than 1,000 new jobs in its main Tennessee facility to meet growing demand for electric vehicle parts.
(AP, 10/6/17)
2017 Oct 13, In Japan a scandal over product inspections data faked by materials and machinery giant Kobe Steel expanded to include products shipped to more than 500 customers.
(AP, 10/13/17)
2017 Oct 17, A Japanese military helicopter carrying four crewmembers lost radar contact while on a nighttime search and rescue flight training mission in central Japan and is feared to have crashed.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 17, US and Japanese diplomats agreed to maximize pressure on North Korea to resolve tensions over its nuclear program.
(AP, 10/17/17)
2017 Oct 22, Japan’s ruling coalition appeared headed to an impressive win in national elections, in what would represent at least a partial comeback for PM Shinzo Abe.
(AP, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 22, Japan's Ryota Murata beat French champion Hassan N'Dam by technical knockout in Tokyo to capture the World Boxing Association middleweight title.
(AFP, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 22, Typhoon Lan roared towards Japan's main island on election day, killing at least two people, prompting a warning for tens of thousands to evacuate and the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
(Reuters, 10/22/17)
2017 Oct 23, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe, buoyed by a huge election win for lawmakers who favor revising the post-war, pacifist constitution, signaled a push towards his long-held goal but will need to convince a divided public to succeed.
(Reuters, 10/23/17)
2017 Oct 26, The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said an 85-year-old survivor of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima will jointly accept the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize together with ICAN.
(Reuters, 10/26/17)
2017 Oct 30, In Japan Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won pledges from Japan of help with fighting terrorism and assistance in building the country's crumbling infrastructure, as he met with PM Shinzo Abe during a visit to Tokyo.
(AP, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct 30, President Donald Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe agreed by phone to work together on steps to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile development, ahead of the US leader's visit to Asia.
(Reuters, 10/30/17)
2017 Oct 30, Japanese police found nine dismembered bodies hidden in coolers in an apartment in Zama southwest of Tokyo. Takahiro Shiraishi (27) was arrested the next day and confessed to cutting them up and hiding them in cold-storage cases.
(AP, 10/31/17)(SFC, 11/2/17, p.A3)
2017 Oct 31, Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi said a tunnel at North Korea's nuclear test site collapsed after Pyongyang's sixth atomic test on September 3, possibly killing more than 200 people.
(Reuters, 10/31/17)
2017 Nov 1, Japan's parliament re-elected Abe as prime minister after his ruling party's resounding victory in a lower house election last month. Abe pledged to compile a 2 trillion yen ($17.5 billion) package of policy measures in early December to tackle Japan's aging and shrinking population.
(AP, 11/1/17)
2017 Nov 4, In Japan an artificial intelligence (AI) character, named Shibuya Mirai, was made an official resident of a busy central Tokyo district, with the virtual newcomer resembling a chatty seven-year-old boy.
(AFP, 11/4/17)
2017 Nov 5, US President Donald Trump praised Japan as a "crucial ally" and warned adversaries not to test America's resolve as he opened a grueling and consequential first trip to Asia.
(AP, 11/5/17)
2017 Nov 6, In Japan US Pres. Donald Trump urged Japan to protect itself from nuclear-armed North Korea by buying billions of dollars of US military equipment.
(SFC, 11/7/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 10, Sources said Japan will build four coast guard radar stations on islands in the Sulu Celebes Seas separating the Philippines and Indonesia to help Manila counter a surge in piracy by Islamic insurgents.
(Reuters, 11/10/17)
2017 Nov 11, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe hailed a "fresh start" to the relationship between the countries after a meeting that saw them agree to work more closely on North Korea on the sidelines of APEC in Vietnam.
(AP, 11/11/17)
2017 Nov 19, In Japan a fatal traffic accident occurred when a truck driven by a US Marine collided with a small truck at an intersection, killing Japanese driver Hidemasa Taira (61) in Naha, Okinawa. US serviceman Nicholas James-McLean (21) was arrested for the fatal accident and driving under the influence of alcohol.
(AP, 11/19/17)(Reuters, 11/20/17)(SFC, 11/21/17, p.A2)
2017 Nov 23, Eight men were found on Japan's northern coast who said they are from North Korea and washed ashore after their boat broke down. Investigators believed the men are not defectors and wished to return home.
(AP, 11/24/17)
2017 Nov 24, Japan expressed strong regret over San Francisco's decision to give city property status to a statue commemorating Asian women who worked in military brothels for Japanese troops during World War II, with Osaka declaring it will terminate its 60-year sister-city ties. In 2018 Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura sent a letter to Mayor London Breed terminating the sister city relationship due to the "Comfort Women" statue.
(AP, 11/24/17)(SFC, 10/4/18, p.C5)
2017 Nov 27, In Japan eight bodies, which had been reduced partly to skeletons, were found on in a small wooden ship that washed up on a beach in the sea of Japan. The bodies of two males, similarly partly skeletonized, were also found at the weekend on the western shore of the Sea of Japan island of Sado.
(Reuters, 11/27/17)
2017 Dec 1, A Japanese court convicted Kenneth Shinzato, a US military contractor, of murder and rape charges in the May death of an Okinawa woman (20) and sentenced him to life in prison.
(AP, 12/1/17)
2017 Dec 4, In northern Japan three bodies of people believed to be North Koreans were recovered, two days after authorities found a dilapidated empty boat.
(AP, 12/4/17)
2017 Dec 7, In Japan Nagako Tomioka (58), the head priests of the Tomioka Hachimangu shrine in Tokyo, was ambushed and killed with a samurai sword as she got out of her car, apparently by her brother, who then took his own life.
(SFC, 12/9/17, p.A2)
2017 Dec 9, Japanese police arrested three crew of a North Korean boat for stealing a generator from a hut on an uninhabited island.
(AP, 12/9/17)
2017 Dec 13, A Japanese court ruled that the Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime prefecture should not operate because it is too close to the active Mount Aso volcano and could be affected by a major eruption.
(AP, 12/13/17)
2017 Dec 15, Japan froze the assets of 19 companies to step up pressure on North Korea to return Japanese citizens that it abducted in the 1970s and 1980s and to halt its nuclear weapons and missile development.
(AP, 12/15/17)
2017 Dec 19, Japan's Cabinet approved a plan to purchase a set of costly land-based US missile combat systems to increase the country's defense capabilities amid escalating threats from North Korea.
(AP, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 19, The CEO of Japanese automaker Subaru said he and all other executives would return part of their pay until next March following an inspection scandal at the company.
(AP, 12/19/17)
2017 Dec 21, Ford and Mazda said they are recalling more than 380,000 older small pickup trucks for a second time to replace Takata air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel. The recalls cover driver and passenger inflators in certain 2004 to 2006 Ford Ranger and Mazda B-Series trucks made by Ford.
(AP, 12/21/17)
2017 Dec 22, Japan-based Toshiba Corp.'s energy systems unit unveiled a long telescopic pipe carrying a pan-tilt camera designed to gather crucial information about the situation inside the reactor chambers at the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.
(AP, 12/22/17)
2017 Dec 23, In Japan the body of Airi Kakimoto (33) was found in a state of extreme malnutrition after her parents reported the death. Police soon arrested the couple whose daughter froze to death on Dec 18 in a tiny room where they had confined her for years because they believed she had a form of mental illness that made her violent.
(Reuters, 12/27/17)
2017 Dec 28, Japanese authorities indicted the North Korean captain of a boat that drifted to its coast on charges of stealing a generator, appliances and other equipment from an uninhabited island. The captain and his nine crewmembers on a dilapidated boat were rescued near a tiny island off of Hokkaido, in late November.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Dec 30, In Japan Tatsuro Toyoda (88), the former Toyota Motor Corp. president, died. He led the company's climb to become one of the world's top automakers.
(AP, 1/6/18)
2017 Richard McGregor authored “Asia’s Reckoning: China, Japan and the Fate of US Power in the Pacific Century."
(Econ, 9/9/17, p.78)
2017 Japanese researcher Yu Yanagisaw at the University of Tokyo developed -- by accident-- a new type of glass that can be repaired simply by pressing it back together after it cracks.
(AP, 12/28/17)
2017 Some 54,000 American servicemen and their families were stationed in Japan. Some 28,500 were stationed in South Korea.
(Econ, 4/22/17, SR p.10)
2018 Jan 1, In Malaysia an unidentified driver died from injuries inflicted by a faulty Takata air bag inflator, raising the worldwide death toll to 22.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Jan 4, Brookfield Business Partners LP acquired Westinghouse Electric, the US nuclear unit of embattled Japanese electronics giant Toshiba, in a deal valued at about out $4.6 billion.
(AP, 1/4/18)
2018 Jan 10, Thailand police arrested Shigeharu Shirai (74) in a province north of Bangkok where he has been hiding for over 10 years to evade murder charges in Japan in connection with the death of a rival gang member. The fugitive was recognized when photos of his full-body tattoos were circulated online.
(AP, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 11, Alabama landed a coveted $1.6 billion joint venture plant by Japanese car giants Toyota and Mazda that will eventually employ 4,000 people.
(AP, 1/11/18)
2018 Jan 12, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Estonia kicking off a five-day European tour that will also take him to Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania — becoming the first-ever head of the Asian nation to visit these countries.
(AP, 1/12/18)
2018 Jan 13, Latvia’s PM Maris Kucinskis met with Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe. It was reported that Japan has entered into a pact with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to boost economic and political ties.
(http://tinyurl.com/yc79za6p)
2018 Jan 14, In Lithuania Japan's PM Shinzo Abe visited a memorial in Kaunas to Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who saved 6,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by issuing visas from war-torn Lithuania, in defiance of Tokyo.
(AFP, 1/14/18)
2018 Jan 15, It was reported that Japan's Softbank is investing 460 million euros ($558 million) in German used car trading platform AUTO1. The Berlin-based company was launched in 2012 and operates in over 30 countries, selling more than 40,000 cars a month on its associated sites.
(AP, 1/15/18)
2018 Jan 22, In Japan trade officials gathered for two days of talks to try to forge a trade pact that U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned last year. The member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), also known as TPP 11, reached a basic agreement on the pact in November.
(AP, 1/22/18)
2018 Jan 23, In central Japan 12 people, including eight soldiers, skiing on the slopes of the Mount Kusatsu-Shirane volcano near a famous hot spring resort were injured by flying rocks during a sudden eruption. One soldier later died.
(AP, 1/23/18)
2018 Jan 28, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed hopes for improved relations with China during talks in Beijing that also touched on joint efforts to counter North Korea's nuclear program.
(AP, 1/28/18)
2018 Jan 30, The Japan Prize Foundation announced that Emory pediatrician Dr. Max Cooper and Australian Professor Jacques Miller have been awarded the Japan Prize for research in immunology. A third winner was Japanese inventor Akira Yoshino, recognized for work that is the foundation of the lithium ion battery.
(AP, 1/30/18)
2018 Feb 5, A Japanese military helicopter crashed in southwestern Japan, killing one of its two crewmembers and ripping the top floor off a house and setting it on fire.
(AP, 2/5/18)
2018 Feb 20, A Thai court granted sole custody of 13 surrogate children to Mitsutoki Shigeta (28) of Japan. He is the son of the founder of Japanese telecom and insurance company Hikari Tsushin and, as a major shareholder, earns millions of dollars a year in dividends.
(AP, 2/21/18)
2018 Feb 22, Japan’s Takata Corp. reached a $640 million deal to settle consumer protection claims from 44 US states and the District of Columbia. But only a small fraction will be paid to the air-bag maker’s bankruptcy.
(SFC, 2/23/18, p.C2)
2018 Feb 24, A Japanese surveillance plane spotted the North Korean-flagged tanker "Chon Ma San", designated by the United States as a sanction target, with the Maldivian-flagged tanker "Xin Yuan 18" some 250 km (156 miles) east of Shanghai in defiance of UN Security Council resolutions.
(Reuters, 2/27/18)
2018 Feb 26, Japanese police said they have found parts of a dismembered body believed to be of a missing woman in the mountains of western Japan. Police reportedly arrested a 26-year-old New Yorker as a suspect.
(AP, 2/26/18)
2018 Mar 8, In Chile 11 nations signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, dropping tariffs and establishing sweeping new rules in markets representing about a seventh of the world's economy. members included Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
(SFC, 3/9/18, p.C5)
2018 Mar 9, Japan’s finance ministry confirmed that an official linked to a scandal involving the wife of Japan's prime minister has been found dead. Finance Minister Taro Aso announced the resignation of National Tax Agency chief Nobuhisa Sagawa, who previously headed a ministry department in charge of state property deals. The scandal involves the questionable sale in 2016 of state land to an ultra-nationalist school operator at one-seventh of its appraised price.
(AP, 3/9/18)
2018 Mar 10, US President Donald Trump's trade envoy met with top European Union and Japanese officials who were pushing back against new US steel tariffs that have unleashed fears of a broader trade war.
(AP, 3/10/18)
2018 Mar 12, Japan's Finance Ministry acknowledged that it doctored documents in a widening scandal linked to PM Shinzo Abe's wife that has rattled his government and caused its support ratings to slide.
(AP, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 12, Japan and South Korea agreed that maximum pressure must be maintained on North Korea until it takes concrete action toward addressing concerns about its nuclear weapon and missile programs.
(Reuters, 3/12/18)
2018 Mar 13, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates each extended a concession to an offshore oil field they share to a Japanese consortium despite a diplomatic crisis between the two of them tearing at the region.
(AP, 3/13/18)
2018 Mar 25, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, his ratings in a slump amid a suspected cronyism scandal and cover-up, apologized again for causing anxiety and loss of confidence in his government.
(Reuters, 3/25/18)
2018 Mar 28, In Japan SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Masayoshi Son announced a $200 billion solar power project in Saudi Arabia, which he described as "the world's biggest solar power generation".
(AP, 3/28/18)
2018 Mar 30, Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange, agreed to launch a $930 million Indian joint solar energy venture with Chinese firm GCL System Integration Technology Co as part of its India solar investment roadmap.
(Reuters, 4/2/18)
2018 Mar 31, Japanese whaling vessels returned to port after catching 333 minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean without facing protests by anti-whaling groups.
(AFP, 3/31/18)
2018 Apr 5, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced a 35 billion yen ($330 million) loan for irrigation projects in Iraq during talks with PM Haider al-Abadi and pledged Japan's continuing support.
(AP, 4/5/18)
2018 Apr 7, Japan activated its first marine unit since World War Two trained to counter invaders occupying Japanese islands along the edge of the East China Sea that Tokyo fears are vulnerable to attack by China.
(Reuters, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 7, In western Japan Yoshitane Yamasaki (73), a father who allegedly confined his mentally ill son, now 42, in a small cage for more than two decades, was arrested.
(AFP, 4/7/18)
2018 Apr 8, In Cambodia Japan signed a grant and loan agreement with Cambodia totaling over $90 million, despite concerns from the international community over PM Hun Sen's crackdown on government critics ahead of a July general election.
(Reuters, 4/8/18)
2018 Apr 9, In Japan a magnitude 6.1 quake struck 12 km (7 miles) underground near Ohda city, about 800 km (480 miles) west of Tokyo. Five people sustained injuries, but most of them were minor and not life-threatening.
(AP, 4/9/18)
2018 Apr 10, In Japan Masazo Nonaka was certified as the world's oldest living man, at age 112 years, 259 days. Nonaka received the certificate from Guinness World Records in a ceremony at his home in Ashoro, on the northern main island of Hokkaido.
(AP, 4/10/18)
2018 Apr 15, Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Kono and his Chinese counterpart pledged in Tokyo to improve ties between their nations and affirmed a commitment to stick with UN resolutions aimed at forcing North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons.
(AP, 4/15/18)
2018 Apr 16, Japan and China took another step toward mending their troubled relations, resuming high-level economic talks in Tokyo for the first time in nearly eight years. Foreign Minister Wang Yi led the Chinese delegation, becoming the first foreign minister to visit Japan for bilateral talks since 2009.
(AP, 4/16/18)
2018 Apr 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe headed to US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort for two days of talks.
(AP, 4/17/18)
2018 Apr 18, Pres. Donald Trump and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe agreed to start talks on a new trade deal at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, but failed to reach a deal that would exempt Japan from US steel and aluminum tariffs.
(SFC, 4/19/18, p.A3)
2018 Apr 19, In southern Japan the Mount Io volcano erupted for the first time in 250 years, spewing steam and ash hundreds of meters into the air, as authorities warned locals not to approach the mountain.
(AFP, 4/19/18)
2018 Apr 21, In southern Japan Nabi Tajima (117), the world's oldest person, died in the town of Kikai.
(AP, 4/22/18)
2018 May 1, Visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe told Jordan's King Abdullah II that his country hopes to upgrade its ties with the kingdom into a strategic partnership.
(AP, 5/1/18)
2018 May 4, Toyota announced it would invest Can$1.4 billion ($1.09 billion) in two factories in central Canada where the Japanese manufacturer plans to build its largest hybrid hub in North America.
(AFP, 5/4/18)
2018 May 5, Japanese bullfighting organizers said they had lifted a long-standing ban on women entering the sport's "sacred" ring, in a bid to modernize the traditional activity for the #Metoo generation.
(AFP, 5/5/18)
2018 May 8, Japanese drugmaker Takeda announced that it has agreed to buy Ireland-based Shire for 46 billion pounds ($62.4 billion) in cash and stock, one of the biggest deals ever in the pharmaceuticals industry.
(AP, 5/8/18)
2018 May 9, In Japan leaders from China, Japan and South Korea held their first three-way summit in more than two years, demonstrating a spirt of cooperation despite continuing differences over North Korea and other issues. Japan and China agreed on to set up a security hotline to defuse any maritime confrontations between the two Asian powers.
(AP, 5/9/18)(Reuters, 5/9/18)
2018 May 14, Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp. said that it is buying a stake in Peanuts Holdings, the company behind Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Sony Music Entertainment signed a deal with DHX Media, based in Nova Scotia, Canada, to acquire 49 percent of the 80 percent stake DHX holds in Peanuts.
(AP, 5/14/18)
2018 May 19, In France "Shoplifters," a heart wrenching family tale by Japanese veteran director Hirokazu Kore-eda, won the Palme d'Or top prize at the 71st Cannes film festival.
(AFP, 5/19/18)
2018 May 21, A Japanese researcher said a survey of women working for Japanese newspapers and TV networks has found 156 cases of alleged sexual misconduct reported by 35 women, about one-third of which involved lawmakers, government officials and law enforcers.
(AP, 5/21/18)
2018 May 22, Japan-based Sony Corp. said it plans to spend $2.3 billion acquiring an additional 60 percent stake in EMI Music Publishing, home to the Motown catalog and contemporary artists like Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Pharrell Williams.
(AP, 5/22/18)
2018 May 24, A Japanese warship spotted a North Korean tanker and another ship with a Korean name apparently transferring fuel on the open seas in violation of UN sanctions.
(AP, 6/1/18)
2018 May 31, The leaders of Japan and Vietnam agreed to bolster cooperation in maritime safety and defense, and expressed shared concerns over China's growing activity in the South China Sea.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 May 31, Shares of General Motors posted their largest one-day gain since the company's rebirth from bankruptcy eight years ago, after Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank decided to pump $2.25 billion into GM's autonomous car unit. GM said that it will add $1.1 billion to SoftBank's investment in an effort to speed large-scale deployment of self-driving robotaxis next year.
(AP, 5/31/18)
2018 Jun 3, In Kazakhstan Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, Scott Tingle of the United States and Norishige Kanai of Japan touched down in a Russian Soyuz space capsule on the Kazakh steppe after a 168-day mission aboard the International Space Station.
(AFP, 6/3/18)
2018 Jun 4, Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso apologized over the tampering by lower level officials with documents related to a government property sale linked to Akie Aber, the with PM Shinzo Abe. Taro Aso took a voluntary one-year salary cut after 20 officials were penalized for the tampering.
(SFC, 6/5/18, p.A2)
2018 Jun 5, The US Marines said Colonel Mark S. Coppess, the commanding officer at a US Marine base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, has been relieved of duty over a "loss of trust".
(AFP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 5, Professional distance swimmer Ben Lecomte set off from Japan to San Francisco in an attempt to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Scientific teams accompanying Lecomte planned to collect more than 1,000 water samples and study plastic pollution, mammal migration and the effect of extreme endurance events on the human body.
(AP, 6/5/18)
2018 Jun 7, Honda Motor Co. of Japan and US automaker General Motors Co. agreed to work together in developing batteries for electric vehicles, mainly for the North American market.
(AP, 6/7/18)
2018 Jun 9, In Japan police apprehended Ichiro Kojima (22) following a knife attack late today on a bullet train near Tokyo that left one person dead and two injured.
(SFC, 6/11/18, p.A2)
2018 Jun 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe met with families of people abducted by North Korea decades ago and pledged to deal directly with the North to resolve the issue.
(AP, 6/14/18)
2018 Jun 15, Japan's Cabinet adopted an economic plan that would allow more foreign workers as the rapidly aging country seeks to make up for its declining workforce.
(AP, 6/15/18)
2018 Jun 18, In western Japan residents cleaned up debris after a powerful 6.1 earthquake hit the area around Osaka, the country's second-largest city, killing four people and injuring hundreds while knocking over walls and setting off fires.
(AP, 6/18/18)
2018 Jun 26, In northern Japan a knife-wielding man (21) killed an officer in a neighborhood police station, took the man's gun and fatally shot a security guard at the entrance to a nearby elementary school in Toyama. The man was shot by a second policeman and captured after the midafternoon attack.
(AP, 6/26/18)
2018 Jun 27, Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft arrived at an asteroid after a 3 1/2-year journey to undertake a first-ever experiment: blow a crater in the rocky surface to collect samples and bring them back to Earth.
(AP, 6/27/18)
2018 Jun 30, In northern Japan a rocket developed by a Japanese startup company exploded seconds after liftoff, bursting into flames. The MOMO-2 rocket, developed by Interstellar Technologies, was launched in Taiki town on Hokkaido.
(AP, 6/30/18)
2018 Jul 1, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for an early conclusion of a regional trade pact that ensures free and rules-based commerce in the face of an increasingly protectionist US under President Donald Trump. At the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) meeting trade ministers and officials from 16 Asian countries agreed to speed up negotiations on outstanding issues and reach a basic agreement by the end of the year.
(AP, 7/1/18)
2018 Jul 5, Japan ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents from the outskirts of its ancient capital of Kyoto after "historic" rains battered its western region, killing a man, with yet more rain forecast.
(Reuters, 7/5/18)
2018 Jul 6, Japan executed doomsday cult leader Shoko Asahara (b.1955) and six of his followers. Their 1995 poison gas attack on rush-hour commuters in Tokyo's subway killed 13 people and sickened more than 6,000.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 6, Dr. Kimishige Ishizaka (1925), an immunologist who identified the antibodies that trigger allergic reactions, died in Japan. His work included the book "History of Allergy" (2014).
(SFC, 7/27/18, p.D2)
2018 Jul 6, In Poland Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono held talks with his Polish counterpart, Jacek Czaputowicz, on global security and on intensifying cooperation in trade, business, science and clean energy.
(AP, 7/6/18)
2018 Jul 7, Japan's public broadcaster NHK said 49 people have been killed and 48 are unaccounted for in western and central Japan as torrential rain pounded the area, with more than 1.6 million evacuated from their homes.
(Reuters, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 7, In Japan a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit outside of Tokyo this evening, swaying buildings in the capital, but no tsunami warning was issued.
(AFP, 7/7/18)
2018 Jul 8, In western Japan the death toll from torrential rain and landslides rose to 81 people, with dozens still missing after more than 2,000, temporarily stranded in the city of Kurashiki, were rescued.
(Reuters, 7/8/18)
2018 Jul 9, In southwestern Japan rescuers dug up more bodies as they searched for dozens still missing after heavy rains caused severe flooding. More than 100 people were now confirmed dead in the disaster.
(AP, 7/9/18)
2018 Jul 10, Japan's top government spokesman says at least 155 people have been confirmed dead from the recent heavy rains, floods and mudslides that had struck western Japan. More than 50 people were still unaccounted.
(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 10, A Chinese court convicted a Japanese citizen of spying in China. Takahiro Iwase was sentenced to 12 years in prison with forced labor by the Hangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang. Iwase was arrested in May 2015 near a military facility in the Zhejiang province on suspicion of spying.
(AP, 7/10/18)
2018 Jul 11, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe visited an evacuation center in the city of Kurashiki in Okayama prefecture, where more than 40 of at least 200 victims died.
(AP, 7/11/18)(SFC, 7/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 12, Japanese authorities raided the apartment of nurse Ayumi Kuboki (31), who's in custody on suspicion of fatally poisoning at least two elderly patients at a terminal care hospital. Local media have reported the woman confessed to police she poisoned about 20 patients.
(AP, 7/12/18)
2018 Jul 13, Nissan said it is recalling nearly 105,000 small cars to replace Takata passenger air bag inflators that can explode and hurl shrapnel at drivers and passengers.
(AP, 7/13/18)
2018 Jul 17, Japan and the US extended their 30-year nuclear pact as Tokyo pledged to work to reduce its plutonium stockpile to address Washington's concern.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 17, The European Union and Japan signed a landmark deal in Tokyo that will eliminate nearly all tariffs on products they trade.
(AP, 7/17/18)
2018 Jul 18, Japan approved its first national legislation banning smoking inside of public facilities, but the watered-down measure excludes many restaurants and bars and is seen as toothless.
(AP, 7/18/18)
2018 Jul 20, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe warned the US that higher tariff on auto imports would backfire and harm not only America's jobs and economy but also devastate the global economy.
(AP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 20, Japan's parliament approved a contentious law allowing up to three casino resorts to open in this wealthy nation and possibly lure more foreign visitors.
(AP, 7/20/18)
2018 Jul 22, In Japan Chiyo Miyako (b.1901), the world's oldest woman, died.
(SFC, 7/28/18, p.A2)
2018 Jul 23, Japan recorded its highest temperature ever as a deadly heat wave continued to grip a wide swath of the country and nearby South and North Korea. Over the last two weeks more than 40 people have died in Japan and about 10 in South Korea.
(AP, 7/23/18)
2018 Jul 24, Japanese government officials said an "unprecedented" heatwave has killed at least 80 people in Japan over the last two weeks.
(Reuters, 7/24/18)
2018 Jul 25, In Japan a grueling heat wave drove temperatures to records in some areas hit by flooding and landslides, hampering clean-up and recovery efforts. Vegetable prices spiked as much as 65 percent.
(Reuters, 7/25/18)
2018 Jul 26, In Japan the last six members of a Japanese doomsday cult who remained on death row were executed for a series of crimes in the 1990s including a sarin gas attack on Tokyo subways that killed 13 people.
(AP, 7/26/18)
2018 Jul 28, Heavy rain fell on parts of Japan and airlines canceled flights as approaching Typhoon Jongdari threatened to dump more rain on a region devastated by floods and landslides earlier this month.
(AP, 7/28/18)
2018 Jul 29, Tropical Storm Jongdari made landfall early today in central Japan after dumping heavy rain on Tokyo and other parts of eastern Japan the previous day.
(AP, 7/29/18)
2018 Jul 29, In Japan Tiphaine Veron (36), a French teaching assistant, was last seen leaving her lodgings in Nikko.
(AFP, 10/17/18)
2018 Jul 30, Japan said it would spend some $4.2 billion over the next 30 years on installing and operating US radar systems to protect itself against North Korean missile threats.
(AFP, 7/30/18)
2018 Jul 30, Japanese researchers announced the first human trial using a kind of stem cell to treat Parkinson's disease, building on earlier animal trials.
(AFP, 7/30/18)
2018 Jul 31, Japan pledged to reduce its controversial stocks of plutonium, the world's biggest inventory of the highly toxic material held by a state without nuclear weapons, following pressure from the United States, China and other countries.
(Reuters, 7/31/18)
2018 Jul, In Japan Mio Sugita, a lawmaker belonging to PM Shinzo Abe's ruling party, said in a right-wing magazine that the government shouldn't use tax money for LGBT rights because same-sex couples don't produce children and have "no productivity." The comment triggered outrage from sexual minorities as well as others, including the elderly and disabled.
(AP, 8/31/18)
2018 Aug 1, Severe storms forced a French-American long-distance swimmer to suspend his attempt to become the first person to swim across the Pacific Ocean. Ben Lecomte (51) and the yacht accompanying him returned to a port in Yokohama, Japan, to wait out the weather.
(AP, 8/1/18)
2018 Aug 3, Japan's government urged a medical university to promptly disclose the results of an investigation into its admissions process after reports alleged it had altered the test scores of female applicants for years to deny them entry and ensure fewer women became doctors.
(AP, 8/3/18)
2018 Aug 8, In Japan rain lashed Tokyo and dozens of flights were canceled as Typhoon Shanshan headed toward the capital.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 8, In Japan Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga (67) died of pancreatic cancer. He had led an anti-US military base movement on the southern Japanese island.
(AP, 8/8/18)
2018 Aug 9, Typhoon Shanshan brought rain and strong winds to Japan's northeast coast, but no major damage was reported as the storm did not make landfall.
(AP, 8/9/18)
2018 Aug 10, Japan launched an unprecedented probe into gender discrimination at all the nation's medical universities after a Tokyo medical school admitted to altering the entrance test results of female applicants to exclude them.
(AFP, 8/10/18)
2018 Aug 10, In Japan a search and rescue helicopter crashed into the central mountains of Gunma prefecture. All nine people aboard were killed.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 11, In Japan tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Okinawa vowing to stop the planned relocation of a US military base on the southern island.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 11, Japan's government said that it is looking into reports that a Japanese citizen was detained this month in North Korea. The man (39) was supposed to return to Japan on August 13 but was reportedly arrested in Nampo city.
(AP, 8/11/18)
2018 Aug 14, People in South Korea and Taiwan unveiled monuments and staged protests to mark Japan's wartime use of "comfort women", a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels.
(Reuters, 8/14/18)
2018 Aug 17, Japanese media said several government ministries may have been inflating for decades the number of disabled people they employ in order to meet quotas, even as the government imposes levies on private companies that fail to meet theirs.
(Reuters, 8/17/18)
2018 Aug 20, Four Japanese basketball players apologized for bringing "disgrace" to their nation after they were kicked out of the Asian Games for paying prostitutes for sex.
(AFP, 8/20/18)
2018 Aug 27, In central Japan four elderly patients at the Y&M Fujikake Daiichi Hospital died over the last 48 hours after the air conditioning failed in their rooms.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 27, Nissan's first electric sedan designed for China began production at the start of a wave of dozens of planned lower-cost electrics being created by global automakers for their biggest market.
(AP, 8/27/18)
2018 Aug 28, Tomoyuki Sugimoto arrived back in Japan after being released by North Korea. Sugimoto, who was arrested in early August, had been in North Korean custody during an investigation into an unspecified crime.
(AP, 8/28/18)
2018 Aug 30, Japanese electronics giant Panasonic became the latest company to announce plans to move its European headquarters out of Britain ahead of Brexit.
(AP, 8/30/18)
2018 Sep 4, Typhoon Jebi slammed into western Japan, causing heavy rain to flood the region's main international airport and strong winds to blow a tanker into a bridge, disrupting land and air travel and leaving thousands stranded. The storm left at least 11 people dead.
(AP, 9/4/18)(AP, 9/5/18)
2018 Sep 6, In northern Japan a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck the island of Hokkaido triggered dozens of landslides that crushed houses under torrents of dirt, rocks and timber, prompting frantic efforts to unearth any survivors. The death toll soon rose to 18. In one small town two dozen people remained unaccounted for after an entire mountainside collapsed on their homes.
(AP, 9/6/18)(AFP, 9/6/18)(AP, 9/7/18)
2018 Sep 8, In Japan the Hokkaido government said that 30 people are dead or presumed dead and nine remain missing from the Sept. 6 earthquake. All but three of the victims are in the town of Atsuma, where landslides crushed and buried houses at the foot of steep forested hills.
(AP, 9/8/18)
2018 Sep 8, In New York City Japan's Naomi Osaka (20) defeated Serena Williams 6-2, 6-4 in the women's final at the US Open in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
(AP, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 9, Japan's agriculture ministry said it had confirmed the country's first outbreak of swine fever in 26 years and suspended exports of pork and wild boar meat. The fever, a different kind from the African swine fever that has broken out in China, was found in a farm in central Japan's Gifu city.
(Reuters, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 9, Japanese authorities said the death toll has hit 39 from the September 6 earthquake that struck the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
(AP, 9/9/18)
2018 Sep 14, Japan's determined bid to return to commercial whale hunting was blocked by anti-whaling nations in a tense vote at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Brazil.
(AFP, 9/14/18)
2018 Sep 17, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa (42) said that he plans to blast off on the inaugural private commercial trip around the moon and will invite six to eight creative people on the weeklong journey via the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket scheduled for 2023. Maezawa is the founder of Japan's largest retail website.
(SFC, 9/18/18, p.A5)
2018 Sep 20, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe was re-elected as head of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party in a landslide, paving the way for up to three more years as the nation's leader and a push toward a constitutional revision.
(AP, 9/20/18)
2018 Sep 21, A Japanese spacecraft released two small rovers on an asteroid in a mission that could provide clues to the origin of the solar system. The two Minerva-II-1 rovers were lowered from the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 to the asteroid Ryugu.
(AP, 9/21/18)
2018 Sep 28, A US diplomat said the United States, Japan and Australia are cooperating on a domestic internet cable proposal for Papua New Guinea as an alternative to an offer by Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant that the United States regards as a cybersecurity threat.
(AP, 9/28/18)
2018 Sep 30, In Japan Denny Tamaki, who campaigned criticizing the American military presence on the southwestern island of Okinawa, won the election for governor, defeating a ruling party-backed candidate pushing the status quo.
(AP, 9/30/18)
2018 Sep 30, Typhoon Trami ripped through Japan, forcing cancellations of flights and trains, including in the Tokyo area as authorities warned of strong winds and torrential rain.
(AP, 9/30/18)
2018 Oct 1, Researchers from the United States and Japan won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries that help the body marshal its cellular troops to attack invading cancers. James Allison of the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University will share the 9-million-kronor ($1.01 million) prize for 2018.
(AP, 10/1/18)
2018 Oct 3, The Japan Space Exploration Agency said the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout (MASCOT), a German-French observation device, was released from the unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa2 and successfully landed on the asteroid Ryugu.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 3, It was reported that General Motors will partner with Honda in the "large-scale" development of autonomous vehicles.
(AP, 10/3/18)
2018 Oct 6, In Japan Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market, the world's largest fishmarket and a major tourist attraction, held its final tuna auction before a controversial move to a new site next week.
(Reuters, 10/6/18)
2018 Oct 8, In Japan zookeeper Akira Furusho died after he was found bleeding from his neck and lying on the floor inside a tiger cage at Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima following an apparent attack by a white tiger.
(AP, 10/9/18)
2018 Oct 11, Tokyo's famous fish market reopened at a new location but retained its most famous tradition: the tuna auction at the waterfront Toyosu facility.
(AP, 10/11/18)
2018 Oct 12, Denny Tamaki, the new governor of Okinawa, said he wants Americans to know that the US and Japanese governments are forcing a relocation of a US Marine base that residents want removed from the southern Japanese island.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan-based Toyota said it is recalling nearly 188,000 pickup trucks, SUVs and cars worldwide because the air bags may not inflate in a crash.
(AP, 10/12/18)
2018 Oct 12, Japan's space agency said it is delaying a touchdown of its Hayabusa2 spacecraft on the Ryugu asteroid due to a rockier than expected surface.
(SFC, 10/13/18, p.A2)
2018 Oct 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe renewed his pledge to push for a revision to the country's war-renouncing constitution, in which he wants the military explicitly mentioned.
(AP, 10/14/18)
2018 Oct 17, French Pres. Emmanuel Macron met with visiting Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to prepare next year's summits of the group of developing countries G-20 in Japan and the world's advanced economies G-7 in France.
(AP, 10/17/18)
2018 Oct 19, The Japanese government ordered KYB Corp., a company that falsified quality data for earthquake "shock absorbers" used in hundreds of buildings, to speed up an investigation and fix any problems quickly.
(AP, 10/19/18)
2018 Oct 20, European and Japanese space agencies said an Ariane 5 rocket successfully lifted a spacecraft carrying two probes into orbit for a joint mission to Mercury. The unmanned BepiColombo spacecraft successfully separated and was sent into orbit from French Guiana as planned to begin a seven-year journey to Mercury.
(AP, 10/20/18)
2018 Oct 23, Japan was informed by Qatar that a man, believed to be journalist Jumpei Yasuda, has been released. Yasuda was last heard from in Syria in 2015. Contact was lost with Yasuda after he sent a message to another Japanese freelancer on June 23, 2015.
(AP, 10/23/18)
2018 Oct 23, Johnson & Johnson said it is paying about $2 billion in cash for the outstanding stake of Ci:z Holdings Co., a Japanese cosmetics and skincare products company.
(AP, 10/23/18)
2018 Oct 25, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe arrived in Beijing as both countries try to repair ties that have been riven by disputes over territory, military expansion in the Pacific and World War II history.
(AP, 10/25/18)
2018 Oct 26, China and Japan pledged to forge closer ties as both countries stood together at an "historic turning point", signing a broad range of agreements including a $30 billion currency swap pact, amid rising trade tensions with Washington. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said 500 business deals worth $18 billion had been signed between Chinese and Japanese companies during PM Shinzo Abe's visit.
(Reuters, 10/26/18)
2018 Oct 28, In Japan visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi met with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe at a resort area near Mount Fuji reaffirming their ties amid growing worries about trade and regional stability.
(AP, 10/28/18)
2018 Oct 28, Japan Airlines pilot Katsutoshi Jitsukawa (42) was arrested after the driver of a Heathrow Airport crew bus smelled alcohol and reported it to security officials. Tests later found the first officer had 189 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood in his system, almost 10 times the 20 milligrams limit for a pilot.
{Britain, Japan, Aviation}
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Oct 30, South Korea's Supreme Court ruled that Nippon Steel should compensate four South Koreans $89,000 for forced labor during Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula before the end of World War II. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said the ruling violated a 1965 treaty between Seoul and Tokyo that was accompanied by Japanese payments to restore diplomatic ties.
(AP, 10/30/18)(SFC, 2/14/19, p.A5)
2018 Nov 4, Japanese author Haruki Murakami (69) announced that he is working to set up a library that will showcase his works and also serve as a meeting place for research and international exchanges.
(AP, 11/4/18)
2018 Nov 5, A Chinese trawler suspected of poaching off Japan's southern coast sailed away with Japanese inspectors on board. The inspectors returned to their own ship after its half-day chase of the trawler, with the help of Japanese coast guard. The incident surfaced more than 50 days after it occurred when Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga responded to a reporter's question following a news report.
(AP, 12/27/18)
2018 Nov 7, Japan's Tokyo Medical University, that acknowledged systematically discriminating against female applicants, announced plans to accept more than 60 who were unfairly rejected over the past two years.
(AP, 11/7/18)
2018 Nov 14, Meeting in Singapore Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe agreed to step up the pace of talks to end a decades-old territorial dispute.
(Reuters, 11/14/18)
2018 Nov 16, In Australia Shinzo Abe became the first prime minister of Japan to visit Darwin since the northern city was bombed by Japanese forces in World War II, as he and PM Scott Morrison spoke of strengthening defense and other ties between their countries ahead of the APEC meeting in Papua New Guinea.
(AP, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 16, A senior North Korean official on a visit to South Korea called for Japan to apologize for the wartime forced labor of thousands of Koreans.
(AP, 11/16/18)
2018 Nov 18, At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Papua New Guinea, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the US and Papua New Guinea signed an electrification agreement to bring electricity to 70 percent of Papua New Guinea's people by 2030.
(AP, 11/18/18)
2018 Nov 19, Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan over allegations of financial misconduct and faced being fired this week, in a stunning fall from grace for one of the world's best-known businessmen.
(AFP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 19, Japan's coast guard said that a Chinese fishing boat sank off a southern Japanese island and five of its crewmembers were missing. Three others were rescued.
(AP, 11/19/18)
2018 Nov 21, South Korea said it will dissolve a foundation funded by Japan to compensate South Korean women who were forced to work in Japan's World War II military brothels. The widely expected decision, if carried out, would effectively kill a controversial 2015 agreement to settle a decades-long impasse over the sexual slavery issue. Japan still hasn't acknowledged legal responsibility for atrocities during its colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
(AP, 11/21/18)
2018 Nov 22, In Japan Nissan board members voted unanimously to sack Carlos Ghosn as chairman, a spectacular fall from grace for the once-revered boss who was stripped of the role while languishing in a Japanese jail. Ghosn stood accused of under-reporting his income by millions of dollars and a host of other financial irregularities.
(AFP, 11/22/18)
2018 Nov 23, The 170 member states of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions chose Japan's Osaka to host the 2025 World Expo, beating out cities in Russia and Azerbaijan for an event expected to draw millions of visitors.
(AP, 11/23/18)
2018 Nov 25, French economy minister Bruno Le Maire said Renault had launched an internal audit into Ghosn's pay. Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn has denied allegations of financial misconduct, claiming he had no intention of making false reports.
(AFP, 11/25/18)
2018 Nov 26, Japanese police said they found six bodies believed to be members of a family in a farmhouse in a remote mountain village, and the body of a seventh person who jumped or fell from a nearby bridge.
(AP, 11/26/18)
2018 Nov 29, South Korea's top court ordered Japanese company Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to financially compensate 10 Koreans for forced labor during Tokyo's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, in the second such ruling in a month that again drew quick, vehement protests from Japan.
(AP, 11/29/18)
2018 Nov 30, A Japanese court approved a 10-day extension of the detention of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn.
(AP, 11/30/18)
2018 Dec 6, A US F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet and a KC-130 Hercules refueling aircraft collided during training off Japan's coast. One of two crew members recovered was dead and five others remain missing.
(AP, 12/6/18)
2018 Dec 8, Japanese lawmakers approved government-proposed legislation allowing hundreds of thousands of foreign laborers to live and work in a country that has long resisted accepting outsiders.
(AP, 12/8/18)
2018 Dec 10, Prosecutors in Japan charged Nissan Motor Co.'s former chairman Carlos Ghosn, executive Greg Kelly and the automaker itself for allegedly violating financial laws by underreporting income.
(AP, 12/10/18)
2018 Dec 11, A Tokyo court ruled that Nissan Motor Co.'s former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, and another executive will remain in custody through Dec. 20, more than a month after their arrest. Their detention could continue for months more under the Japanese legal system.
(AP, 12/11/18)
2018 Dec 13, Japan's space agency says more than 200 photos taken by the two small Minerva II-1 rovers on Ryugu asteroid show no signs of a smooth area for the planned touchdown of a spacecraft early next year.
(AP, 12/13/18)
2018 Dec 14, Japan's central government started main reclamation work at a disputed US military base relocation site on the southern island of Okinawa despite fierce local opposition.
(AP, 12/14/18)
2018 Dec 16, In northern Japan 42 people were injured in an explosion at a bar in Sapporo.
(Reuters, 12/16/18)
2018 Dec 19, SoftBank Group Corp.'s Japanese mobile subsidiary suffered a bitter debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, slumping 15 percent, hurt by a recent service outage and concerns about the use of parts from Chinese telecom giant Huawei.
(AP, 12/19/18)
2018 Dec 21, Japan's Cabinet approved a record 5.26 trillion yen ($47 billion) defense budget as the country seeks to bolster its arms capability by increasingly buying advanced US weapons.
(AP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 21, Prosecutors in Japan accused Carlos Ghosn of a breach of trust causing Nissan a financial loss of more than 1.8 billion yen ($16 million).
(AP, 12/21/18)
2018 Dec 23, A Japanese court approved prosecutors' request to keep Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn in detention for another 10 days.
(AP, 12/23/18)
2018 Dec 25, In Japan Nissan Motor Co. executive Greg Kelly was released from detention after being granted bail over the alleged underreporting of his boss Carlos Ghosn's pay.
(AP, 12/25/18)
2018 Dec 26, Japan announced that it is leaving the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial hunts for the animals for the first time in 30 years, but said it would no longer go to the Antarctic for its much-criticized annual killings.
(AP, 12/26/18)
2018 Richard Lloyd Parry authored “Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan’s Disaster Zone."
(Econ, 8/19/17, p.70)
2018 In Japan the 108-km Sanko Line closed this spring after operating for 88 years. The rail line had snaked through the municipalities in Shimane and Hiroshima prefectures.
(Econ., 9/12/20, p.32)
2019 Jan 1, In Japan a minivan slammed into pedestrians early today on a street where people had gathered for New Year's festivities in downtown Tokyo. A ninth person was injured after the suspect got out of the car and punched him. Kazuhiro Kusakabe (21) was arrested.
(AP, 1/1/19)
2019 Jan 5, In Japan a 612-pound (278-kg) bluefin tuna sold for a record 333.6 million yen ($3 million) at the first auction of 2019, after Tokyo's famed Tsukiji market was moved to a new site on the city's waterfront.
(AP, 1/5/19)
2019 Jan 8, A South Korean court approved a request by plaintiffs in a wartime forced labor case to seize part of the local assets of Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp.
(Reuters, 1/8/19)
2019 Jan 9, Nepal and Japan agreed to allow state-run Nepal Airlines to resume flights between the two Asian nations at the beginning of a two-day visit to Nepal by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.
(AP, 1/9/19)
2019 Jan 11, In Japan Nissan's ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn was charged with breach of trust, making the star executive's release unlikely for months to come. Greg Kelly, another Nissan executive; and Nissan as a legal entity also were charged with additional underreporting of income, from 2015 through mid-2018.
(AP, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 11, A French judicial source said the president of Japan's Olympic Committee, Tsunekazu Takeda, is under formal investigation in France for suspected corruption related to Japan's successful bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.
(Reuters, 1/11/19)
2019 Jan 12, Japan-based Nissan confirmed that Chief Performance Officer Jose Munoz, who took a leave of absence a week ago, has resigned, the first high-profile departure at the Japanese automaker publicly acknowledged as related to the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
(AP, 1/12/19)
2019 Jan 14, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov threw cold water on Tokyo's hopes for a quick return of disputed islands in the Pacific, warning Japan that it must recognize them as part of Russia's territory as a starting point for talks.
(AP, 1/14/19)
2019 Jan 17, Japan-based Hitachi said it has suspended work on a major new nuclear power station, the Horizon Project, located in Wylfa, on the Welsh island of Anglesey, because it had been unable to agree on financing with the UK government. Hitachi said it will also suspend work on another site located in England.
(AP, 1/17/19)
2019 Jan 19, In Japan representatives from a Pacific Rim trade bloc geared up to roll out and expand the market-opening initiative as they met in Tokyo, reaffirming their commitment to open and free trade and inviting new membership.
(AP, 1/19/19)
2019 Jan 20, Masazo Nonaka (113), the world's oldest man, died early today while sleeping at home in Ashoro on Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido.
(AP, 1/20/19)
2019 Jan 22, A Tokyo court rejected former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn's latest request for bail, more than two months after his arrest.
(AP, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 22, Russia's Pres. Vladimir Putin met with Japan's PM Shinzo Abe in the Kremlin for the latest round of talks on the dispute over a chain of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Police detained 11 people protesting against territorial concessions outside the Japanese embassy in Moscow.
(Reuters, 1/22/19)
2019 Jan 25, Japan's Supreme Court upheld a law that effectively requires transgender people to be sterilized before they can have their gender changed on official documents. The 2004 law states that people wishing to register a gender change must have their original reproductive organs, including testes or ovaries, removed and have a body that "appears to have parts that resemble the genital organs" of the gender they want to register.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 25, It was announced that Japanese brewer Asahi is buying the beer business of Britain's Fuller Smith & Turner's for 250 million pounds ($327 million), in a deal that includes its flagship London Pride.
(AP, 1/25/19)
2019 Jan 28, In Japan Toshiba Corp. unveiled a remote-controlled robot with tongs that it hopes will be able to probe the inside of one of the three damaged reactors at the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant and grip chunks of highly radioactive melted fuel.
(AP, 1/28/19)
2019 Feb 3, Japan-based Nissan announced it has cancelled plans to make its X-Trail SUV in the UK. That reverses a decision in late 2016 to build the SUV at Nissan's Sunderland plant in northern England, which employs 7,000 workers.
(AP, 2/3/19)
2019 Feb 4, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that he and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel share a responsibility to work towards global peace and prosperity, with both hoping for a prompt, democratic solution to Venezuela's leadership crisis.
(Reuters, 2/4/19)
2019 Feb 14, In Japan thirteen gay couples filed the country's first lawsuit challenging the rejection of same-sex marriage, arguing the denial violates their constitutional right to equality.
(AP, 2/14/19)
2019 Feb 22, A Japanese probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid 300 million km away for clues about the origin of life and the solar system landed successfully. Hayabusa2 touched down briefly on the Ryugu asteroid, fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection and blasted back to its holding position.
(AP, 2/22/19)
2019 Feb 24, In Japan the people of Okinawa voted on a plan for a US military base relocation to Henoko in a referendum that will send a message on how they feel about housing American troops in Japan. Residents rejected the relocation plan in the non-binding referendum.
(AP, 2/24/19)(SFC, 2/26/19, p.A2)
2019 Mar 5, Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, credited with bringing together the East and West in his innovative designs, was awarded this year's Pritzker Architecture Prize, known internationally as the highest honor in the field.
(AP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 5, A Tokyo court approved the release of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn on 1 billion yen ($8.9 million) bail, rejecting an appeal by prosecutors to keep him jailed. The former head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance has been detained since he was arrested on Nov.
(AP, 3/5/19)
2019 Mar 9, In southwest Japan the Guinness World Records officially recognized Kane Tanaka (116) in a ceremony at the nursing home where she lives in Fukuoka.
(AP, 3/9/19)
2019 Mar 14, Japan followed other countries on multiple continents in banning the Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 aircraft from its airspace following the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines' crash.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 14, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp. announced it is investing an additional $750 million at five US plants that will bring nearly 600 new jobs, including the production of two hybrid vehicles for the first time at its Kentucky facility.
(AP, 3/14/19)
2019 Mar 19, Tsunekazu Takeda (71) said he is stepping down as the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee amid a vote-buying scandal that French investigators suspect helped Tokyo land next year's Olympics. He again denied corruption allegations against him.
(AP, 3/19/19)
2019 Mar 20, Japanese police arrested an American man on suspicion of fatally stabbing his Japanese wife at a court where they were to settle a divorce at the entrance to Tokyo Family Court.
(AP, 3/20/19)
2019 Mar 27, In Japan a Nissan committee set up to strengthen corporate governance after the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn said an investigation found he had wielded too much power and recommended the scandal-hit automaker add more independent outside directors to its board and better oversee compensation and auditing.
(AP, 3/27/19)
2019 Apr 1, Japan's government said the era of Japan's next emperor, which begins May 1, will be named "Reiwa," connoting pursuit of harmony, after selecting the phrase from ancient Japanese poetry instead of Chinese classics as PM Shinzo Abe promotes national pride.
(AP, 4/1/19)
2019 Apr 4, Tokyo prosecutors arrested Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn for a fourth time, on fresh allegations that cut short his brief time outside detention.
(AP, 4/4/19)
2019 Apr 5, A Japanese court approved the detention of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn through April 14 after his latest arrest over financial misconduct allegations, a move that has raised questions among legal experts.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 5, Japan's space agency said an explosive dropped from its Hayabusa2 spacecraft successfully blasted the surface of an asteroid for the first time to form a crater and pave the way for the collection of underground samples for possible clues to the origin of the solar system.
(AP, 4/5/19)
2019 Apr 8, In Japan Nissan's shareholders ousted the automaker's former chairman Carlos Ghosn from its board, seeking to shut the door on an era capped by scandal.
(AP, 4/8/19)
2019 Apr 9, A Japanese F-35A fighter jet with one pilot disappeared from radar during a flight exercise in northern Japan.
(AP, 4/9/19)
2019 Apr 10, Japan partially lifted an evacuation order in one of the two hometowns of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant for the first time since the 2011 disaster. The action allows people to return to about 40 percent of Okuma.
(AP, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 10, Japan grounded its F-35A fighter jets, built by US-based Lockheed Martin, following the crash of a Japanese F-35 in the Pacific Ocean a day earlier.
(Reuters, 4/10/19)
2019 Apr 11, In Japan a Catholic Bishops' Conference in Tokyo said it has established a committee in each diocese to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against minors by its priests.
(SFC, 4/12/19, p.A2)
2019 Apr 12, A Tokyo court approved the detention of Nissan's former Chairman Carlos Ghosn through April 22, allowing prosecutors to interrogate him daily on fresh allegations of financial misconduct.
(AP, 4/12/19)
2019 Apr 13, In Japan a US Navy serviceman fatally stabbed a Japanese woman and then killed himself in Okinawa.
(AP, 4/13/19)
2019 Apr 15, Tokyo Electric Power Co., the operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, began removing fuel from a cooling pool at one of three reactors that melted down in the 2011 disaster, a milestone in what will be a decades-long process to decommission the facility.
(AP, 4/15/19)
2019 Apr 19, In Japan a car driven by an 87-year-old man smashed into pedestrians at a Tokyo intersection, killing a woman and a girl on a bicycle and overturning a garbage truck. Eight other people were injured. The driver was taken to a hospital.
(AP, 4/19/19)
2019 Apr 22, Japanese prosecutors said they have indicted Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn on fresh breach of trust charges that expand their allegations of financial misconduct outside Japan.
(AP, 4/22/19)
2019 Apr 24, Japan's government apologized to tens of thousands of people who were forcibly sterilized (1948-1996) under a now-defunct Eugenics Protection Law which was designed to "prevent the birth of poor-quality descendants," and promised to pay them compensation. The parliament earlier today enacted legislation to provide redress, including 3.2 million yen ($28,600) in compensation for each victim.
(AP, 4/24/19)
2019 Apr 25, In Japan former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn emerged from his Tokyo detention center late today after accepting bail of $4.5 million under strict conditions including restrictions on seeing his wife.
(AFP, 4/25/19)
2019 Apr 26, President Donald Trump expressed confidence that a bilateral trade deal between the US and Japan can be reached quickly despite ongoing differences over tariffs as he opened talks with PM Shinzo Abe at the White House.
(AP, 4/27/19)
2019 Apr 30, Japanese Emperor Akihito (85) announced his abdication at a palace ceremony in his final address, as the nation embraced the end of his reign with reminiscence and hope for a new era.
(AP, 4/30/19)
2019 May 1, In Japan Emperor Naruhito inherited the sacred sword and jewel that signaled his succession and pledged in his first public address to follow his father's example by devoting himself to peace and sharing the people's joys and sorrows.
(AP, 5/1/19)
2019 May 4, Interstellar Technology Inc., a Japanese aerospace startup funded by a former internet maverick, successfully launched a small rocket into space, making it the first commercially developed Japanese rocket to reach orbit.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 4, The Japanese government said the nation's child population has declined for the 38th year in a row and is now at a record low.
(AP, 5/4/19)
2019 May 8, In western Japan a car slammed into a group of 16 mostly kindergarten children who were strolling on a sidewalk in the lakeside city of Otsu, leaving two dead.
(AP, 5/08/19)
2019 May 8, Japanese telecoms company Softbank Corp. said that it will spend 456.5 billion yen ($4 billion) to increase its stake in Yahoo Japan to nearly 45%.
(AP, 5/08/19)
2019 May 15, Takafumi Horie, founder of Japan's Interstellar Technology Inc., said his company plans to provide low-cost rocket services and compete with American rivals such as SpaceX.
(SFC, 5/16/19, p.A2)
2019 May 17, Japan and China agreed to boost their relations ahead of a planned visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Japan in June, his first since coming to power in 2013.
(AP, 5/17/19)
2019 May 22, It was reported that a smartphone app developed by Japanese police is being widely downloaded by women trying to protect themselves from gropers on packed rush-hour trains. The "Digi Police" app was originally issued by Tokyo police three years ago, but a function to scare off molesters was only added a few months ago.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 22, British and Japanese mobile phone companies said that they're putting on hold plans to sell new devices from Huawei, in the latest fallout from US tech restrictions aimed at the Chinese company.
(AP, 5/22/19)
2019 May 25, President Donald Trump needled Japan over the US-Japan trade imbalance as he kicked off a state visit to the country that's been tailor-made to his whims and ego.
(AP, 5/25/19)
2019 May 26, President Donald Trump presented a special US-made trophy to the winner of a sumo tournament as he got a taste of one of Japan's most treasured cultural institutions.
(AP, 5/26/19)
2019 May 26, President Donald Trump downplayed recent North Korean missile tests, tweeting from Tokyo that they're not a concern for him in comments sure to unnerve Japanese leaders.
(AP, 5/26/19)
2019 May 27, President Donald Trump said he is not "personally" bothered by recent short-range North Korean missile tests and doesn't believe they violated UN Security Council resolutions, breaking with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is hosting the president on a four-day state visit full of pageantry and pomp.
(AP, 5/27/19)
2019 May 28, In Japan knife-wielding man slashed at a group of schoolgirls at a bus stop in Kawasaki city, killing one girl and an adult. 16 other girls and a woman were injured. The attacker died later of a self-inflicted wound.
(AP, 5/28/19)
2019 May 29, Japan announced 132.6 billion yen ($1.2 billion) in aid to Bangladesh for economic development, a high-speed railway and other projects.
(AP, 5/29/19)
2019 May 29, A Japanese man (45) was arrested in Kitakyushu for using a stun gun to discipline his three children.
(Reuters, 5/29/19)
2019 May 29, In Japan veteran Chinese dissident Wang Dan urged Western nations to restore the link between human rights and trade with China in a speech just days ahead of the 30th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on student pro-democracy protests centered on Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
(AP, 5/29/19)
2019 May 30, Speaking at a conference in Tokyo Malaysia’s PM Mahathir Mohamad said his country will continue using Huawei products "as much as possible," bucking a global trend prompted by security concerns and a US ban on the Chinese firm.
(AFP, 5/30/19)
2019 Jun 1, Tokyo police arrested Hideaki Kumazawa (76), a former top Japanese government official, on suspicion of stabbing to death his 44-year-old son Eiichiro.
(AP, 6/3/19)
2019 Jun 5, Japanese authorities said they have arrested seven Chinese men over the weekend on suspicion of smuggling what is believed to be a record amount of stimulants.
(AP, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 5, Japan's health minister said in response to a petition seeking a ban on requiring women to wear high heels at work that such dress code expectations are "necessary and appropriate" in the workplace.
(Reuters, 6/5/19)
2019 Jun 8, In Japan financial leaders of the Group of 20 gathered to brainstorm ways to adapt global finance to an age of trade turmoil and digital disruptions. G20 finance officials agreed there was an urgent need to find a global system to tax internet giants like Google and Facebook but clashed on the best way to do it.
(AP, 6/8/19)(AFP, 6/8/19)
2019 Jun 9, In Japan finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies wrapped up a meeting with a pledge to use all the policies they can to protect global growth from disruptions due to trade and other tensions. G20 policymakers also tackled economic issues relating to ageing and shrinking birthrates.
(AP, 6/9/19)(AFP, 6/9/19)
2019 Jun 12, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe held talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran during a rare diplomatic mission aimed at defusing tensions between the Islamic republic and Tokyo's ally Washington.
(AFP, 6/12/19)
2019 Jun 16, In Japan the Group of 20 major economies said they agreed a deal to reduce plastic waste that is choking the seas. G20 member countries committed to reducing plastic waste but gave little detail on how that would be done.
(AFP, 6/16/19)
2019 Jun 16, Japan's Foreign Ministry lodged a protest with Beijing after a Chinese maritime research ship was seen dropping a wire-like object into the water off the northwestern coast of Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands.
(AP, 6/17/19)
2019 Jun 18, The Japanese coast guard said than 300 North Korean boats have been forced out of Japan's exclusive economic zone near Yamatotai since May.
(AP, 6/18/19)
2019 Jun 21, In Japan Mitsubishi Motors Corp. shareholders approved the ouster of Carlos Ghosn, who was pivotal in the Japanese automaker's three-way partnership with Nissan and Renault until he was arrested on financial misconduct charges last year.
(AP, 6/21/19)
2019 Jun 24, In Japan a Nigerian man died in an immigration detention center, bringing to an end a hunger strike an activist group said was intended to protest against his being held for more than three years. This was the 15th death since 2006 in a system widely criticized over medical standards, the monitoring of detainees and how guards respond to a medical emergency.
(Reuters, 6/27/19)
2019 Jun 25, In Japan scandal-battered Nissan won its shareholders' approval for a new system of committees to oversee governance and for keeping Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa on its board.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 25, Canadian aerospace company Bombardier announced the sale of its regional jet program to Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. for $550 million.
(AP, 6/25/19)
2019 Jun 26, In Japan French President Emmanuel Macron said he and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe have agreed to bolster naval defense ties in the Indo-Pacific region and shared concerns about growing tensions in the Middle East.
(AP, 6/26/19)
2019 Jun 27, China's Pres. Xi Jinping arrived in Osaka to attend the G20 summit that PM Shinzo Abe will chair over the next two days.
(AP, 6/27/19)
2019 Jun 27, President Donald Trump arrived in Japan for a summit of the Group of 20 major economies. He was due to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 29 as the G-20 meetings conclude. Trump kicked off meetings with international leaders with a working dinner with Australian PM Scott Morrison.
(AP, 6/27/19)
2019 Jun 28, In Japan a two-day G20 summit opened in Osaka. World leaders grappled with profound tensions over trade, globalization and the collapsing nuclear deal with Iran.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 28, A Japanese court ordered the government to pay 370 million yen ($3.4 million) in damages to the relatives of former leprosy patients over a segregation policy that severed family ties and caused long-lasting prejudice. The court ruled that the government failed to stop the segregation until 1996, decades after leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, became curable in the late 1940s.
(AP, 6/28/19)
2019 Jun 29, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe and Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin announced new initiatives to further expand economic ties and tourist exchanges between the two nations, but have made no visible progress on a decades-long territorial dispute.
(AP, 6/29/19)
2019 Jun 29, In Japan President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping agreed to a cease-fire in their nations' yearlong trade war. Trump told the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, at a G20 summit in Japan that building concentration camps to “re-educate" Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province was the right thing to do. This was made public by John Bolton in 2020 as he promoted a new book.
(AP, 6/29/19)(The Independent, 6/18/20)
2019 Jun 30, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe praised Saudi Arabia's efforts to reduce its dependence on oil and promised Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Japan will help the kingdom with a sweeping reform plan.
(Reuters, 6/30/19)
2019 Jun, In Japan Ishikawa Yumi submitted a petition to the government with 18,800 signatures calling for a ban on employers requiring women to wear high heel shoes.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.28)
2019 Jul 1, Japan imposed restrictions on exports used by South Korea's chip and smartphone companies, ramping up long-simmering tensions between the US allies over the use of forced labor during World War Two. Seoul quickly hit back, saying the measures violated international law and threatening to raise the issue at the World Trade Organization.
(AFP, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 1, Japanese whalers returned to port with their first catch after resuming commercial whaling for the first time in 31 years, achieving the long-cherished goal of traditionalists that is seen as largely a lost cause amid slowing demand for the meat. This was the first commercial hunt since 1988.
(Reuters, 7/1/19)
2019 Jul 18, In Japan a man shouted "die" as he doused an animation studio in Kyoto with fuel and set it ablaze, killing at least 33 people in the nation's worst mass murder in nearly two decades. The suspect allegedly told police that the studio had “stolen a novel" he had written. Arson suspect Shinji Aoba (41) was hospitalized for heavy burns.
(Reuters, 7/18/19)(The Telegraph, 7/19/19)(Reuters, 7/20/19)
2019 Jul 18, Yukiya Amano (72), the Japanese diplomat who led the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for a decade, died. He was extensively involved in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program and the cleanup of the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
(AP, 7/22/19)
2019 Jul 21, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe claimed victory in today’s upper house election, saying the vote showed acceptance for his plans to raise the sales tax and open debate on making the first revisions to the country’s pacifist constitution. His coalition and its other allies fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to push ahead with revising the pacifist constitution.
(Reuters, 7/21/19)
2019 Jul 24, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings said it will decommission four more reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ni plant in addition to those already being scrapped at the nearby Fukushima Dai-ichi, wrecked by a 2011 earthquake. The process was expected to take decades.
(SFC, 7/25/19, p.A5)
2019 Jul, US President Donald Trump asked Japan to quadruple annual payments for US forces stationed there to around $8 billion, part of Washington's efforts to press its allies to increase their defense spending.
(Reuters, 11/16/19)
2019 Aug 2, The trade row between Japan and South Korea escalated when Japan removed South Korea from a favored trading nations list, prompting Seoul to warn it would not be defeated again by its neighbor, laying bare decades-old war time animosity.
(Reuters, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 3, In Japan a controversial statue symbolizing "comfort women" was withdrawn from an art exhibition after organizers received security threats. "Statue of a Girl Of Peace" attracted a flood of complaints since Aichi Triennale, an international art exhibition being held in central Japan, opened just three days ago.
(Reuters, 8/3/19)
2019 Aug 12, South Korea said it plans to drop Japan from its "white list" of countries with fast-track trade status from September, a tit-for-tat move that deepens a diplomatic and trade rift between the two countries. Japan announced earlier this month that it was removing South Korea from its own "white list" of countries that have enjoyed minimum trade restrictions.
(Reuters, 8/12/19)
2019 Aug 14, Japan advised more than 300,000 people to evacuate their homes and airlines cancelled hundreds of scheduled flights as tropical storm Krosa bore down on the archipelago.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 14, It was reported that a research team at Japan’s Keio University has built a robotic tail they say could help unsteady elderly people keep their balance.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 14, Thousands of South Koreans protested outside Japan's embassy in Seoul and city officials unveiled a new memorial to wartime 'comfort women' at the center of a row over the two countries' shared history.
(Reuters, 8/14/19)
2019 Aug 21, Japan and South Korea agreed on the need for dialogue to resolve a feud over compensating Korean wartime workers that has spilled into trade, and put a deep chill on ties between Washington's two biggest Asian allies.
(Reuters, 8/21/19)
2019 Aug 22, South Korea said it will terminate its military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan amid intensifying trade and diplomatic disputes with Tokyo.
(The Telegraph, 8/22/19)
2019 Aug 23, South Korea said it will share military intelligence with Japan through the United States after terminating a pact that enabled the two key Washington allies to exchange such information directly.
(AFP, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 23, The US and Japan agreed on a broad framework for a trade deal that will keep US tariffs on Japanese automobiles in place for now, while removing barriers to beef and pork exports to Japan.
(Bloomberg, 8/23/19)
2019 Aug 25, President Donald Trump said he and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe had agreed on the principles of a trade deal that would probably be signed next month in New York.
(Reuters, 8/25/19)
2019 Aug 27, Washington approved the $3.3 billion sale of anti-ballistic missiles to Japan, following close behind a series of new ballistic missile tests by North Korea that could threaten the US ally.
(AFP, 8/27/19)
2019 Aug 28, Japanese companies Tokyo Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, Hitachi and Toshiba said they have agreed to consider cooperating on their nuclear plant businesses.
(Reuters, 8/28/19)
2019 Aug 29, It was reported that Japan has approved shipment of hydrogen fluoride used in making computer chips to South Korea for the first time since imposing tighter export controls in July.
(Reuters, 8/29/19)
2019 Sep 2, Japan's nuclear policy-setting body adopted a report saying the country is entering an era of major nuclear plant decommissioning.
(SFC, 9/3/19, p.A5)
2019 Sep 5, Japan-based Nissan Motor Co was embroiled in another scandal over executive pay after Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa admitted to being overpaid in violation of internal procedures under a scheme designed by ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
(Reuters, 9/5/19)
2019 Sep 8, Japan braced for Typhoon Faxai cancelling trains and flights in Tokyo with destructive winds of up to 216 kph (134 mph) and heavy rain expected to hit the region overnight.
(Reuters, 9/8/19)
2019 Sep 9, Typhoon Faxai barreled through Japan's Tokyo region early today with record-breaking winds, killing one woman and leaving more than 900,000 homes without power.
(The Telegraph, 9/9/19)
2019 Sep 14, Japanese officials culled 753 pigs in Saitama Prefecture north of Tokyo after detecting an outbreak of swine fever.
(Reuters, 9/15/19)
2019 Sep 15, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported that the government agreed to phase out tariffs on US wine imports as part of a bilateral trade deal expected to be signed at the end of the month.
(Reuters, 9/15/19)
2019 Sep 20, Japan-based Mitsubishi Corp said a trader at its Singapore-based unit had lost $320 million through unauthorized transactions in crude oil derivatives, and the matter had been reported to the police.
(Reuters, 9/20/19)
2019 Sep 25, US President Donald Trump and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced initial details of an emerging trade deal between the two countries.
(Reuters, 9/25/19)
2019 Oct 7, The US and Japan signed a limited trade deal that opens markets for American farmers and brings Tokyo a degree of assurance that President Donald Trump won’t impose new tariffs on auto imports for now.
(Bloomberg, 10/7/19)
2019 Oct 8, Japan-based Nissan Motor Co named Senior Vice President Makoto Uchida, the head of its Chinese business, as its next CEO. The executive is known for close ties to top shareholder Renault and for a frank, straight-talking manner that has marked him as an outsider. Uchida to over as CEO in December.
(Reuters, 10/8/19)(Econ., 7/4/20, p.58)
2019 Oct 9, The 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to American John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham of Britain and Akira Yoshino of Japan for the development of lithium-ion batteries.
(Reuters, 10/9/19)
2019 Oct 10, Japan-based Nissan said it will begin making the next-generation Juke vehicle at Britain’s biggest car plant on Oct. 14, just over two weeks before a possible no-deal Brexit which the industry has warned could bring production to a halt. Nissan warned that a no-deal Brexit tariffs of 10% on vehicles would be unsustainable for Nissan in Europe, where it runs Britain's biggest car factory.
(Reuters, 10/10/19)
2019 Oct 12, Typhoon Hagibis paralyzed Tokyo, leaving millions confined indoors and streets deserted as fierce rain and wind killed two, flooded rivers and threatened widespread damage.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 12, North Korea's foreign ministry "strongly demanded" that Japan pay compensation for a fishing boat that sank when it collided with a Japanese patrol boat earlier this week.
(Reuters, 10/12/19)
2019 Oct 13, Japan sent tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history. At least 63 people were killed by Typhoon Hagibis with 11 others presumed dead.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)(SFC, 10/14/19, p.A4)(SFC, 10/17/19, p.A2)
2019 Oct 13, In Japan a Panama-registered cargo ship was found sunk in waters near Tokyo after authorities lost track of it as Typhoon Hagibis lashed the country. A newspaper said at least five of the 12 crew were killed.
(Reuters, 10/13/19)
2019 Oct 22, Japan's Emperor Naruhito formally declared his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the nation's 126th emperor.
(SFC, 10/23/19, p.A4)
2019 Oct 22, Japan-based SoftBank Group Corp agreed to spend more than $10 billion to take over WeWork, doubling down on an ill-fated investment and paying off its co-founder Adam Neumann to relinquish control.
(AP, 10/22/19)
2019 Oct 22, Sadako Ogata (b.1927), leader of the UN refugee agency from 1991-2000, died. She was one of the first Japanese to hold a top job at an international organization.
(AP, 10/29/19)
2019 Oct 25, Torrential rains battered parts of eastern Japan, killing at least four people, causing rivers to overflow and prompting evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands two weeks after the areas were hit by floods and high winds from Typhoon Hagibis.
(Reuters, 10/25/19)
2019 Oct 31, Japan's justice minister Katsuyuki Kawai resigned over election payment allegations involving his wife, also a lawmaker, and about his own reported gift-giving.
(SFC, 11/1/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 4, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe had an 11-minute conversation on the sidelines of an international conference in Bangkok, the first time they had met in more than a year. They reaffirmed the principle of resolving pending bilateral issues through dialogue.
(Reuters, 11/6/19)(SFC, 11/15/19, p.A2)
2019 Nov 4, Australia, Japan and the US announced their "Blue Dot Network" an alternative to China's Bridge and Road Initiative (BRI).
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Dot_Network)(Econ., 7/6/20, p.33)
2019 Nov 7, Chinese electric car maker BYD Co Ltd and Japan's Toyota Motor Corp said they planned to set up a joint venture to design and develop battery electric cars as they ramp up efforts to produce zero emissions vehicles.
(Reuters, 11/7/19)
2019 Nov 18, Japan's first ever fully fledged arms show opened, creating a forum that Japan's government hopes will help it tap technology it needs to counter threats posed by China and North Korean.
(Reuters, 11/18/19)
2019 Nov 22, South Korea made a last-minute decision to stick with its critical intelligence-sharing deal with Japan, a dramatic reversal after months of frigid relations complicated by painful, wartime history.
(Reuters, 11/22/19)
2019 Nov 23, Pope Francis (82) arrived in Japan, the second leg of a week-long Asian trip whose main aim is to bring an anti-nuclear message to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the world's only cities to suffer atomic bombing.
(Reuters, 11/23/19)
2019 Nov 24, In Japan Pope Francis brought his campaign to abolish nuclear weapons to the only two cities ever hit by atomic bombs, calling their possession indefensibly perverse and immoral and their use a crime against mankind and nature.
(Reuters, 11/24/19)
2019 Nov 25, In Japan Pope Francis appealed to world leaders to ensure that nuclear weapons are never used again, a day after he visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only cities ever to be hit by atomic bombs.
(Reuters, 11/25/19)
2019 Nov 29, Yasuhiro Nakasone (b.1918), former prime minister of Japan (1982-1987), died in Tokyo.
(SSFC, 12/1/19, p.B9)
2019 Dec 3, In Afghanistan Japanese humanitarian Dr Tetsu Nakamura (73) was among six people killed when their vehicle was ambushed by unknown gunmen in the eastern border province of Nangarhar. In 2003 Dr Nakamura was awarded Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize for his aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(The Telegraph, 12/4/19)
2019 Dec 18, Sweden's Volvo AB agreed to sell its Japan-based UD Trucks business to Isuzu Motors and share technology to help cut costs.
(Reuters, 12/18/19)
2019 Dec 20, Hassan Rouhani paid the first visit by an Iranian president to Japan in 19 years, just as the US strengthens enforcement of its sanctions in a standoff over nuclear development.
(AP, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 20, The US Food and Drug Administration said it had approved Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd and AstraZeneca Plc's drug to treat an advanced form of breast cancer, four months ahead of schedule.
(Reuters, 12/20/19)
2019 Dec 22, Japan-based drugmaker Eisai Co's US subsidiary announced that it had received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for Dayvigo, its insomnia treatment in adult patients.
(AP, 12/23/19)
2019 Dec 24, The leaders of Japan and South Korea signaled they wouldn’t let relations spin out of control even as they made little progress in resolving disputes that have plunged relations to new depths. The two began their 45-minute meeting on the sidelines of a trilateral summit hosted by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Chengdu.
(AP, 12/24/19)
2019 Dec 26, Japan executed its first foreigner in 10 years, a Chinese man convicted in the 2003 murder and robbery of a family of four.
(SFC, 12/27/19, p.A4)
2019 Dec 27, Japan approved a contentious plan to send its naval troops to the Middle East to ensure the safety of Japanese ships transporting oil to the energy-poor country that heavily depends on imports from the region.
(AP, 12/27/19)
2019 Dec 28, Japanese police found the remains of at least five people in a wooden boat suspected to be from North Korea on Sado Island in Niigata prefecture. Police found the heads of two persons, as well as five bodies. The wrecked boat was found a day earlier.
(The Telegraph, 12/28/19)(AP, 12/29/19)
2019 Dec 31, Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, announced that he is now in Lebanon, despite being ordered by Japanese courts not to leave the country while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges.
(The Week, 12/31/19)
2019 Dec, Japanese carmaker Mazda shifted production of its SUVs from Thailand to Japan.
(Economist, 4/4/20, p.29)
2019 The number of Muslims in Japan doubled over the past decade, from 110,000 to 230,000 at the end of this year. This included foreign workers, students and as many as 50,000 Japanese converts.
(Econ., 1/9/21, p.33)
2020 Jan 2, Interpol issued a wanted notice for former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon.
(SFC, 1/3/20, p.A4)
2020 Jan 16, Japan recorded its first case of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 5/23/20, p.28)
2020 Jan 22, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp said it is recalling 361,000 older vehicles worldwide for potentially defective air bag inflators. A day earlier Honda Motor Co said it will recall 2.7 million older US vehicles in North America for the same type of Takata inflator that Toyota is also recalling.
(AP, 1/22/20)
2020 Jan 25, Japan said it has confirmed a third case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(AP, 1/25/20)
2020 Jan 26, Japan confirmed a fourth case of infection by China's coronavirus.
(Reuters, 1/26/20)
2020 Jan 30, Tokyo prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who skipped bail while awaiting trial in Japan. Prosecutors also issued arest wrrants for three Americans they say planned and helped Ghosn escape.
(SFC, 1/31/20, p.A2)
2020 Feb 1, Japan moved to contain the economic impact of a coronavirus outbreak originating in China as strict new measures aimed at limiting the spread of the virus, including targeting foreign visitors, came into effect. Japan had 17 confirmed cases as of Jan. 31, including some without symptoms.
(Reuters, 2/1/20)
2020 Feb 4, The US Treasury said the United States and Japan have signed an agreement to jointly encourage more private investment in energy and infrastructure projects.
(Reuters, 2/4/20)
2020 Feb 5, It was reported that at least 10 people aboard a cruise ship moored in Japan have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Diamond Princess will remain under quarantine in Yokohama with everyone on board for at least 14 days. Three more cruise ship passengers were soon diagnosed with the virus in Japan for a total of 64 on board the ship.
(Good Morning America, 2/5/20)(AP, 2/7/20)
2020 Feb 10, Japan launched a second complaint at the World Trade Organization over support South Korea gives its shipbuilding industry, intensifying a wider dispute between the two Asian countries.
(Reuters, 2/10/20)
2020 Feb 11 Japan's Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp unannounced commitments from customers to buy hundreds of its SpaceJet M100 regional jets, but its first focus is on certifying its larger introductory model, the M90.
(Reuters, 2/11/20)
2020 Feb 12, Japanese police confirmed the arrest of a mother-and-son duo for allegedly making more than 3,200 no-show hotel cancellations, costing the hotels $1 million while collecting reward points worth $22,000.
(AFP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, It was reported that automaker Nissan it is suing former chair and CEO Carlos Ghosn in Japan for 10 billion yen, or $90 million, saying it's seeking to recover damages from his alleged financial misconduct and fraud.
(The Week, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 12, Chitetsu Watanabe, a Japanese man with a sweet tooth who believes in smiles, become the world's oldest male at 112 years and 344 days old. The oldest living person is also Japanese, Kane Tanaka, a 117-year-old woman.
(AP, 2/12/20)
2020 Feb 13, Japan announced its first death from a new virus from China, hours after confirming 44 more cases on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo as fears of the spreading disease mount in the country. The Diamond Princess, which is still carrying nearly 3,500 passengers and crew members, now has 218 people infected with the virus out of 713 tested since it entered Yokohama Port on Feb. 3.
(AP, 2/13/20)
2020 Feb 17, Japanese officials confirmed 99 more people were infected by the new virus aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 454.
(AP, 2/17/20)
2020 Feb 18, Japan, announced that 88 more cases of the virus were confirmed aboard a quarantined cruise ship, the Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 542 among the 3,700 initially on board.
(AP, 2/18/20)
2020 Feb 23, In Japan a third passenger from the virus-infected Diamond Princess cruise ship died. Japan's health ministry announced 57 more cases of infections from the ship, including 55 crew members still on board and two passengers who had infected roommates and are in a prolonged quarantine at a government facility. Japan has confirmed a total of 838 cases and four deaths from the virus.
(Reuters, 2/23/20)(AP, 2/23/20)
2020 Feb 25, Japan's ANA Holdings Inc said it will buy 15 Boeing Co 787 Dreamliners worth $5 billion at list prices, the first commercial order announcement for the US plane maker this year as it wrestles with the grounding of the smaller 737 MAX.
(Reuters, 2/25/20)
2020 Feb 26, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for sports and cultural events to be scrapped or curtailed for two weeks as domestic cases of coronavirus increased to 175.
(Reuters, 2/26/20)
2020 Feb 27, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe told all schools to close until April to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.
(Econ., 3/7/20, p.36)
2020 Feb 27, A Japanese woman tested positive for coronavirus for a second time as the number of confirmed cases in Japan, excluding the 704 on the quarantined cruise liner, rose above 190. The death toll rose to eight after another death was reported in Hokkaido.
(Reuters, 2/27/20)
2020 Feb 29, In Japan a man in his 70s died on the northernmost island of Hokkaido late today after testing positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The man's death marked the sixth fatality from COVID-19 in Japan, excluding six deaths among those aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess.
(AP, 3/1/20)
2020 Mar 2, Five more cases were confirmed in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, taking the island's total tally to 77.
(AP, 3/2/20)
2020 Mar 3, Japan’s tally of coronavirus cases approached the 1,000 mark.
(Bloomberg, 3/3/20)
2020 Mar 4, Japan's government opened part of Futaba, the last town that had been off limits due to radiation since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
(SFC, 3/5/20, p.A3)
2020 Mar 5, In Japan confirmed infections of coronavirus rose to 1,036.
(AP, 3/5/20)
2020 Mar 6, Japanese carmaker Nissan said it is pushing on with plans to build its new Qashqai sports utility vehicle at its British factory despite warnings over Brexit. Nissan announced a 52-million pound investment in a new press line at the site.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 6, In Japan confirmed coronavirus infections rose to 1,057.
(Reuters, 3/6/20)
2020 Mar 13, In Japan total coronavirus infections rose to 1,380.
(Reuters, 3/13/20)
2020 Mar 15, In Japan the number of coronavirus infections rose to 1,484, increasing by a faster pace than the previous day. The total number of infections included 697 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 returnees on charter flights from China.
(Reuters, 3/15/20)
2020 Mar 16, Japan's health ministry said it has identified 15 clusters of coronavirus infections around the country.
(Reuters, 3/16/20)
2020 Mar 16, In Japan Kyushu Electric Power Co., the opeator of a nuclear power plant in Kagoshima, was forced to shut a down one of its reactors because of failure to meet a deadline for adding anti-terror safety measures.
(SFC, 3/17/20, p.A2)
2020 Mar 22, Japan's Oita prefecture confirmed two new coronavirus infections at a medical center, bringing the total at the facility to 14 and making it a suspected cluster.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Japan's Olympics organizers were reported to be drawing up plans for possible delay, even as the government says a postponement is not an option.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, Japan-based Toyota Motor Corp said it would suspend production on one of its vehicle production lines at a plant near its headquarters through March 25, after a second plant worker tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
(Reuters, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 22, The Canadian Olympic Committee said it won't send athletes to the Tokyo Games unless they're postponed for a year.
(AP, 3/22/20)
2020 Mar 23, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe suggested that the Summer Olympics in Tokyo might need to be postponed, hours after Canada and Australia threatened to boycott the Games.
(NY Times, 3/23/20)
2020 Mar 24, Japan’s NHK public television reported that PM Shinzo Abe will propose a one-year postponement for the Tokyo Olympics during talks with IOC President Thomas Bach.
(AP, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 24, The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee joined growing demands to postpone the Tokyo Olympics.
(NY Times, 3/24/20)
2020 Mar 28, In Japan new coronavirus infections in Tokyo rose by more than 60, the biggest daily increase yet.
(Bloomberg, 3/28/20)
2020 Mar 29, Tokyo confirmed 68 new coronavirus cases, a record daily increase. Popular Japanese comedian Ken Shimura (70) died from the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 3/29/20)(SFC, 3/30/20, p.A6)
2020 Mar 30, Japanese organizers announced that the opening ceremony of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo has been rescheduled for July 23, 2021.
(Good Morning America, 3/30/20)
2020 Apr 1, Japan reported 65 new cases of coronavirus. Nationwide Japan has about 2,300 confirmed cases and 67 deaths.
(SFC, 4/2/20, p.A6)
2020 Apr 2, Japan has more than 3,000 cases of coronavirus and 71 deaths. Tokyo reported 97 new cases.
(SFC, 4/3/20, p.A5)
2020 Apr 4, Japan reported that some 118 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo bringing the number of confirmed cases there to 891.
(Reuters, 4/4/20)
2020 Apr 5, Tokyo reported more than 130 new coronavirus infections, bringing the number of cases in the Japanese capital to more than 1,000.
(Reuters, 4/5/20)
2020 Apr 6, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections. At least 3,654 people in Japan have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and 85 of them have died.
(Bloomberg, 4/6/20)(ABC News, 4/6/20)
2020 Apr 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe moved to declare a state of emergency in seven prefectures including Tokyo and Osaka, and announced a record economic stimulus package as the country braces for a surge in coronavirus infections.
(Bloomberg, 4/7/20)
2020 Apr 8, Rakuten, a Japananese technology company, launched the first full-scale 5G virtualized network. In October Rakuten Mobile launched the world's first 5G network based on Openran, a new technology seen as an alternative to products by Ericsson, Nokia and China's Huawei.
(Econ, 4/11/20, p.47)(Econ., 11/7/20, p.16)
2020 Apr 9, Japan for the first time reported more than 500 new positive cases of the novel coronavirus. Over 100 people in Japan have died from the disease so far, including 11 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
(ABC News, 4/9/20)
2020 Apr 11, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe called for citizens across Japan to avoid evening spots like bars and restaurants. SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan from May after reaching a deal with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, which has also started producing masks.
(Reuters, 4/11/20)
2020 Apr 12, In Japan Ssuzuki Naomichi, the mayor of Hokaido, reimposed a state of emergency that had been lifted on March 18.
(Econ, 4/18/20, p.26)
2020 Apr 13, Japanese Environment Minister Shinjiro Koizumi warned that the Paris climate accord could face death if steps to fight global warming were put on the backburner to facilitate the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 4/13/20)
2020 Apr 16, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe expanded a state of emergency to include the entire country and said the government was considering cash payouts for all.
(Reuters, 4/16/20)
2020 Apr 17, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe urged the international community to rally around the World Health Organization and said the body’s problems should be addressed once the coronavirus outbreak is contained.
(Bloomberg, 4/17/20)
2020 Apr 18, In Japan 181 new cases were found in Tokyo. Cases in Japan exceeded 10,000. It was reported that hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses.
(Bloomberg, 4/18/20)(AP, 4/18/20)
2020 Apr 22, It was reported that more than 30 crew members on an Italian cruise ship docked in Japan's Nagasaki prefecture have tested positive for the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 4/22/20)
2020 Apr 25, Tokyo reported 103 new cases of coronavirus infections. The latest figures bring total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 3,836 cases. The total number of coronavirus infections in Japan reached nearly 13,000 cases, with 345 deaths.
(Reuters, 4/25/20)
2020 Apr 26, Tokyo recorded 72 coronavirus cases, the first time in 13 days it was below 100.
(Bloomberg, 4/26/20)
2020 Apr 27, Metropolitan Tokyo confirmed 39 more coronavirus cases, the fewest since March 30 and the second consecutive day of new cases below triple digits.
(Reuters, 4/27/20)
2020 May 9, Tokyo reported 36 new cases of coronavirus infections, three less than a day earlier and the seventh consecutive day that new infections have remained below 100. This brought the total coronavirus infections in the capital city to 4,846 cases.
(Reuters, 5/9/20)
2020 May 10, In Japan about 5,000 people in Tokyo were confirmed to have been infected with the virus, representing nearly one-third of Japan's total infections of around 16,000.
(AP, 5/10/20)
2020 May 14, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe announced the lifting of a coronavirus state of emergency ahead of schedule in most of the country except for eight high-risk areas. It remains in effect in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hokkaido.
(AP, 5/14/20)
2020 May 20, Authorities in Massachusetts arrested two men who allegedly helped ex-Nissan chair Carlos Ghosn flee Japan ahead of his trial. Former US Green Beret Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, were set to appear before a judge through video conference. They were being held for possible extradition to Japan.
(The Week, 5/20/20)
2020 May 25, Japan's PM Shinzo Abe lifted a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and four other remaining areas, ending nationwide restrictions as businesses began to reopen.
(SFC, 5/26/19, p.A4)
2020 May 27, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe's cabinet approved a new $1.1 trillion stimulus package that includes significant direct spending, to stop the coronavirus pandemic pushing the world's third-largest economy deeper into recession.
(Reuters, 5/27/20)
2020 May 28, It was reported that Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd will be allowed to keep a drug used to treat bowel disease because changes in the market have removed the need to sell it to allay EU antitrust concerns over last year's acquisition of Shire plc.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 28, Japan-based Nissan Motor Co outlined a new plan to become a smaller, more efficient carmaker after the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated a slide in profitability that culminated in its first annual loss in 11 years.
(Reuters, 5/28/20)
2020 May 29, It was reported that AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo's Enhertu helped patients with three different types of cancer live longer in trials, pointing to potential broader use of the breast cancer treatment.
(Reuters, 5/29/20)
2020 Jun 1, In Japan anti-harassment legislation went into effect requiring firms to have clear policies in palce and to create internal systems for reporting and verifying claims of abuse. Complaints of power harassment, aka pawahara, had been growing in recent years.
(Econ., 6/13/20, p.53)
2020 Jun 2, Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike issued a coronavirus alert after 34 new cases were reported in the city, where infections had slowed to a few per day in late May.
(AP, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 2, Japan approved saliva-based tests for the coronavirus, offering a safer, simpler way to diagnose infection than nasal swabs as it looks to boost its testing rates.
(Reuters, 6/2/20)
2020 Jun 3, It was reported that researchers at Japan's Shinshu Univ. have successfully split water into hydrogen and oxygen using light and newly developed catalysts that achieve almost 100% efficiency.
(https://tinyurl.com/ybxrxo6s)
2020 Jun 5, Japan-based Toyota announced a joint venture with several Chinese carmakers to develop fuel-cell technology.
(Econ., 7/4/20, p.70)
2020 Jun 10, Japanese biotech AnGes Inc said it expects its coronavirus vaccine to be ready as early as the first half of 2021, if it can overcome supply chain and production hurdles.
(AP, 6/10/20)
2020 Jun 14, In Japan hundreds of people marched peacefully in Tokyo, highlighting the outrage over the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minnesota.
(AP, 6/14/20)
2020 Jun 15, Japan's Defense Ministry said that it has decided to stop unpopular plans to deploy two costly Aegis Ashore systems US missile defense systems aimed at bolstering the country’s capability against threats from North Korea.
(AP, 6/15/20)
2020 Jun 17, Japanese researchers confirmed the presence of the coronavirus in wastewater plants, a finding that could serve as a signal for future outbreaks. The findings mirror similar studies in Australia, the United States, and Europe.
(AP, 6/17/20)
2020 Jun 18, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that his country needs to bolster its security posture amid threats from North Korea and should consider acquiring preemptive strike capability after having to scrap the planned deployment of two new land-based missile defense systems.
(AP, 6/18/20)
2020 Jun 18, In Japan former justice minister Katsuyuki Kawai and his wife, Anri Kawai, were arrested over allegations they engaged in vote buying during last year's election.
(SFC, 6/19/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 25, Japan's National Security Council endorsed plans to cancel the deployment of two $4.1 billion land-based US missile defense systems. The Aegis Ashore systems had been aimed at bolstering Japan's capability against threats from North Korea.
(SFC, 6/26/20, p.A2)
2020 Jun 26, Japan recorded more than 100 new infections for the first time since May 9, hitting its highest daily total since it eased a lockdown.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jun 26, It was reported that Japanese startup Donut Robotics has developed an internet-connected "smart mask" that can transmit messages and translate from Japanese into eight other languages.
(Reuters, 6/26/20)
2020 Jul 3, Tokyo reported 124 new cases, up from 107 the day before, partly due to increased testing among nightlife workers in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro districts.
(Reuters, 7/3/20)
2020 Jul 4, In southern Japan heavy rain triggered flooding and mudslides along the Kuma River. After several days of flooding at least 58 people died.
(AP, 7/4/20)(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 4, Tokyo confirmed 131 new cases, exceeding 100 for the third day in a row and hitting a new two-month high, prompting Governor Yuriko Koike to ask residents to avoid nonessential out-of-town visits.
(AP, 7/4/20)
2020 Jul 7, Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s ruling party adopted a resolution urging the government to cancel a visit to Japan by Chinese President Xi Jinping following Beijing's imposition of a new national security law for Hong Kong.
(AP, 7/7/20)
2020 Jul 10, Record-breaking rains this week in the south of Japan have killed 62 people in floods and landslides. The extreme weather is highlighting the vulnerability of nursing homes: Floodwaters killed 14 seniors in one nursing home.
(NY Times, 7/10/20)
2020 Jul 10, Japan reported 243 new cases of the coronavirus in Tokyo as businesses have largely returned to normal.
(SFC, 7/11/20, p.A5)
2020 Jul 11, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said dozens of US Marines at two bases on the southern Japanese island have been infected with the coronavirus in what is feared to be a massive outbreak. The next day officials reported 61 cases – 38 at Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma and another 23 at Camp Hansen.
(AP, 7/11/20)(SFC, 7/13/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 13, The Japan Federation of Medical Worker's Unions said about a third of Japanese medical institutions are cutting summer bonuses to staff, as many hospitals and clinics face a cash crunch, having had to delay routine treatments to make room for coronavirus patients.
(Reuters, 7/13/20)
2020 Jul 17, Tokyo confirmed 293 coronavirus cases, a single-day record for a 2nd straight day.
(SFC, 7/18/20, p.A6)
2020 Jul 20, Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co said it aims to boost production capacity for its potential coronavirus vaccine to produce enough for 30 million people annually by the end of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/20/20)
2020 Jul 20, A United Arab Emirates spacecraft began its journey to Mars following blastoff from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center. The probe, named Amal (Hope), is expected to reach Mars in February 2021.
(SFC, 7/20/20, p.A2)
2020 Jul 22, It was reported that Japan's health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of COVID-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalized patients.
(Reuters, 7/22/20)
2020 Jul 23, Tokyo announced a record 366 new daily coronavirus cases . Tokyo now has 10,420 confirmed cases including 327 deaths.
(SFC, 7/24/20, p.A8)
2020 Jul 25, The Japanese ship MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius and its crew was evacuated. The large bulk carrier later began leaking tons of fuel into the surrounding waters. The ship was empty when it ran aground, but had some 4,000 tons of fuel aboard. On August 7 PM Pravind Jugnauth declared a state of emergency. Mitsui O.S.K. Lines later said the accident occurred after the ship shifted its course two miles closer to shore than planned so its crewmembers could get cellphone signals.
(AP, 8/8/20)(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Jul 27, Pres. Donald Trump the United States has awarded a $265 million contract to a Texas facility of Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp to step up production of a coronavirus vaccine candidate. Last week, Fujifilm Diosynth, a drug ingredient subsidiary of the Japanese firm, said it would make bulk drug substances for Novavax Inc.'s virus vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.
(Reuters, 7/27/20)
2020 Jul 29, The CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance led by Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it has completed test supplies of a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, but pending regulator approval will likely prevent clinical trials from meeting a July start date.
(Reuters, 7/29/20)
2020 Jul 31, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE said they have agreed to supply Japan with 120 million doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccine in the first half of 2021.
(Reuters, 7/31/20)
2020 Aug 15, Officials said grounded Japanese ship that leaked tons of oil near protected areas off the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius has split apart, with remaining fuel spreading into the turquoise waters.
(AP, 8/15/20)
2020 Aug 24, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it would sell its Japanese consumer healthcare business to US buyout fund Blackstone Group, as it aims to focus on developing drugs for unmet medical needs and rare diseases.
(Reuters, 8/24/20)
2020 Aug 26, Japanese researchers said that low concentrations of ozone can neutralize coronavirus particles, potentially providing a way for hospitals to disinfect examination rooms and waiting areas.
(Reuters, 8/26/20)
2020 Aug 27, It was reported that archeologists in Japan have dug up the remains of more than 1,500 people who were buried in a 19th century mass grave in Osaka. An epidemic of syphilis was suspected as a possible cause. The area is being excavated for a city development project.
(SFC, 8/27/20, p.A2)
2020 Aug 28, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign because of illness, just days after becoming the country’s longest-serving leader. A biography of Mr. Abe, "The Iconoclast" by Tobias Harris, was soon published.
(NY Times, 8/28/20)(Econ., 9/5/20, p.73)
2020 Sep 2, A livestock ship carrying 42 crew members sank during rough weather off a southern Japanese island. One Filipino crew member was rescued. The 11,947-ton Gulf Livestock 1 ship was carrying 5,800 cows west of Amami Oshima in the East China Sea when it sent a distress call early today in seas roughened by Typhoon Maysak.
(AP, 9/2/20)
2020 Sep 4, A US federal judge ruled that two American men accused of smuggling Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan while he was awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges can be extradited. The final decision rests with the State Department.
(AP, 9/4/20)
2020 Sep 6, Typhoon Haishen, the second powerful typhoon to slam Japan in a week, unleashed fierce winds and rain on southern islands, blowing off rooftops and leaving homes without power as it edged northward into an area vulnerable to flooding and mudslides.
(AP, 9/6/20)
2020 Sep 11, Japan suspended imports of pork and live pigs from Germany after a case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed in a wild boar in eastern Germany.
(Reuters, 9/13/20)
2020 Sep 11, The Japanese operator of the MV Wakashio, a bulk carrier that strayed off course and caused a major oil spill off the coast of Mauritius, said it will provide 1 billion yen ($9 million) to fund environmental projects and support the local fishing community.
(SFC, 9/11/20, p.A1)
2020 Sep 11, Britain announced its first major post-Brexit trade agreement -- a deal with Japan -- as its negotiations with the European Union become increasingly fractious.
(AFP, 9/11/20)
2020 Sep 14, Yoshihide Suga (71) was elected as the new head of Japan’s ruling party, all but assuring that he will become the country's new prime minister when a parliamentary election is held later in the week.
(AP, 9/14/20)
2020 Sep 16, Japan's parliament elected Yoshihide Suga as the country's 99th prime minister.
(The Week, 9/16/20)(Econ., 9/19/20, p.36)
2020 Sep 25, It was reported that Japanese researchers have developed a blood test they say appears to serve as an early warning system for serious cases of COVID-19, and deployed 500 prototype machines to trial its effectiveness nationwide.
(Reuters, 9/25/20)
2020 Sep 26, It was reported that Japan-based Mitsubishi Motors Corp will seek voluntary retirement from 500 to 600 employees, mostly in management, from mid-November to cut costs.
(Reuters, 9/26/20)
2020 Sep 28, SoftBank's robotics arm said it will bring a food service robot developed by California-based Bear Robotics to Japan as restaurants grapple with labor shortages and a new socially distanced norm as a result of the novel coronavirus. The robot named Servi will act as a sort of waiter.
(Reuters, 9/28/20)
2020 Sep 29, Newly elected Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he wants to settle their territorial dispute and sign a peace treaty formally ending their World War II hostilities.
(AP, 9/29/20)
2020 Sep 30, In Japan a high court held the government responsible for the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster ruling that the state and the plant's operator must pay about $9.5 million in damages to survivors.
(SFC, 10/1/20, p.A3)
2020 Sep 30, Japan's defence ministry unveiled a record $52-billion budget request in a push to maintain military readiness under pressure from China and North Korea.
(AFP, 9/30/20)
2020 Sep 30, In Japan Takahiro Shiraishi (29), dubbed the "Twitter killer" for luring his victims on social media, admitted in court to murdering nine people. Shiraishi is also accused of dismembering his victims and storing body parts in coolboxes. Lawyers for Shiraishi argued that charges should be reduced because the victims had expressed suicidal thoughts and gave their consent to be killed.
(The Telegraph, 10/1/20)
2020 Sep, Telefonica, a Spanish multinational telecommunications company, teamed with Japan-based Rakuten to deploy Openran more widely in its 5G networks by 2025.
(Econ., 11/7/20, p.16)
2020 Oct 4, Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada (81), better known as Kenzo, who created his label in Paris in the 1970s, died of complications linked to COVID-19 at the American Hospital of Paris.
(Reuters, 10/4/20)
2020 Oct 9, Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said an alliance of drug makers it spearheads has enrolled its first patient in a global clinical trial of a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19 after months of regulatory delays.
(Reuters, 10/9/20)
2020 Oct 12, Japan vowed to bolster its missile deterrence capability to respond to threats by North Korean weapons that are becoming “more diverse and complex," as displayed during a military parade held by the North over the weekend.
(AP, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 12, It was reported that Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co-led group, that is developing a blood plasma treatment for COVID-19, has started manufacturing while the late-stage trial to determine whether it works is ongoing.
(Reuters, 10/12/20)
2020 Oct 13, Japan launched its latest three-yearly energy policy review, with the country grappling with a need to cut greenhouse gas emissions even as the public remains wary over nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster.
(Reuters, 10/13/20)
2020 Oct 15, In Japan sexual minority groups and human rights activists started a petition calling for an LGBT equality law in hopes that it can be enacted next year.
(SFC, 10/16/20, p.A2)
2020 Oct 15, The European-Japanese probe BepiColombo took a black-and-white snapshot of Venus from a distance of 17,000 km (10,560 miles), as it used Earth's neighbor to adjust its course on the way to Mercury, the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet.
(AP, 10/15/20)
2020 Oct 16, Japan-based Fujifilm Holdings Corp said it was seeking approval for its flu drug Avigan as a treatment for COVID-19 in Japan, a move that comes after a late-stage study showed reduced recovery time for patients with non-severe symptoms.
(Reuters, 10/16/20)
2020 Oct 20, Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE announced the start in Japan of combined Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of their mRNA vaccine candidate against the coronavirus.
(Reuters, 10/20/20)
2020 Oct 26, Japan said it will not sign a UN treaty that bans nuclear weapons and does not welcome its entry into force next year, rejecting the wishes of atomic bomb survivors in Japan who are urging the government to join and work for a nuclear-free world. PM Suga Yoshihide promised to reduce Japan's net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050.
(AP, 10/26/20)(Econ., 10/31/20, p.36)
2020 Oct 27, Japan's cabinet approved a plan to use public funds to provide novel coronavirus vaccines to the public for free.
(Reuters, 10/27/20)
2020 Oct 29, Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co said it would import and distribute 50 million doses of Moderna Inc's novel coronavirus vaccine candidate.
(Reuters, 10/29/20)
2020 Oct 29, In Japan total confirmed cases of COVID-19 exceeded the 100,000 mark, as the number of daily infections has crept up in recent weeks.
(Reuters, 10/29/20)
2020 Nov 2, Japan's Sosei Group Corp said t is allying with a US biotech run by former Novartis AG executives to commercialize a neurological drug pipeline.
(Reuters, 11/2/20)
2020 Nov 4, Government officials said Japan's Kagawa prefecture will cull 330,000 chickens at a farm after the country's first bird flu outbreak in poultry in more than two years.
(Reuters, 11/4/20)
2020 Nov 10, In Japan data showed that the number of suicides in the country rose in October for the fourth month in a row to the highest level in more than five years. Preliminary police data showed that the total number of suicides for October was 2,153, an increase of more than 300 from the previous month and the highest monthly tally since May 2015.
(Reuters, 11/10/20)
2020 Nov 17, The leaders of Australia and Japan reached an agreement on a bilateral defense pact that would allow their troops to work more closely.
(SFC, 11/18/20, p.A2)
2020 Nov 18, Coronavirus infections in Tokyo hit a record daily high of 493 cases, as local media reported the Japanese capital was preparing to raise its alert level for infections to the highest of four stages.
(Reuters, 11/18/20)
2020 Nov 19, Tokyo raised its coronavirus alert to the highest level as its daily tally of new infections rose to a record 534 and its governor called for maximum caution as the year-end party season approaches. Japan's nationwide tally also hit a new high of 2,259.
(Reuters, 11/19/20)
2020 Nov 20, Japan's Kagawa prefecture said it will cull 850,000 chickens at two poultry farms after the country detected a bird flu outbreak earlier this month. These will be the sixth and seventh cases of the avian flu in western Kagawa prefecture and the biggest culling to be done at one time since the country's first bird flu outbreak in more than two years was found in the poultry this month.
(Reuters, 11/20/20)
2020 Nov 25, China's top diplomat told Japan's leader that Beijing wants the two Asian powers to have good relations and cooperate in fighting the coronavirus and reviving their pandemic-hit economies, but the two sides remained at odds over an island dispute.
(AP, 11/25/20)
2020 Nov 28, In Japan daily cases of the coronavirus reached a record of 2,680.
(Econ., 12/5/20, p.43)
2020 Dec 3, Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said Japan's Kaneka Corp has entered into a deal to manufacture its COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
(Reuters, 12/3/20)
2020 Dec 4, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga pledged a 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) fund to promote ecological businesses and innovation to achieve his goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.
(AP, 12/4/20)
2020 Dec 6, Japan retrieved a capsule of asteroid dust from Australia's remote outback after a six-year mission that may help uncover more about the origins of the planets and water. The capsule lit up on re-entry into the atmosphere early today and landed in the Woomera restricted area, about 460 km (285 miles) north of Adelaide.
(Reuters, 12/6/20)
2020 Dec 6, In Japan Shoko Arai, the only female assembly member in the town of Kusatsu, was voted out of office in a recall election orchestrated by the mayor and other assembly members. Last November she had accused mayor Nobutada Kuroiva of forcing her into sexual relation in 2015.
(SFC, 12/10/20, p.A4)
2020 Dec 7, Japan's agriculture ministry said bird flu has been detected in a fifth Japanese prefecture, as a wave of infections at poultry farms sparks the Japan's worst outbreak in more than four years.
(Reuters, 12/7/20)
2020 Dec 10, A bird flu outbreak in Japan worsened with farms in two more prefectures slaughtering chicken in a record cull of poultry as the government ordered the disinfection of all chicken farms.
(Reuters, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 10, Biogen said it has filed for regulatory approval in Japan for an Alzheimer's disease drug it developed with local partner Eisai Co.
(Reuters, 12/10/20)
2020 Dec 12, Japan saw more than 3,000 new infections of the novel coronavirus for the first time in one day, as the number of cases continues to rise in the winter.
(Reuters, 12/12/20)
2020 Dec 13, In Japan 3,030 new coronavirus cases, including 621 in Tokyo, took the national tally to 177,287 with 2,562 deaths.
(AP, 12/13/20)
2020 Dec 14, Japan selected the "mitsu" kanji character, meaning "congested" or "dense" and used to encourage social distancing, as its defining symbol for 2020.
(Reuters, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 14, Japan said its worst bird flu outbreak on record has spread to new farms and now affects more than 20% of the country's 47 prefectures, with officials ordering cullings after more poultry deaths.
(Reuters, 12/14/20)
2020 Dec 15, A Japanese court sentenced Takahiro Shiraishi (30), known as the "Twitter killer," to death for killing and dismembering nine people, most of whom had posted suicidal thoughts on social media. Police arrested Shiraishi in 2017 after finding the bodies of eight females and one male in cold-storage cases in his apartment.
(AP, 12/15/20)
2020 Dec 18, Japan’s Cabinet adopted a plan to enhance the country's missile deterrence, including development of new cruise missiles, to counter potential threats from China and North Korea.
(AP, 12/18/20)
2020 Dec 20, In Japan Harley Davidson bikers dressed in Santa Claus costumes rode through the streets of central Tokyo for their annual parade against child abuse.
(Reuters, 12/20/20)
2020 Dec 21, Japan's national associations of doctors, nurses and seven other medical groups declared a state of medical emergency, urging the government to support the nation's medical system creaking under the strain of the coronavirus pandemic.
(Reuters, 12/21/20)
2020 Dec 23, Japan's highest court upheld a ruling granting a retrial to Iwao Hakamada (84), a man described as the world's longest-serving death row inmate. He was convicted of robbing and murdering his boss, the man's wife, and their two teenaged children. Mr Hakamada had confessed to the crime but later recanted in court citing his allegedly brutal police interrogation and planted evidence.
(The Telegraph, 12/23/20)
2020 Dec 26, Japan registered a record 3,881 infections including a new record for the capital, Tokyo, of 949.
(BBC, 12/28/20)
2020 Dec 28, It was reported that "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train," the animated tale of a boy fighting human-eating demons that murdered his family, has shattered a nearly two-decade record to become Japan's top-grossing movie. The old record was held by "Spirited Away."
(Reuters, 12/28/20)(Econ., 1/23/21, p.29)
2020 Matt Alt authored "Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World."
(Econ., 1/23/21, p.30)
2020 In Japan, 6,976 women took their lives this year, nearly 15 percent more than in 2019. It was the first year-over-year increase in more than a decade.
(NY Times, 2/22/21)
2021 Jan 6, Tokyo reported a daily record of 1,591 coronavirus cases. Japan has confirmed more than 250,000 cases including over 3,700 deaths.
(SFC, 1/7/21, p.A4)
2021 Jan 8, A South Korean court ordered Japan to compensate 12 South Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese troops during WWII. Compensation was set at $91,360 for each of the 12 women, seven of whom have died while waiting for the ruling. Japan immediately protested the ruling saying all compensation issues were resolved under a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties.
(SFC, 1/9/21, p.A3)
2021 Jan 9, Osaka and its surrounding prefectures asked Japan to expand a state of emergency to the western cities in an effort to contain the latest COVID-19 outbreak. Tokyo's new daily infections kept above 2,000 cases.
(Reuters, 1/9/21)
2021 Jan 11, Young people in Yokohama marked Japan's Coming of Age Day, even though the city is under a state of emergency. The ceremonies were cancelled in many cities and parties were discouraged to stem a rise in COVID-19 infections.
(Reuters, 1/11/21)
2021 Jan 14, In Japan an executive at the Nissan carmaker told a Tokyo court at a trial of Nissan executive Greg Kelly that Carlos Ghosn hid part of his compensation because he feared the French government would force him out of Renault if it discovered how much he earned. Kelly is charged with helping Ghosn hide 9.3 billion yen ($89 million) in compensation over eight years through deferred payments after Japan introduced new rules requiring executives to disclose payments above 1 billion yen.
(AP, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 14, It was reported that Toyota Motor Corp has settled a lengthy US Justice Department civil probe into its delayed filing of emissions-related defect reports for $180 million, the government said in a court filing.
(Reuters, 1/14/20)
2021 Jan 16, It was reported that suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people.
(Reuters, 1/16/21)
2021 Jan 19, Japan's health minister watched a demonstration of a prototype automated COVID-19 testing machine that uses a robotic arm to take a sample from a person's nose and can deliver the results in about 80 minutes.
(Reuters, 1/19/21)
2021 Jan 22, Japanese carmaker Nissan confirmed that it will maintain its operations in Britain in the wake of the post-Brexit trade deal between the country and the European Union.
(AP, 1/22/21)
2021 Jan 26, Japanese drugmaker Shionogi & Co SAID IT has sold the development and marketing rights for a COVID-19 treatment to California-based biotech BioAge Labs Inc. The drug, known as BGE-175, was developed to treat allergic rhinitis.
(Reuters, 1/26/21)
2021 Feb 4, It was reported that the number of people infected by the novel coronavirus in Tokyo may have increased nine-fold since last summer, antibody tests showed, as Japan tries to rein in the country's third and most lethal wave of the pandemic ahead of the Olympics in July.
(Reuters, 2/4/21)
2021 Feb 8, Royal Dutch Shell and renewables firm Eneco, owned by Japan's Mitsubishi Corp, said they will provide Amazon.com Inc's European facilities with electricity from an offshore wind farm off the Dutch coast.
(Reuters, 2/8/21)
2021 Feb 11, Japan reported its worst one-day death toll for the pandemic. 21 people died from COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours.
(SFC, 2/12/21, p.A6)
2021 Feb 11, In Japan thousands of people from Myanmar sang songs and waved glow sticks as they gathered in Tokyo to protest the military coup in their home country.
(AP, 2/11/21)
2021 Feb 13, In eastern Japan a magnitude 7.3 earthquake off the coast of Fukushima shook a broad area late today, leaving nearly a million households without power. More than 100 people were injured.
(NY Times, 2/14/21)(SFC, 2/15/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 13, The US Supreme Court cleared the way for the extradition of an American father and son wanted by Japan in the escape of former Nissan Motor Co. boss Carlos Ghosn.
(AP, 2/13/21)
2021 Feb 14, Japan's Health Ministry said it has officially approved Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 vaccine, the first such approval in the country as it steps up efforts to tame a third wave of infections in the run-up to the Summer Olympic Games.
(Reuters, 2/14/21)
2021 Feb 15, Japan's Nikkei share average rose above the 30,000 level for the first time in more than 30 years, as it regained the ground lost during decades of economic stagnation.
(Reuters, 2/15/21)
2021 Feb 17, Japan launched its coronavirus vaccination campaign.
(SFC, 2/18/21, p.A4)
2021 Feb 19, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said cooling water levels have fallen in two reactors at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant since a powerful earthquake hit the area last weekend, indicating possible additional damage.
(AP, 2/19/21)
2021 Feb 21, Japan's Nikkei newspaper reported that Fujifilm Holdings Corp will restart a clinical trial in Japan of its antiviral drug Avigan for the treatment of COVID-19. A health ministry panel said in December that trial data was inconclusive.
(Reuters, 2/21/21)
2021 Feb 26, The record-breaking Japanese anime film "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train" carried over its box-office buzz to the United States, captivating Florida fans in its first screening. The film has grossed over $350 million at theaters in Japan.
(Reuters, 2/26/21)
2021 Mar 1, Toko Shinoda, one of the foremost Japanese artists of the 20th century, died at a hospital in Tokyo. Her work married the ancient serenity of calligraphy with the modernist urgency of Abstract Expressionism.
(NY Times, 3/3/21)
2021 Mar 1, An American father and son wanted by Japan for aiding former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn escape from the country in a box were handed over to Japanese custody, ending their months-long battle to stay in the US.
(AP, 3/1/21)
2021 Mar 2, Sri Lanka's government said it will allow India and Japan to develop a new container terminal at the country's main port, several weeks after scrapping a deal with the two countries to develop one of the key terminals at the same port.
(AP, 3/2/21)
2021 Mar 5, Japan's PM Yoshihide Suga announced an extension of the state of emergency in the Tokyo region for another two weeks because medical systems there are still strained by COVID-19 patients.
(SFC, 3/6/21, p.A4)
2021 Mar 9, Japan-based Nissan said it is recalling more than 854,000 cars in the US and Canada because the brake lights might not come on when the driver presses on the pedal.
(AP, 3/9/21)
2021 Mar 12, It was reported that Myanmar's first satellite is being held on board the International Space Station following the Myanmar coup, while Japan's space agency and a Japanese university decide what to do with it.
(Reuters, 3/12/21)
2021 Mar 17, A Japanese court for the first time ruled that same-sex marriage should be allowed under the country's constitution, a moral victory that does not have any immediate legal consequence but could bolster efforts for legalization.
(AP, 3/17/21)
2021 Mar 20, The International Olympic Committee and local organizers announced that foreign spectators will not be allowed at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to begin July 23, because of coronavirus restrictions.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 20, A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off northern Japan, shaking buildings even in Tokyo and triggering a tsunami advisory for a part of the northern coast. No major damage was reported.
(AP, 3/20/21)
2021 Mar 22, South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co said it has won a contract from Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo Inc to supply 5G network equipment, as the company positions itself as a challenger in the telecoms gear business.
(Reuters, 3/22/21)
2021 Mar 24, Japanese automakers Toyota, Isuzu and Hino said they are setting up a partnership in commercial vehicles to work together in electric, hydrogen, connected and autonomous driving technologies.
(SFC, 3/25/21, p.B2)
2021 Mar 25, The Olympic torch relay started in Japan, though questions linger about whether the Games should go ahead.
(NY Times, 3/24/21)
2021 Mar 27, Japan-based Honda said it has agreed to sell its only British car plant at Swindon in southern England to logistics giant Panattoni, as the new owner reportedly plans to make a large investment at the sprawling site.
(Reuters, 3/27/21)
2021 Mar 29, The Japanese government said it has decided to temporarily halt its use of popular messaging app Line, owned by SoftBank Corp's Z Holdings, to handle sensitive information. This followed domestic media reports this month that four engineers at a Line affiliate in Shanghai were allowed to access servers in Japan from 2018 that contained the names, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of users.
(Reuters, 3/29/21)
2021 Mar 30, Japan-based Lexus, a luxury auto brand owned by Toyota Motor Corp, said it plans to introduce 20 new or improved models by 2025, of which more than 10 will be electric.
(Reuters, 3/30/21)
2021 Mar 31, Data firm IHS Markit said a recent fire at a Japanese semiconductor factory and severe weather in parts of the United States in February have exacerbated an ongoing chip shortage plaguing the global auto industry. The chip-making factory owned by Renesas Electronics Corp accounts for 30% of the global market for microcontroller units used in cars.
(Reuters, 3/31/21)
2021 Apr 1, Japan designated Osaka and two other areas for new virus control steps as infections there rise less than four months before the Tokyo Olympics.
(SFC, 4/2/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 2, In Japan 446 new infections were reported in Tokyo. In Osaka, a record 666 cases were reported.
(Reuters, 4/3/21)
2021 Apr 4, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said around 70% of coronavirus patients tested at a Tokyo hospital last month carried a mutation known for reducing vaccine protection. The E484K mutation, nicknamed "Eek" by some scientists, was found in 10 of 14 people who tested positive for the virus at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital in March.
(Reuters, 4/4/21)
2021 Apr 5, Japan's Subaru Corp said that the automaker will shut its Yajima plant between April 10 and 27 due to a chip shortage, affecting 10,000 vehicles.
(Reuters, 4/5/21)
2021 Apr 6, It was reported that Japan has extended its own sanctions against North Korea for another two years as Pyongyang continues to develop its nuclear weapons without any progress in resolving the abductions of Japanese nationals.
(AP, 4/6/21)
2021 Apr 7, Doctors in Japan performed the world's first successful transplant of lung tissue from living donors to a patient with severe lung damage from COVID-19.
(SFC, 4/9/21, p.A6)
2021 Apr 12, Japan said it had decided to gradually release tons of treated wastewater from the ruined Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the ocean.
(SFC, 4/13/21, p.A4)
2021 Apr 14, The UAE-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center said it is partnering with Japan’s ispace company to send a rover to the moon on an unmanned spacecraft by 2022, rather than 2024. The “Rashid" rover, named after Dubai’s ruling family, will deploy to the moon using ispace's lunar lander.
(AP, 4/14/21)
2021 Apr 15, Nissan Motor Co said it will slash production at several factories in Japan next month due to a global shortage of semiconductors.
(AP, 4/15/21)
2021 Apr 16, President Biden welcomed Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga at the White House, his first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader and a clear signal to an increasingly aggressive China about the shared commitment to strategic cooperation between the US and Japan.
(LA Times, 4/16/21)
2021 Apr 21, A South Korean court rejected a claim by victims of Japanese wartime sexual slavery and their relatives who sought compensation from Japan's government.
(SFC, 4/22/21, p.A2)
2021 Apr 26, In Japan private sector advisers to PM Yoshihide Suga warned that Japan's birth rate is declining at a faster pace amid the coronavirus crisis, saying that society should have a "sense of crisis" about it.
(Reuters, 4/26/21)
2021 Apr 27, Toyota subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings said it has acquired the self-driving division of American ride-hailing company Lyft for $550 million.
(SFC, 4/28/21, p.B2)
2021 May 7, Novavax Inc said the distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine in Japan is expected to begin in late 2021 or early 2022 and continue for the near-term, predicting the need for protection against variants in the future. Takeda Pharmaceutical Co, Japan's biggest drugmaker, is helping bring the vaccine to the domestic market.
(Reuters, 5/7/21)
2021 May 14, Japan further expanded a coronavirus state of emergency from six areas, including Tokyo, to nine, as Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga repeated his determination to hold the Olympics in just over two months.
(AP, 5/14/21)
2021 May 24, Japan mobilized military doctors and nurses to give elderly people vaccine shots in Tokyo and Osaka, two months before hosting the Olympics.
(SFC, 5/25/21, p.A4)
2021 Jun 2, Japan's PM Yoshihide Suga announced an additional $800 million contribution to the UN-backed initiative to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries, a four-fold increase of Japanese funding for the COVAX program.
(AP, 6/2/21)
2021 Jun 7, In Japan the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa began closing schools to contain coronavirus infections. Gov. Denny Tamaki said primary and secondary schools will be closed until June 20.
(SFC, 6/8/21, p.A5)
2021 Jun 14, In Japan an American father and son pleaded guilty in Japan to helping Carlos Ghosn, the former Nissan chief facing fraud charges, to flee that country in 2019. Michael Taylor (60), a former Green Beret, and his son Peter Maxwell Taylor (28), appeared in the same Tokyo courthouse where Mr. Ghosn had been expected to stand trial before his daring escape to Lebanon in December 2019.
(NY Times, 6/14/21)
2021 Jun 15, Winners were announced for the annual Goldman Environmental Prize. The six winners included: Sharon Lavigne (68) of Louisiana, who successfully fought the opening of a Chinese chemical plant in St. James Parish; Liz Chicaje Churay (38) of Peru, for helping establish a new national park; Maida Bilal (39) of Bosnia-Herzegovina, for creating an environmental group to protest proposed hydropower dams on the Kruscica River; Kimiko Hirata of Japan, for fighting off construction of new coal power plants following the country's 2011 earthquake and nuclear plant meltdown; Gloria Majiga-Kamoto (30) of Malawi, for bringing pressure on the government to uphold a ban on thin plastics; and Thai Van Nguyen (39) of Vietnam, for work to protect pangolins, trafficked for use in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine.
(SFC, 6/15/21, p.B5)
2021 Jun 19, A member of Uganda's Olympic squad became the first to test positive for Covid-19 on arrival in Japan for the competition due to start on 23 July. The unnamed Ugandan was part of a nine-member squad that had been fully vaccinated.
(BBC, 6/20/21)
2021 Jun 20, Tokyo reported 376 cases of Covid and one death, 72 more than a week ago.
(BBC, 6/20/21)
2021 Jun 21, Thailand's health minister said Japan's government would donate some AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, as the Southeast Asian country seeks to shore-up supplies after some early delays in its vaccinations.
(Reuters, 6/21/21)
2021 Jun 23, Tokyo reported 619 new coronavirus cases, up from the last seven-day average of 405. Japan has hit the remarkable benchmark of 1 million vaccines a day. But with the Olympics set to start in less than a month only a small portion of the country has been vaccinated.
(AP, 6/24/21)
2060 Japan’s population was expected to drop to about 87 million by this time from 127 million in 2015.
(Econ, 6/27/15, p.33)
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