2001 in Japan

Events

January 6: Nurse Daisuke Mori arrested for an attempted murder of 11-year-old girl.^[2]
January 26: A JR yamanote line train coming into Shin-Ōkubo Station hits and kills a man who fell off the platform and two others who jumped onto the rails to rescue him.
January 31: 2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident

February 9: The fishing boat Ehime Maru is struck by a U.S. submarine and sunk.

March 21: The Nintendo Game Boy Advance handheld is released.
March 24: 2001 Geiyo earthquake, kill two people with injure 288 in Hiroshima and Ehime. ^{[citation needed]}
March 27: Hikaru Saeki became the first female star officer (admiral and general) in the history of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF).^[3]
March 31: Universal Studios Japan opens in Osaka.^[4]

April 1: Sakura Bank and Sumitomo Bank merge to form Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
April 6: Japanese government institutes new overtime regulations.
April 24: Junichiro Koizumi defeats Ryutaro Hashimoto in LDP polls to become prime minister.
April 26: Koizumi announces his first cabinet, with Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister and Heizo Takenaka as Minister of State for the Economy.

July 13: Osaka is removed on the first ballot for the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
July 20: Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away premieres; it becomes the first anime film to win an Academy Award.
July 29: 2001 Japanese House of Councillors election.

September 1: Myojo 56 building fire kills 44.
September 4: Tokyo DisneySea opens to the public as part of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan.^[5]
September 11: The first case of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japan is discovered.
September 12: Following the September 11 attacks in the United States, the Nikkei 225 index drops below 10,000 for the first time since 1984.
September 14: The Nintendo GameCube is released.

October 1: Ghibli Museum opens.
October 18: The East Japan Railway Company introduces the Suica smart card service to the Tokyo area.

December 1: Princess Aiko, potential heiress to the Imperial throne, is born.
December 9: Television performer Masashi Tashiro is arrested for peeping in a male bath-house.
December 21: TIME removes Masashi Tashiro from its "Person of the Year" poll after 2channel users vote the "bad boy" performer into first place.

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Births

January 2: Wakaba Higuchi, figure skater
February 2: Maria Makino, pop singer
February 4: Fūka Haruna, actress
May 24: Noa Tsurushima, actress
May 28: Rikako Sasaki, singer
June 4: Takefusa Kubo, footballer
June 18: Nako Yabuki, singer
June 19: Natsumi Sakai, swimmer
June 25: Yurina Hirate, idol singer
August 4: Seishiro Kato, actor
August 31: Nana Mori, actress
October 1: Pankun, chimpanzee
October 6: Hitomi Honda, singer
November 3: Rōki Sasaki, professional baseball pitcher (Chiba Marines)^{[citation needed]}
December 1: Princess Aiko, the daughter and only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako

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Deaths

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Incumbents