2008 in Japan

Events

January 31 – Nine people are hospitalized after eating gyōza made at the Tianyang Food Plant in China.^[2]
February 11 – Okinawa police arrest United States Marine Tyrone Hadnott and charge him with raping a middle-school girl.^[3]
February 19
- Kei Nishikori wins an ATP title. At age 18, he is the youngest player to win the title after Lleyton Hewitt won it at age 16 in 1998.^[4]
- A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Atago collides with fishing boat Seitoku Maru at 4:07 am, off the coast of Chiba Prefecture.^[5]
February 22
- The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force resumes fueling warships from the United States and its allies.^[6]
- Kazuyoshi Miura is arrested in Saipan on suspicion of involvement with the murder of his wife in 1981.^[7]
February 25 – The Supreme Court upheld life sentence of Daisuke Mori.^[8]
June 8 – The Akihabara massacre takes place in Tokyo. A man kills seven in an attack on a crowd using a truck and a dagger.^[9]
June 14 – the 2008 Iwate earthquake strikes northern Honshū, leaving two dead and hundreds injured.^[10]
June 17 – Serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki is executed by hanging.^[11]
July 7 – July 9 – G8 summit hosted by Japan.
September 6 – Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announces his resignation.
September 24 – The Diet elects Taro Aso Prime Minister.
October – Toyota launches yet another Avensis at the 2008 Paris Motor Show to be built in Britain.
October 1 – Arson claims 15 lives in a pre-dawn fire at an adult-video shop in Osaka.^[12]
October 10 (U.S. Pacific Daylight Time) – Kazuyoshi Miura commits suicide in Los Angeles while under arrest on suspicion of involvement in the murder of his wife.^[13]
October 17 – Japan won their tenth nonpermanent seat for 2009 and 2010 sessions on the United Nations Security Council, defeating Iran by 158 votes to 32 in elections in the General Assembly^[14]

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Deaths

January 16: Tamako Kataoka, painter
January 17: Jinzō Toriumi, screenwriter
February 13: Kon Ichikawa, film director
February 29: Kenji Yanagiya, fighter ace of the Imperial Japanese Army
March 3: Taichirō Hirokawa, voice actor and narrator
March 11: Akemi Negishi, actress
April 2: Momoko Ishii, author
June 6: Saeko Himuro, novelist, essayist, and playwright
June 9: Kan Mukai, film director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter
June 17: Tsutomu Miyazaki, serial killer
June 18: Miyuki Kanbe, model and actress
June 27: Daihachi Oguchi, drummer
August 2: Fujio Akatsuka, manga artist
August 4: Eri Kawai, singer
August 11: Arase Nagahide, sumo wrestler
August 14: Seiji Aochi, ski jumper
August 16: Masanobu Fukuoka, microbiologist
October 10: Kazuyoshi Miura, businessman
October 27: Frank Nagai, singer
November 7: Hidetaka Nishiyama, master of Shotokan karate
November 10: Kiyoshi Itō, mathematician
December 5: Shūichi Katō, critic
December 16: Ai Iijima, media personality and AV idol
Undated: Yoshinao Kodaira, officer and fighter ace

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Incumbents

Governors

Events

The Nobel Prize

Deaths

See also

References

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