2025 in Japan

January

January 3 – U.S. President Joe Biden blocks the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Nippon Steel.^[1]
January 10 – Eight students are injured in a hammer attack inside the Tama campus of Hosei University in Machida, Tokyo. A 22-year old South Korean national is arrested.^[2]
January 13 – A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits Miyazaki Prefecture, injuring three people.^[3]
January 22 – One person is killed while two others are injured in a knife attack outside Nagano Station.^[4]
January 27 – Koichi Minato and Shuji Kanoh resign as the respective president and chair of Fuji Television amid criticism over the network's handling of a sexual abuse scandal involving television personality Masahiro Nakai.^[5]
January 28 – A sinkhole appears in a road intersection in Yashio, Saitama, swallowing up a truck being driven by an elderly man whose body is recovered on May 2.^[6]
January 29 – Japan suspends funding for the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in response to its publication of a report in 2024 calling for the revision of Japanese imperial succession law to allow women to become empresses regnant.^[7]

February

February 3 – Former MP Tamotsu Shiiki is sentenced to a five-year suspended prison sentence for raping an underage girl at a karaoke parlor in Tokyo in August 2024.^[8]
February 17 – The Taliban conducts a diplomatic visit to Japan for the first time since taking power in Afghanistan in 2021.^[9]
February 19 – Ryūji Kimura is convicted and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for the attempted assassination of Fumio Kishida in 2023.^[10]
February 21 – The Cabinet approves a bill to allow bears spotted in urban areas to be shot at hunters' discretion following an increase in encounters and attacks on humans.^[11]
February 26 – The Ōfunato wildfire starts in Iwate Prefecture. The Fire and Disaster Management Agency estimates over 80 homes have been destroyed.^[12]
February 27 – The body of a man is found by police on a road within the Ōfunato wildfire evacuation zone.^[13]
February 28 – The Ōfunato wildfire grows to cover over 1,200 ha (3,000 acres), making it the largest wildfire on record in Japan.^[14]

March

March 3 – Prime Minister Ishiba gives 100,000-yen gift vouchers to 15 LDP lawmakers, sparking criticism.^[15] Ishiba denies breaking political laws.^[16]
March 4 –
- The Ōfunato wildfire reaches 2,600 ha (6,400 acres) with over 2,000 firefighters from 14 prefectures fighting the blaze.^[12]
- Yuji Iwasawa is elected as President of the International Court of Justice.^[17]
March 6 – The Tōhoku Shinkansen suffers a decoupling incident involving the Hayabusa and Komachi trains, causing a week-long suspension of services along the Akita and Yamagata Shinkansen lines.^[18]
March 7 – The Nagoya High Court rules that the non-recognition of same-sex marriage in Japan is unconstitutional and discriminatory.^[19]
March 12 – Police arrest several men in Aichi for alleged sexual assault and child pornography.^[20]
March 14 –
- NHK Party leader Takashi Tachibana is injured in a stabbing while giving a speech in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in Tokyo. The attacker, who confesses an intention to kill Tachibana, is arrested at the scene.^[21]
- Police arrest Kenji Takano for fatally stabbing YouTuber Airi Sato during a livestream in Tokyo.^[22]
March 17 –
- A Japanese resident of Belarus is convicted and sentenced by a court in Minsk to seven years' imprisonment for spying for Japanese intelligence.^[23]
- The dismantling of the Number 2 Reactor at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant in Shizuoka Prefecture begins in what is the first operation of its kind in Japan.^[24]
March 23 – Wildfires break out in Okayama and Ehime Prefectures, prompting the evacuation of 3,000 people.^[25]
March 25 –
- The Tokyo District Court revokes the legal status of the Unification Church as a religious organization in Japan and orders the group to liquidate its assets.^[26]
- The Osaka High Court rules that the non-recognition of same-sex marriage in Japan is unconstitutional and discriminatory.^[27]
March 26 – Professor Masaki Kashiwara of the Institute for Advanced Study of Kyoto University becomes the first person from Japan to be awarded the Abel Prize for his contributions in the field of algebraic analysis.^[28]
March 27 – Former MP Megumi Hirose is sentenced to a suspended 2.5 year prison term for defrauding 3.5 million yen ($23,000) in public funds by claiming salary expenses for a secretary who did no work.^[29]
March 31 – Gyudon chain Sukiya imposes a one-week nationwide closure of its stores for cleanup after revelations of pest contamination in its food items.^[30]

April

April 5 – Two tour buses collide along the Chūō Expressway in Hachiōji, Tokyo, injuring 47 people.^[31]
April 6 – A medevac helicopter crashes off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture, killing three of the six people on board.^[32]
April 7 –
- Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako visit Iwo Jima to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima, in the first visit to the island by a Japanese monarch since 1994.^[33]
- Shinji Aoyama resigns as executive vice president of Honda following "an allegation of inappropriate conduct".^[34]
April 8 – Actress Ryōko Hirosue is arrested on suspicion of assaulting and injuring a nurse at a hospital in Shimada after being transported there following a vehicular crash on the Shin-Tōmei Expressway in Kakegawa the previous night.^[35]^[36]
April 13 – October 13 – Expo 2025 in Osaka.^[37]
April 15 –
- Governor of Wakayama Prefecture Shūhei Kishimoto dies of septic shock at a hospital in Wakayama after being found unconscious at the governor's residence on the day prior.^[38] He is the first prefectural governor to die in office after Takeshi Onaga, then-governor of Okinawa Prefecture, who died in 2018.^[38]
- The Japan Fair Trade Commission issues a cease-and-desist order against Google for forcing manufacturers to preinstall its apps on Android smartphones in violation of domestic anti-monopoly laws.^[39]
April 18 – A magnitude 5.2 earthquake hits Nagano Prefecture, injuring one person.^[40]
April 26 – A collision involving 11 vehicles along the Tohoku Expressway in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, leaves three people dead and 10 others injured.^[41]

May

May 1 –
- Seven children are injured in a car-ramming attack in Osaka. The driver is arrested.^[42]
- The Imperial Household Agency announces the dismissal of one of its employees for stealing 3.6 million yen while working as a palace attendant from 2023 to 2025.^[43]
May 7 – Two people are injured in a knife attack at Tōdaimae Station in Tokyo. The assailant is arrested.^[44]
May 8 – Five teachers are injured in an assault by two men inside an elementary school in Tachikawa, Tokyo.^[45]
May 14 – A Kawasaki T-4 trainer aircraft of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force crashes into Lake Iruka in Inuyama, Aichi, killing its two crew.^[46]^[47]
May 21 – Agriculture minister Taku Etō resigns amid criticism over saying that he "never had to buy rice" and receives it from supporters instead amid high prices for the staple.^[48]
May 23 – Forty-two people are injured in a pepper spray attack at a mall in Chiba Prefecture. A suspect is arrested.^[49]
May 27 – Ten people are injured in a series of suspected gas explosions at a construction site in Edogawa, Tokyo.^[50]

June

June 6 –
- The Tokyo-based private spaceflight company ispace Inc. announces the failure of its Resilience lunar lander after losing contact during a mission to the Moon.^[51]
- Ichiyo Shimizu is elected as the first woman president of the Japan Shogi Association.^[52]
June 9 – Four JSDF soldiers are injured in an explosion at a storage facility for unexploded ordnance at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture.^[53]
June 10 – Japan qualifies for the 2026 FIFA World Cup after defeating Indonesia 6-0 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification in Suita.^[54]
June 21 – An earthquake swarm breaks out in the Tokara Islands in Kagoshima Prefecture, with over 900 tremors, the strongest measuring a magnitude of 5.5, recorded by July 2.^[55]
June 22 –
- The Shinmoedake volcano in Kyushu erupts for the first time since 2018, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to raise a level 2 warning.^[56]
- 2025 Tokyo prefectural election
June 24 – A US Marine is convicted and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment by the Naha District Court for sexually assaulting a woman in Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture in 2024.^[57]
June 26 – Seiko Hashimoto becomes the first woman to be elected president of the Japanese Olympic Committee.^[58]
June 27 – Serial killer Takahiro Shiraishi, who was dubbed the "Twitter killer" for luring and murdering people in Zama, Kanagawa in 2017, becomes the first person to be executed by the Japanese state since 2022.^[59]
June 30 – China lifts a ban on seafood imports from Japan that it imposed in 2023 in response to the dumping of radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean.^[60]

July

July 3 – Akira Otani becomes the first person from Japan to win in the UK-based Dagger Awards for her novel "The Night of Baba Yaga", which wins the best translated crime novel category.^[61]
July 6 – Two people are killed in a knife attack at a bar in Hamamatsu. A suspect is arrested.^[62]
July 7 – The Institute for International Business Communication nullifies the results of 803 applicants who took the Test of English for International Communication exam in Japan from 2023 to 2025 due to cheating.^[63]
July 12 –
- Hokkaido Prefecture issues its highest-level alert warning for brown bears for the first time following the death of a man in Fukushima from a suspected bear attack.^[64]
- Taiwanese company TiSPACE fails to complete Japan’s first foreign rocket launch after its VP01 rocket falls shortly after liftoff from Hokkaido Spaceport.^[65]
July 15 –
- Typhoon Nari becomes the first tropical cyclone to make landfall over Hokkaido since 2016.^[66]
- A building under demolition collapses in Kurume, killing two workers.^[67]
- Japan wins the 2025 EAFF E-1 Football Championship after defeating South Korea 1-0 at the final in Yongin.^[68]
July 20 – 2025 Japanese House of Councillors election: The ruling LDP–Komeito coalition loses its majority in the House of Councillors.^[69]
July 22 – US President Donald Trump announces a trade agreement with Japan reducing tariffs on Japanese exports from 25% to 15%.^[70]
July 28 – Six people are injured in a mass stabbing in Mito, Ibaraki. A suspect is arrested.^[71]
July 30 –
- A magnitude 8.8 earthquake with an epicenter off the coast of Kamchatka in neighboring Russia triggers tsunamis that affect Japan and results in one indirect death from a car accident in Kumano, Mie.^[72]^[73]
- The Tokyo District Court orders TEPCO to pay 100 million yen ($676,000) in damages to Katsutaka Idogawa, the former mayor of Futaba, Fukushima, over the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.^[74]
- The Japan Meteorological Agency records the highest temperature recorded in Japan, at 41.2 °C (106.2 °F) in Tamba, Hyōgo Prefecture.^[75]

August

August 2 – Four drainage workers are killed after falling into a manhole in Gyōda, Saitama Prefecture.^[76]
August 5 – The Japan Meteorological Agency records the highest temperature recorded in Japan, at 41.8 °C (107.2 °F) in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture, exceeding the previous record set on July 30.^[77]

Incumbents

Arts and entertainment

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Sports

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Date unknown

See also

Country overviews

Related timelines for current period

References

External links

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