1998 in Japan

Decades:	1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s; 2010s;
See also:	Other events of 1998; History of Japan; Timeline; Years;

Events in the year 1998 in Japan. It corresponds to the year Heisei 10 (平成10年) in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

Emperor: Akihito^[1]
Prime Minister: Ryutaro Hashimoto (L–Okayama) until July 30, Keizo Obuchi (L–Gunma)
Chief Cabinet Secretary: Kanezō Muraoka (L–Akita) until July 30, Hiromu Nonaka (L–Kyōto)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Shigeru Yamaguchi
President of the House of Representatives: Sōichirō Itō (L–Miyagi)
President of the House of Councillors: Jūrō Saitō (L–Mie) until July 25 and again from August 4
Diet sessions: 142nd (regular, January 12 to June 18), 143rd (extraordinary, August 7 to October 16), 144th (extraordinary, November 27 to December 14)

Governors

Aichi Prefecture: Reiji Suzuki
Akita Prefecture: Sukeshiro Terata
Aomori Prefecture: Morio Kimura
Chiba Prefecture: Takeshi Numata
Ehime Prefecture: Sadayuki Iga
Fukui Prefecture: Yukio Kurita
Fukuoka Prefecture: Wataru Asō
Fukushima Prefecture: Eisaku Satō
Gifu Prefecture: Taku Kajiwara
Gunma Prefecture: Hiroyuki Kodera
Hiroshima Prefecture: Yūzan Fujita
Hokkaido: Tatsuya Hori
Hyogo Prefecture: Toshitami Kaihara
Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
Iwate Prefecture: Hiroya Masuda
Kagawa Prefecture: Jōichi Hirai (until 4 September); Takeki Manabe (starting 5 September)
Kagoshima Prefecture: Tatsurō Suga
Kanagawa Prefecture: Hiroshi Okazaki
Kochi Prefecture: Daijiro Hashimoto
Kumamoto Prefecture: Joji Fukushima
Kyoto Prefecture: Teiichi Aramaki
Mie Prefecture: Masayasu Kitagawa
Miyagi Prefecture: Shirō Asano
Miyazaki Prefecture: Suketaka Matsukata
Nagano Prefecture: Gorō Yoshimura
Nagasaki Prefecture: Isamu Takada (until 1 March); Genjirō Kaneko (starting 2 March)
Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto
Niigata Prefecture: Ikuo Hirayama
Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
Okinawa Prefecture: Masahide Ōta (until 10 December); Keiichi Inamine (starting 10 December)
Osaka Prefecture: Knock Yokoyama
Saga Prefecture: Isamu Imoto
Saitama Prefecture: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya
Shiga Prefecture: Minoru Inaba (until 20 July); Yoshitsugu Kunimatsu (starting 20 July)
Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita
Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
Tochigi Prefecture: Fumio Watanabe
Tokushima Prefecture: Toshio Endo
Tokyo: Yukio Aoshima
Tottori Prefecture: Yuji Nishio
Toyama Prefecture: Yutaka Nakaoki
Wakayama Prefecture: Isamu Nishiguchi
Yamagata Prefecture: Kazuo Takahashi
Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
Yamanashi Prefecture: Ken Amano

Events

February 7 – February 22: The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano.^[2]
March 5 – March 14: The 1998 Winter Paralympics are held in Nagano.^[2]
April 1: Toyota City, Fukuyama City, Kōchi City and Miyazaki City become core cities.
April 5: The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about ¥ 500 billion (US$3.8 billion), opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.^[3]
May 26: Takashi Imai is inaugurated as the 9th head of the Keidanren.
June 22: Financial Services Agency established.
July 5: Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
July 12: Election for the House of Councillors held.
July 25: Masumi Hayashi poisons a curry pot at a festival in Wakayama, causing the death of two adults and two children.
September 3: Metal Gear Solid is first released for the PS1 in Japan.
September 7: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 10 : LOVE is released in Japan.
September 22 – 23: Typhoon Vivki causes damage to several cultural heritage sites in Wakayama, Nara, Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture and causing 19 deaths.^{[citation needed]}
October 8: Japan-South Korea Joint Declaration of 1998.
November 13: Free solo climber Alain Robert scales the Shinjuku Center Building and is arrested on its roof.
November 26: Japan-China Joint Declaration On Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development.
December 18: Mario Party is released in Japan.

Births

January 5 - Marie Iitoyo, model and actress
January 23 - Yuto Adachi, singer and member of South Korean boy band Pentagon
February 8 - Rui Hachimura, basketball player
March 19 - Sakura Miyawaki, singer and member of South Korean girl group Le Sserafim
March 26 - Satoko Miyahara, figure skater
April 6 - Rina Katsuta, singer
April 10 - Airi Kinoshita, murder victim (d. 2005)
April 28 - Manamo Miyata, singer and member of Hinatazaka46
May 13 - Karen Iwata, singer and voice actress
May 28 - Riho Sayashi, J-pop singer
May 31 - Ryang Hyon-ju, North Korean, footballer
June 14 - Taishi Nakagawa, actor and model
June 19 - Suzu Hirose, model and actress
July 9 - Tiger Onitsuka, jazz drummer
July 16 - Rina Matsuno, singer (d. 2017)
July 17 - Shione Sawada, actress
July 26 - Maya Sakura, singer
July 27 - Risa Watanabe, idol and model
August 5 - Kanon Suzuki, singer
August 17 - Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professional baseball player
August 28 - Haruka Fukuhara, actress, model and singer
October 30 - Meimi Tamura, singer and actress
November 12 - Yuna Taira, actress
November 29 - Ayumu Hirano, snowboarder
December 24 - Keito Tsuna, actor
December 30 - Akari Uemura, pop singer

Deaths

January 9 – Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
January 21 – Yoshifumi Kondō, animator (b. 1950)
January 26 – Shinichi Suzuki, violinist (b. 1898)
January 27 – Tamio Kageyama, novelist (b. 1947)
January 28 – Shotaro Ishinomori, Manga artist, "Father of Henshin heroes." (b. 1938)
February 5 – Takahashi Chikuzan, Tsugaru-jamisen performer and composer (b. 1910)
March 10 – Kenkō Satoshi, Sumo wrestler (b. 1967)
March 13 – Kosho Uchiyama, Sōtō priest (b. 1912)
April 20 – Yoshio Inaba, actor (b. 1920)
May 2 – Matsumoto Hideto (hide), Japanese musician (b. 1964)
May 10 – Nekojiru, manga artist (b. 1967)
May 19 – Sōsuke Uno, Prime Minister (b. 1922)
August 3 – Reizo Koike, breaststroke swimmer (b. 1915)
August 28 – Hirokazu Kobayashi, aikidoka (b. 1929)
September 6 – Akira Kurosawa, screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1910)
September 27 – Narita Bryan, racehorse (b. 1991)
October 12 – Ineko Sata, communist and feminist author of proletarian literature (b. 1904)
November 1 – Silence Suzuka, racehorse (b. 1994)
November 5 – Momoko Kōchi, actress (b. 1932)
December 1 – Shōji Nakayama, actor (b. 1928)
December 2 – Mikio Oda, athlete (b. 1905)
December 30 – Keisuke Kinoshita, film director (b. 1912)

References

^ "Akihito | Biography, Reign, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
^ ^a ^b Bell, Daniel (17 March 2016). Encyclopedia of International Games. McFarland. p. 519. ISBN 978-1-4766-1527-1.
^ "Public Roads - World's Longest Suspension Bridge Opens in Japan , July/August 1998". Fhwa.dot.gov. Retrieved 2016-04-08.

[1] "Akihito | Biography, Reign, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 March 2019.

[Bell-2] Bell, Daniel (17 March 2016). Encyclopedia of International Games. McFarland. p. 519. ISBN 978-1-4766-1527-1.

[3] "Public Roads - World's Longest Suspension Bridge Opens in Japan , July/August 1998". Fhwa.dot.gov. Retrieved 2016-04-08.

[1]

[2]

[3]

1998 in Japan

Incumbents

Governors

Events

Births

Deaths

See also

References