2007 in Japan
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Events in the year 2007 in Japan.
Incumbents[edit]
- Emperor – Akihito[1]
- Prime Minister – Shinzō Abe (Liberal Democratic Party–Yamaguchi) until September 26, Yasuo Fukuda (Liberal Democratic Party–Gunma)
- Chief Cabinet Secretary: Yasuhisa Shiozaki (L–Ehime) to August 27, Kaoru Yosano (L–Tokyo) to September 26, Nobutaka Machimura (L–Hokkaidō)
- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Nirō Shimada
- President of the House of Representatives: Yōhei Kōno (L–Kanagawa)
- President of the House of Councillors: Chikage Ōgi (L–proportional) until July 28, Satsuki Eda (D–Okayama)
- Diet sessions: 166th (regular, January 25 to July 5), 167th (extraordinary, August 7 to August 10), 168th (extraordinary, September 10 to 2008, January 15)
Governors[edit]
- Aichi Prefecture: Masaaki Kanda
- Akita Prefecture: Sukeshiro Terata
- Aomori Prefecture: Shingo Mimura
- Chiba Prefecture: Akiko Dōmoto
- Ehime Prefecture: Moriyuki Kato
- Fukui Prefecture: Issei Nishikawa
- Fukuoka Prefecture: Wataru Asō
- Fukushima Prefecture: Yūhei Satō
- Gifu Prefecture: Hajime Furuta
- Gunma Prefecture: Hiroyuki Kodera (until 27 July); Masaaki Osawa (starting 28 July)
- Hiroshima Prefecture: Yūzan Fujita
- Hokkaido: Harumi Takahashi
- Hyogo Prefecture: Toshizō Ido
- Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
- Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
- Iwate Prefecture: Hiroya Masuda (until 29 April); Takuya Tasso (starting 30 April)
- Kagawa Prefecture: Takeki Manabe
- Kagoshima Prefecture: Satoshi Mitazono
- Kanagawa Prefecture: Shigefumi Matsuzawa
- Kochi Prefecture: Daijiro Hashimoto (until 6 December); Masanao Ozaki (starting 7 December)
- Kumamoto Prefecture: Yoshiko Shiotani
- Kyoto Prefecture: Keiji Yamada
- Mie Prefecture: Akihiko Noro
- Miyagi Prefecture: Yoshihiro Murai
- Miyazaki Prefecture: Kayoko Saka (until 22 January); Hideo Higashikokubaru (starting 23 January)
- Nagano Prefecture: Jin Murai
- Nagasaki Prefecture: Genjirō Kaneko
- Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto (until 2 May); Shōgo Arai (starting 2 May)
- Niigata Prefecture: Hirohiko Izumida
- Oita Prefecture: Katsusada Hirose
- Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
- Okinawa Prefecture: Hirokazu Nakaima
- Osaka Prefecture: Fusae Ōta
- Saga Prefecture: Yasushi Furukawa
- Saitama Prefecture: Kiyoshi Ueda
- Shiga Prefecture: Yukiko Kada
- Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita (until 29 April); Zenbe Mizoguchi (starting 30 April)
- Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
- Tochigi Prefecture: Tomikazu Fukuda
- Tokushima Prefecture: Kamon Iizumi
- Tokyo: Shintarō Ishihara
- Tottori Prefecture: Yoshihiro Katayama (until 13 April); Shinji Hirai (starting 13 April)
- Toyama Prefecture: Takakazu Ishii
- Wakayama Prefecture: Yoshinobu Nisaka
- Yamagata Prefecture: Hiroshi Saitō
- Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
- Yamanashi Prefecture: Takahiko Yamamoto (until 16 February); Shōmei Yokouchi (starting 17 February)
Events[edit]
January[edit]
- January 23 – A rare eel-like creature identified as a frilled shark is discovered in Japan by fishermen.[2]
February[edit]
- February 20 – A power outage strikes the central area of Nagoya.
- February 26 – A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off the southern coast of Japan's Ryukyu Island.[3]
March[edit]
- March 25 – A tsunami occurs on the northern coast of Japan after an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 in the Sea of Japan. NHK reports that 1 person has died and 40 have been injured.[4]
- March 26 – Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe apologizes for Japan's use of women as sex slaves in frontline brothels during World War II.[5]
April[edit]
- April 1 – Niigata and Hamamatsu become cities designated by government ordinance.
- April 8 – Voters go to the polls in Japan for the first phase of the unified local elections including 13 gubernatorial elections, 44 prefectural assembly elections and 4 mayoral races in major cities.[6]
- April 10 – The government of Japan extends economic sanctions against the North Korean government by an additional six months, citing a lack of progress in resolving kidnapping cases of Japanese citizens.[7]
- April 16 – The United States, Japan and India carry out a joint naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to increase strategic cooperation.
- April 17 – Iccho Ito, the mayor of Nagasaki, Japan, is shot at least twice outside his re-election campaign headquarters. The assassin, Tetsuya Shiroo, is alleged to be a senior member of a local gang affiliated to the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate.[8] Itoh was taken to the Nagasaki University Hospital, where he died early the next morning due to loss of blood.
- April 22 – In the second phase of the unified local elections, hundreds of municipal elections and two by-elections for the national Diet are held.
- April 25 – Japanese police raid the offices of a pro-North Korean group in relation to the alleged kidnapping of two children in the 1970s.[9]
May[edit]
- May 14 – The House of Councillors passes rules for revising the pacifist Constitution of Japan.[10]
- May 28
- Riyo Mori becomes Miss Universe 2007 in Mexico City, the second Japanese to do so after Akiko Kojima.[11]
- Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Toshikatsu Matsuoka is found dead at his Tokyo home, hours before he was to face questions in the Diet about his expenses.[12]
June[edit]
- June 1 – Archaeologists discover a 2,100-year-old melon in Shiga Prefecture.[13]
- June 21 – Japan changes the name of Iwo Jima to its original name, Iwo To, to reflect the wishes of its original inhabitants.[14]
July[edit]
- July 3 – Japan's Minister of Defense Fumio Kyuma resigns over comments he made about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the weekend.[15]
- July 4 – Japan's first female Minister of Defense, Yuriko Koike, is sworn in a day after the resignation of her predecessor, Fumio Kyuma.[16]
- July 16 – 2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake, eleven deaths and at least 1000 injuries were reported, and 342 buildings destroyed.
- July 29 – House of Councillors election
August[edit]
- August 1 – Norihiko Akagi resigns as Japan's agriculture minister after scandals involving him adversely affected the Liberal Democratic Party's performance in the 2007 Japanese House of Councillors election.[17]
- August 24 – Murder of Rie Isogai
- August 25 – The 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics get underway in Osaka, Japan.[18]
- August 31 – Crypton Future Media's first Vocaloid on their Character Vocal Series, Hatsune Miku, is released for Vocaloid 2 software.
September[edit]
- September 12 – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announces his resignation.
- September 14 – The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully launches SELENE, the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program, on a mission to explore the Moon.[19]
- September 23 – Yasuo Fukuda, a political moderate, is elected by Japan's governing Liberal Democratic Party to become the country's next prime minister.[20]
November[edit]
- November 18 – Japan resumes whaling of humpbacks for the first time in 40 years. Greenpeace and other environmentalist groups condemn the decision.[21]
- November 28 – The Chinese Type 051B destroyer Shenzhen visits Tokyo in the first visit of a Chinese warship to Japan since World War II.[22]
December[edit]
- December 19 – A 32-year-old police sergeant shoots himself inside a kōban in front of Tokyo Station.
Births[edit]
- August 30 – Momiji Nishiya, Olympic skateboarder[23]
Deaths[edit]
- January 5 – Momofuku Ando, inventor of Instant noodles and Cup Noodles, founder of Nissin Foods
- January 8 – Iwao Takamoto, animator
- April 18 – Iccho Itoh, mayor of Nagasaki
- May 3 – Knock Yokoyama, comedian and politician
- May 27 – Izumi Sakai, singer
- May 28 – Toshikatsu Matsuoka, politician
- June 28 – Kiichi Miyazawa, 78th Prime Minister
- July 18 – Kenji Miyamoto, politician[24]
- August 28 – Miyoshi Umeki, actress
- September 7 – Kenji Nagai, journalist (b. 1957)[25]
- October 7 – Norifumi Abe, motorcycle road racer
- October 12 – Kurokawa Kisho, architect
- November 13 – Kazuhisa Inao, baseball player
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Akihito | Biography, Reign, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- ^ "Rare shark captured on film". CNN. January 24, 2007. Archived from the original on January 26, 2007.
- ^ Winter, Michael (February 26, 2010). "7.0 quake hits off Okinawa; tsunami warnings canceled". USA Today. Archived from the original on February 26, 2010.
- ^ "1 dead, 162 injured in Japan quake". China Daily. March 25, 2007.
- ^ Tabuchi, Hiroko (March 26, 2007). "Japan Apologizes to WWII Sex Slaves". The Washington Post.
- ^ "Tokyo's governor wins third term". BBC. April 9, 2007.
- ^ Ueno, Kiyori; Yamamura, Keiichi. "Japan Extends Sanctions on North Korea for Six Months". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
- ^ Nishiyama, George (April 17, 2007). "Mayor of Japanese city dies after being shot". Reuters.
- ^ "Japan raid on pro-Pyongyang group". BBC. April 25, 2007.
- ^ Martin, Craig (May 2, 2007). "The Case Against Revising Interpretations of the Japanese Constitution". The Asia-Pacific Journal. 5 (5). Japan Focus: 1. Retrieved May 5, 2016.
- ^ Medel, Monica (May 29, 2007). "Japan's Mori wins troubled Miss Universe contest". Reuters.
- ^ Kyodo News (May 29, 2007). "Political circles shocked by suicide". The Japan Times. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
- ^ "2,100-year-old melon dug up". The Japan Times. 4 June 2007. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- ^ "Japan renames island of Iwo Jima". BBC. June 21, 2007.
- ^ "Japan minister quits over gaffe". BBC. July 3, 2007.
- ^ "Japan swears in new defense minister". Market Watch. July 4, 2007.
- ^ McLeod, Shane (July 31, 2007). "Japan's Agriculture Minister quits". ABC (AU).
- ^ "World Champs day one as it happened". BBC. August 25, 2007.
- ^ "Japan launches first lunar probe". BBC. September 14, 2007.
- ^ Onishi, Norimitsu (September 23, 2007). "Moderate Is Chosen as Japan's Next Prime Minister". The New York Times.
- ^ "Japanese whalers hunt humpbacks". BBC. November 18, 2007.
- ^ Talmadge, Eric (November 27, 2007). "China Warship Makes 1st Visit to Japan". Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 11, 2007.
- ^ "Skateboarding NISHIYA Momiji - Tokyo 2020 Olympics". Olympics.com. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
- ^ Martin, Douglas (2007-07-20). "Kenji Miyamoto, 98, Leader of Japan's Communist Party, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-06.
- ^ "Japanese journalist first foreign victim of Myanmar clashes". Agence France-Presse. September 28, 2007. Archived from the original on June 1, 2008. Retrieved September 28, 2007.
