1899 in Japan

Events in the year 1899 in Japan. It corresponds to Meiji 32 in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

February 1 - Telephone service begins between Tokyo and Osaka.
February 7 - Keiō and Waseda become Japan's first private universities.
February 13 - The income tax law is promulgated.
March 1 - Sankyo Pharmaceutical established in Yokohama, as predecessor of Daiichi Sankyo.
March 4 - Japan passes its first copyright law.
March 9 - Japan promulgates its commercial code, the Shōhō, to take effect on June 16.
July 15 - Japan's first comprehensive copyright law takes effect and, on the same day, Japan agrees to join the Berne Convention.
July 17 - NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
November - Momijigari, the oldest extant Japanese film, is shot an open space behind the Kabuki-za in Tokyo.
Unknown date - Morinaga Confectionery was founded, as predecessor name was Morinaga Western Confectionery.
Unknown date - The Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act is enacted by the Imperial Diet

January 20 - Kenjiro Takayanagi, television engineer, creator of the world's first all-electronic television receiver
February 10 - Suihō Tagawa, manga artist
February 13 - Yuriko Miyamoto, novelist
March 7 - Jun Ishikawa, writer
June 11 - Yasunari Kawabata, writer, novelist, Nobel laureate in Literature
August 1 - Saburō Matsukata, journalist, businessman and mountaineer
August 5 - Sakae Tsuboi, novelist and poet
September 1 - Takuma Nishimura, general
September 8 - Akiko Seki, soprano
October 1 - Matsutarō Kawaguchi, novelist, playwright and film producer
November 7 - Daisuke Nanba, communist activist
December 3 - Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan
Unknown - Genkei Masamune, botanist,