1959 in Japan

Events in the year 1959 in Japan. It corresponds to Shōwa 34 in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

Governors

Aichi Prefecture: Mikine Kuwahara
Akita Prefecture: Yūjirō Obata
Aomori Prefecture: Iwao Yamazaki
Chiba Prefecture: Hitoshi Shibata
Ehime Prefecture: Sadatake Hisamatsu
Fukui Prefecture: Seiichi Hane ; Eizō Kita
Fukuoka Prefecture: Taichi Uzaki
Fukushima Prefecture: Zenichiro Satō
Gifu Prefecture: Yukiyasu Matsuno
Gunma Prefecture: Toshizo Takekoshi
Hiroshima Prefecture: Hiroo Ōhara
Hokkaido: Toshifumi Tanaka ; Kingo Machimura
Hyogo Prefecture: Masaru Sakamoto
Ibaraki Prefecture: Yoji Tomosue ; Nirō Iwakami
Ishikawa Prefecture: Jūjitsu Taya
Iwate Prefecture: Senichi Abe
Kagawa Prefecture: Masanori Kaneko
Kagoshima Prefecture: Katsushi Terazono
Kanagawa Prefecture: Iwataro Uchiyama
Kochi Prefecture: Masumi Mizobuchi
Kumamoto Prefecture: Saburō Sakurai ; Kōsaku Teramoto
Kyoto Prefecture: Torazō Ninagawa
Mie Prefecture: Satoru Tanaka
Miyagi Prefecture: Yasushi Onuma ; Yoshio Miura
Miyazaki Prefecture: Jingo Futami ; Hiroshi Kuroki
Nagano Prefecture: Torao Hayashi ; Gon'ichirō Nishizawa
Nagasaki Prefecture: Katsuya Sato
Nara Prefecture: Ryozo Okuda
Niigata Prefecture: Kazuo Kitamura
Oita Prefecture: Kaoru Kinoshita
Okayama Prefecture: Yukiharu Miki
Osaka Prefecture: Bunzō Akama ; Gisen Satō
Saga Prefecture: Naotsugu Nabeshima ; Sunao Ikeda
Saitama Prefecture: Hiroshi Kurihara
Shiga Prefecture: Kyujiro Taniguchi
Shiname Prefecture: Yasuo Tsunematsu ; Choemon Tanabe
Shizuoka Prefecture: Toshio Saitō
Tochigi Prefecture: Kiichi Ogawa ; Nobuo Yokokawa
Tokushima Prefecture: Kikutaro Hara
Tokyo: Seiichirō Yasui ; Ryōtarō Azuma
Tottori Prefecture: Jirō Ishiba
Toyama Prefecture: Minoru Yoshida
Wakayama Prefecture: Shinji Ono
Yamagata Prefecture: Tōkichi Abiko
Yamaguchi Prefecture: Taro Ozawa
Yamanashi Prefecture: Hisashi Amano

Events

April 1 - Kyoto Ceramic has founded.
April 10 - Crown Prince Akihito, the future Emperor of Japan, weds Michiko Shōda, the first commoner to marry into the Japanese Imperial Family.
June 2 - Mori Building was founded.
June 30 - Twenty-one students are killed and more than a hundred injured when an American North American F-100 Super Sabre jet crashes into Miamori Elementary School on the island of Okinawa. The pilot ejected before the plane struck the school.
July 22 - A Kumamoto University medical research group studying Minamata disease concludes that it is caused by mercury.
September 26 - According to Japanese government official confirmed report, Typhoon Vera with tidal wave hit around Ise Bay, total 5,098 person were lives, 38,921 person were hurt.

Births

Many notable Japanese individuals from Young Japanese Baby Boom/Danso Generation were born in 1959, such as Kimiko Ikegami, Momoe Yamaguchi, Amy Yamada, Yasuharu Konishi, former Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Takaaki Kajita, Kazue Ikura, Satsuki Katayama, Michiru Shimada, Ryuta Kawashima, Takeshi Kobayashi, Kazuki Yao, Nagisa Katahira, Kiyotaka Sugiyama, Koichi Tanaka, Keita Amemiya, Tetsuya Nakashima, Saeko Shimazu, Denny Tamaki, Ken Watanabe, Misako Tanaka, Akio Ōtsuka, Miki Matsubara, Yoshitomo Nara, and Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata.

January–March

January 3 - Dankan, actor and director
January 5 - Kyoichi Katayama, writer
January 16 - Kimiko Ikegami, American-born Japanese actress
January 17 - Momoe Yamaguchi, actress
February 2 - Amy Yamada, writer
February 3 - Yasuharu Konishi, musician, composer, and DJ
February 12 - Nana Okada, actress and idol musician
February 20 - Tomomi Inada, politician and former Minister of Defense
March 9 - Takaaki Kajita, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
March 23 - Kazue Ikura, actress, voice actress, and narrator

April–June

April 1 - Nobuo Kishi, politician, former Minister of Defense, and the brother of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
April 7 - Nobuyuki Azuma, fencer
April 8 - Yoshihito Miyazaki, retired international table tennis player
April 22 - Fumiko Furuhashi, retired professional tennis player
April 23 - Akihiro Iwashima, former volleyball player
May 9 - Satsuki Katayama, politician and Minister of Finance
May 19 - Michiru Shimada, screenwriter
May 23 - Ryuta Kawashima, neuroscientist
June 7 - Takeshi Kobayashi, keyboardist, lyricist, composer, arranger, and record producer
June 17 - Kazuki Yao, actor and voice actor

July–September

July 12 - Nagisa Katahira, actress and singer
July 17 - Kiyotaka Sugiyama, singer-songwriter
August 3 - Koichi Tanaka, electrical engineer
August 11 - Yoshiaki Murakami, investor
August 17 - Chika Sakamoto, voice actress
August 24 - Keita Amemiya, film director and screenwriter
September 2 - Tetsuya Nakashima, film director and screenwriter
September 8 - Saeko Shimazu, actress, voice actress, and narrator

October–December

October 13 - Denny Tamaki, governor of Okinawa Prefecture
October 21 - Ken Watanabe, actor
November 11 - Misako Tanaka, actress
November 21 - Naoko Watanabe, voice actress
November 24 - Akio Ōtsuka, actor and voice actor
November 28 - Miki Matsubara, musician and television presenter
December 5 - Yoshitomo Nara, artist
December 6 - Satoru Iwata, video game designer and developer, businessman, and president and CEO of Nintendo

Deaths

March 7 - Ichirō Hatoyama, politician and 35th Prime Minister of Japan
April 30 - Kafū Nagai, author, playwright, essayist, and diarist
June 20 - Hitoshi Ashida, politician and 35th Prime Minister of Japan
August 9 - Noboru Ishizaki, admiral