1998 in Japan

Events in the year 1998 in Japan. It corresponds to the year Heisei 10 in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

Emperor: Akihito
Prime Minister: Ryutaro Hashimoto until July 30, Keizo Obuchi
Chief Cabinet Secretary: Kanezō Muraoka until July 30, Hiromu Nonaka
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Shigeru Yamaguchi
President of the House of Representatives: Sōichirō Itō
President of the House of Councillors: Jūrō Saitō until July 25 and again from August 4
Diet sessions: 142nd, 143rd, 144th

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 ; Takeki Manabe
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|Nagano Prefecture]: Gorō Yoshimura
Nagasaki Prefecture: Isamu Takada ; Genjirō Kaneko
Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto
Niigata Prefecture: Ikuo Hirayama
Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
Okinawa Prefecture: Masahide Ōta ; Keiichi Inamine
Osaka Prefecture: Knock Yokoyama
Saga Prefecture: Isamu Imoto
Saitama Prefecture: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya
Shiga Prefecture: Minoru Inaba ; Yoshitsugu Kunimatsu
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.
March 5 – March 14: The 1998 Winter Paralympics are held in Nagano.
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, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
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.
August 11: The USS Kitty Hawk CV-63 arrives at U.S. Fleet Activities Yokosuka, replacing the USS Independence CV-62 as the U.S. Navy's forward-deployed carrier in Japan.
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.
October 8: Japan-South Korea Joint Declaration of 1998.
November 1: The Japanese Grand Prix sees Mika Häkkinen win his first F1 Drivers' Championship and McLaren's last Constructors title until 2024.
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.
November 27: The Dreamcast is released in Japan.
December 18: Mario Party is released in Japan.
December 23: Sonic Adventure 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
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
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
August 29 - Yui Kawamoto, professional golfer
September 29 - Aoi Fujino, gravure idol
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
January 21 - Yoshifumi Kondō, animator
January 26 - Shinichi Suzuki, violinist
January 27 - Tamio Kageyama, novelist
January 28 - Shotaro Ishinomori, Manga artist, "Father of Henshin heroes."
February 5 - Takahashi Chikuzan, Tsugaru-jamisen performer and composer
March 10 - Kenkō Satoshi, Sumo wrestler
March 13 - Kosho Uchiyama, Sōtō priest
April 20 - Yoshio Inaba, actor
May 2 - Matsumoto Hideto, Japanese musician
May 10 - Nekojiru, manga artist
May 19 - Sōsuke Uno, Prime Minister
August 3 - Reizo Koike, breaststroke swimmer
August 28 - Hirokazu Kobayashi, aikidoka
September 6 - Akira Kurosawa, screenwriter, producer, and director
September 27 - Narita Bryan, racehorse
October 12 - Ineko Sata, communist and feminist author of proletarian literature
November 1 - Silence Suzuka, racehorse
November 5 - Momoko Kōchi, actress
December 1 - Shōji Nakayama, actor
December 2 - Mikio Oda, athlete
December 30 - Keisuke Kinoshita, film director