2001 in Japan

Incumbents

• Emperor: Akihito
• Prime Minister: Yoshiro Mori until April 26, Junichiro Koizumi
• Chief Cabinet Secretary: Yasuo Fukuda
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Shigeru Yamaguchi
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Tamisuke Watanuki
• President of the House of Councillors: Yutaka Inoue, reelected August 7
• Diet sessions: 151st, 152nd, 153rd

Governors

• Aichi Prefecture: Masaaki Kanda
• Akita Prefecture: Sukeshiro Terata
• Aomori Prefecture: Morio Kimura
• Chiba Prefecture: Takeshi Numata ; Akiko Dōmoto
• Ehime Prefecture: Moriyuki Kato
• 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 ; Toshizō Ido
• Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
• Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
• Iwate Prefecture: Hiroya Masuda
• Kagawa Prefecture: Takeki Manabe
• Kagoshima Prefecture: Tatsurō Suga
• Kanagawa Prefecture: Hiroshi Okazaki
• Kochi Prefecture: Daijiro Hashimoto
• Kumamoto Prefecture: Yoshiko Shiotani
• Kyoto Prefecture: Teiichi Aramaki
• Mie Prefecture: Masayasu Kitagawa
• Miyagi Prefecture: Shirō Asano
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Suketaka Matsukata
• Nagano Prefecture: Yasuo Tanaka
• Nagasaki Prefecture: Genjirō Kaneko
• Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto
• Niigata Prefecture: Ikuo Hirayama
• Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
• Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
• Okinawa Prefecture: Keiichi Inamine
• Osaka Prefecture: Fusae Ōta
• Saga Prefecture: Isamu Imoto
• Saitama Prefecture: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya
• Shiga Prefecture: Yoshitsugu Kunimatsu
• Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita
• Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
• Tochigi Prefecture: Akio Fukuda
• Tokushima Prefecture: Toshio Endo
• Tokyo: Shintarō Ishihara
• Tottori Prefecture: Yoshihiro Katayama
• Toyama Prefecture: Yutaka Nakaoki
• Wakayama Prefecture: Yoshiki Kimura
• Yamagata Prefecture: Kazuo Takahashi
• Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
• Yamanashi Prefecture: Ken Amano

Events

January

• January 6: Nurse Daisuke Mori arrested for an attempted murder of 11-year-old girl.
• January 26: A JR yamanote line train coming into Shin-Ōkubo Station hits and kills a man who fell off the platform and two others who jumped onto the rails to rescue him.
• January 31: 2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident

February

• February 9: The fishing boat Ehime Maru is struck by a U.S. submarine and sunk.

March

• March 21: The Nintendo Game Boy Advance handheld is released.
• March 24: 2001 Geiyo earthquake, kill two people with injure 288 in Hiroshima and Ehime.
• March 27: Hikaru Saeki became the first female star officer in the history of the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
• March 31: Universal Studios Japan opens in Osaka.

April

• April 1: Sakura Bank and Sumitomo Bank merge to form Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
• April 6: Japanese government institutes new overtime regulations.
• April 24: Junichiro Koizumi defeats Ryutaro Hashimoto in LDP polls to become prime minister.
• April 26: Koizumi announces his first cabinet, with Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister and Heizo Takenaka as Minister of State for the Economy.

June

• June 8: Ikeda school massacre takes place.

July

• July 13: Osaka is removed on the first ballot for the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
• July 20: Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away premieres; it becomes the first anime film to win an Academy Award.
• July 29: 2001 Japanese House of Councillors election.

August

• August 13: Koizumi visits Yasukuni Shrine, angering China and South Korea.
• August 16–26: The sixth World Games are held in Akita.
• August 29: The first H-IIA rocket is launched from Tanegashima Space Center.

September

• September 1: Myojo 56 building fire kills 44.
• September 4: Tokyo DisneySea opens to the public as part of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan.
• September 11: The first case of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japan is discovered.
• September 12: Following the September 11 attacks in the United States, the Nikkei 225 index drops below 10,000 for the first time since 1984.
• September 14: The Nintendo GameCube is released.

October

• October 1: Ghibli Museum opens.
• October 18: The East Japan Railway Company introduces the Suica smart card service to the Tokyo area.

December

• December 1: Princess Aiko, potential heiress to the Imperial throne, is born.
• December 9: Television performer Masashi Tashiro is arrested for peeping in a male bath-house.
• December 21: TIME removes Masashi Tashiro from its "Person of the Year" poll after 2channel users vote the "bad boy" performer into first place.

The Nobel Prize

• Ryoji Noyori: 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner.

Births

• January 2: Wakaba Higuchi, figure skater
• February 2: Maria Makino, pop singer
• February 4: Fūka Haruna, actress
• May 24: Noa Tsurushima, actress
• May 28: Rikako Sasaki, singer
• June 4: Takefusa Kubo, footballer
• June 18: Nako Yabuki, singer
• June 19: Natsumi Sakai, swimmer
• June 25: Yurina Hirate, idol singer
• August 4: Seishiro Kato, actor
• August 31: Nana Mori, actress
• October 1: Pankun, chimpanzee
• October 6: Hitomi Honda, singer
• November 3: Rōki Sasaki, professional baseball pitcher
• December 1: Princess Aiko, the daughter and only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako

Deaths

• March 9: Mitsuo Kagawa, archaeologist
• April 7: Yasuhira Kiyohara, lieutenant of the Imperial army
• May 17: Hyōichi Kōno, adventurer
• July 24: Hiroshi Tsuburaya, actor
• July 28: Futaro Yamada, author
• August 25: Ginzō Matsuo, voice actor
• September 9: Shinji Sōmai, film director
• September 28: Isao Inokuma, judoka
• September 30: Takasi Tokioka, zoologist
• October 11: Fuku Akino, painter
• November 7: Sachiko Hidari, film actress
• November 15: Satoru Kobayashi, film director
• November 30: Kikutaro Baba, malacologist
• December 20: Kōji Nanbara, actor
• December 22: Shizue Kato, politician and activist
• December 29: Takashi Asahina, conductor