2008 in Japan

Incumbents

• Emperor: Akihito
• Prime Minister: Yasuo Fukuda to September 24 Taro Aso
• Chief Cabinet Secretary: Nobutaka Machimura to September 24 Takeo Kawamura
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Nirō Shimada to November 21 Hironobu Takesaki from November 25
• President of the House of Representatives: Yōhei Kōno
• President of the House of Councillors: Satsuki Eda
• Diet sessions: 168th, 169th, 170th

Governors

• 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: Masaaki Osawa
• Hiroshima Prefecture: Yūzan Fujita
• Hokkaido: Harumi Takahashi
• Hyogo Prefecture: Toshizō Ido
• Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
• Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
• Iwate Prefecture: Takuya Tasso
• Kagawa Prefecture: Takeki Manabe
• Kagoshima Prefecture: Satoshi Mitazono
• Kanagawa Prefecture: Shigefumi Matsuzawa
• Kochi Prefecture: Masanao Ozaki
• Kumamoto Prefecture: Yoshiko Shiotani ; Ikuo Kabashima
• Kyoto Prefecture: Keiji Yamada
• Mie Prefecture: Akihiko Noro
• Miyagi Prefecture: Yoshihiro Murai
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Hideo Higashikokubaru
• Nagano Prefecture: Jin Murai
• Nagasaki Prefecture: Genjirō Kaneko
• Nara Prefecture: Shōgo Arai
• Niigata Prefecture: Hirohiko Izumida
• Oita Prefecture: Katsusada Hirose
• Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
• Okinawa Prefecture: Hirokazu Nakaima
• Osaka Prefecture: Fusae Ōta ; Tōru Hashimoto
• Saga Prefecture: Yasushi Furukawa
• Saitama Prefecture: Kiyoshi Ueda
• Shiga Prefecture: Yukiko Kada
• Shiname Prefecture: Zenbe Mizoguchi
• Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
• Tochigi Prefecture: Tomikazu Fukuda
• Tokushima Prefecture: Kamon Iizumi
• Tokyo: Shintarō Ishihara
• Tottori Prefecture: Shinji Hirai
• Toyama Prefecture: Takakazu Ishii
• Wakayama Prefecture: Yoshinobu Nisaka
• Yamagata Prefecture: Hiroshi Saitō
• Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
• Yamanashi Prefecture: Shōmei Yokouchi

Events

• January 31 – Nine people are hospitalized after eating gyōza made at the Tianyang Food Plant in China.
• February 11 – Okinawa police arrest United States Marine Tyrone Hadnott and charge him with raping a middle-school girl.
• February 19
• *Kei Nishikori wins an ATP title. At age 18, he is the youngest player to win the title after Lleyton Hewitt won it at age 16 in 1998.
• * A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Atago collides with fishing boat Seitoku Maru at 4:07 am, off the coast of Chiba Prefecture.
• February 22
• *The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force resumes fueling warships from the United States and its allies.
• *Kazuyoshi Miura is arrested in Saipan on suspicion of involvement with the murder of his wife in 1981.
• February 25 – The Supreme Court upheld life sentence of Daisuke Mori.
• June 8 – The Akihabara massacre takes place in Tokyo. A man kills seven in an attack on a crowd using a truck and a dagger.
• June 14 – the 2008 Iwate earthquake strikes northern Honshū, leaving two dead and hundreds injured.
• June 17 – Serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki is executed by hanging.
• July 7 – July 9 – G8 summit hosted by Japan.
• September 6 – Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announces his resignation.
• September 24 – The Diet elects Taro Aso Prime Minister.
• October – Toyota launches yet another Avensis at the 2008 Paris Motor Show to be built in Britain.
• October 1 – Arson claims 15 lives in a pre-dawn fire at an adult-video shop in Osaka.
• October 10 – Kazuyoshi Miura commits suicide in Los Angeles while under arrest on suspicion of involvement in the murder of his wife.
• October 17 – Japan won their tenth nonpermanent seat for 2009 and 2010 sessions on the United Nations Security Council, defeating Iran by 158 votes to 32 in elections in the General Assembly

The Nobel Prize

• Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi (physicist), Toshihide Maskawa: 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics winners.

Deaths

• January 16: Tamako Kataoka, painter
• January 17: Jinzō Toriumi, screenwriter
• February 13: Kon Ichikawa, film director
• February 29: Kenji Yanagiya, fighter ace of the Imperial Japanese Army
• March 3: Taichirō Hirokawa, voice actor and narrator
• March 11: Akemi Negishi, actress
• April 2: Momoko Ishii, author
• June 6: Saeko Himuro, novelist, essayist, and playwright
• June 9: Kan Mukai, film director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter
• June 17: Tsutomu Miyazaki, serial killer
• June 18: Miyuki Kanbe, model and actress
• June 27: Daihachi Oguchi, drummer
• August 2: Fujio Akatsuka, manga artist
• August 4: Eri Kawai, singer
• August 11: Arase Nagahide, sumo wrestler
• August 14: Seiji Aochi, ski jumper
• August 16: Masanobu Fukuoka, microbiologist
• October 10: Kazuyoshi Miura, businessman
• October 27: Frank Nagai, singer
• November 7: Hidetaka Nishiyama, master of Shotokan karate
• November 10: Kiyoshi Itō, mathematician
• December 5: Shūichi Katō, critic
• December 16: Ai Iijima, media personality and AV idol
• Undated: Yoshinao Kodaira, officer and fighter ace