2008 in Japan

Decades:	1980s; 1990s; 2000s; 2010s; 2020s;
See also:	Other events of 2008; History of Japan • Timeline • Years

Events in the year 2008 in Japan.

Incumbents

Emperor: Akihito^[1]
Prime Minister: Yasuo Fukuda (Liberal Democratic Party–Gunma) to September 24 Taro Aso (L–Fukuoka)
Chief Cabinet Secretary: Nobutaka Machimura (L–Hokkaidō) to September 24 Takeo Kawamura (L–Yamaguchi)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Nirō Shimada to November 21 Hironobu Takesaki from November 25
President of the House of Representatives: Yōhei Kōno (L–Kanagawa)
President of the House of Councillors: Satsuki Eda (D–Okayama)
Diet sessions: 168th (extraordinary session continued from 2007, to January 15), 169th (regular, January 18 to June 21), 170th (extraordinary, September 24 to December 25)

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 (until 16 April); Ikuo Kabashima (starting 16 April)
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 (until 5 February); Tōru Hashimoto (starting 6 February)
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.^[2]
February 11 – Okinawa police arrest United States Marine Tyrone Hadnott and charge him with raping a middle-school girl.^[3]
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.^[4]
- A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Atago collides with fishing boat Seitoku Maru at 4:07 am, off the coast of Chiba Prefecture.^[5]
February 22
- The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force resumes fueling warships from the United States and its allies.^[6]
- Kazuyoshi Miura is arrested in Saipan on suspicion of involvement with the murder of his wife in 1981.^[7]
February 25 – The Supreme Court upheld life sentence of Daisuke Mori.^[8]
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.^[9]
June 14 – the 2008 Iwate earthquake strikes northern Honshū, leaving two dead and hundreds injured.^[10]
June 17 – Serial killer Tsutomu Miyazaki is executed by hanging.^[11]
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.^[12]
October 10 (U.S. Pacific Daylight Time) – Kazuyoshi Miura commits suicide in Los Angeles while under arrest on suspicion of involvement in the murder of his wife.^[13]
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^[14]

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

References

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

Search

2008 in Japan

Contents

Incumbents

Governors

Events

The Nobel Prize

Deaths

See also

References