2015 in Japan

Incumbents

Emperor: Akihito

Prime Minister: Shinzō Abe (L–Yamaguchi)

Chief Cabinet Secretary: Yoshihide Suga (L–Kanagawa)

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Itsurō Terada

President of the House of Representatives: Nobutaka Machimura until April 20, Tadamori Oshima from April 21

President of the House of Councillors: Masaaki Yamazaki

Diet sessions: 189th (regular, January 26 to June 24)

January

January 8 - The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fines Honda a record 70 million dollars for grossly under-reporting fatal accidents and injuries to the government.

January 14 - The cabinet of Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe approves a record defence budget with plans to buy surveillance aircraft and Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jets to improve the security of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea claimed by both Japan and China.

January 15 - The Japan–Australia Economic Partnership Agreement enters into force.

January 18

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets the King of Jordan Abdullah II, and commits to 14.7 billion yen of assistance consisting of 12 billion in yen loans and 2.7 billion in contributions to international organizations providing medical assistance and supplies to refugee camps.

The Democratic Party of Japan elects Katsuya Okada as the party's leader.

January 20 - ISIL threatens to kill two Japanese citizens unless it receives a ransom of $200 million.

January 24 - Japanese government states that it is seeking to verify a video that claims the killing of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa by ISIL militants.

January 28 - Skymark Airlines files for bankruptcy with the Tokyo District Court, having liabilities of 71.09 billion yen ($603.6 million)

January 31 - A monitoring group claims that ISIL has reportedly released a video showing the execution of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.

February

February 1 - JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry conduct its first launch of an Information Gathering Satellite with the aid of an H-IIA rocket F-27 from Tanegashima Space Center.

February 17 - The Supreme Court finalizes the death sentence for Tomohiro Kato, the man convicted of killing seven people and wounding 10 others in an indiscriminate rampage in Akihabara, Tokyo in June 8, 2008.

February 20 - The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau arrests Tsutomu Shirosaki, a Japanese Red Army member, for attempted arson associated with a 1986 mortar attack in Indonesia as he arrives at Narita Airport, having been deported from the United States following his January 16 release from jail.

February 23 - Agricultural Minister Koya Nishikawa resigns over a fundraising scandal and is succeeded by Yoshimasa Hayashi, whom Nishikawa had replaced as agriculture minister in September 2014.

February 26

The Supreme Court endorses punishment issued by Kaiyukan, an aquarium in Osaka, including suspensions, against two male managers for sexual harassment, overturning the ruling by Osaka High Court that said the penalties were too heavy, making this the first decision over such issues by the Japanese Supreme Court.

Prince William makes his first visit to Japan, visiting Fukushima Prefecture and Miyagi Prefecture, the areas affected by 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

March

March 2 - Rugby World Cup Ltd. and the 2019 Rugby World Cup organizing committee announce 12 venues, including a new stadium to be built in Kamaishi, Iwate, a city affected by 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup matches.

March 3 - Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft and a philanthropist, announces that he has discovered the Japanese battleship Musashi, more than 70 years after it was sunk by the United States Navy, in the Sibuyan Sea, of the Philippines.

March 10

The Supreme Court rejects prosecutors' claims that a 41-year-old man from Osaka Prefecture evaded 570 million yen in taxes by failing to declare income from betting on horse races, confirming that money lost betting on horses can, for tax purposes, be considered expenses deductible from winnings.

FamilyMart and UNY Group Holdings, the holding company of Circle K Sunkus, reach an agreement to merge in September 2016, forming the second biggest convenience store operator by sales in Japan under a single brand name.

Yukio Hatoyama, a former Prime Minister and a former leader of the DPJ, despite requests from the Japanese government not to do so, makes a personal visit to Crimea, entering the territory with a Russian visa, which is against the policy of Japanese government following the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. Georgy Muradov, deputy prime minister of the Republic of Crimea, met Hatoyama at Simferopol International Airport.

March 12 - A 46-year-old man, arrested in Hawaii in 2014 for a murder case which occurred in 2007, admits after entering a guilty plea at a court in San Diego that he killed his Japanese wife and left her body in the Anza-Borrego Desert in California.

March 14 - 18 - Sendai hosts the third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, resulting in the Sendai Framework, an agreement aiming for "the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries."

March 14 - Hokuriku Shinkansen starts its service between Nagano and Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, cutting travel time between Tokyo and Kanazawa by about eighty minutes to as little as two hours and twenty-eight minutes.

March 18 - Three Japanese were killed and another three were injured in Bardo National Museum attack occurred in Tunis, Tunisia

March 24 - Two Japanese nationals were killed in the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525.

March 27 - The main keep of Himeji Castle, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, has reopened to the public after a major five-year face-lift. The keep itself is recognized as one of the National Treasures of Japan.

April

April 8 - Narita Airport opens the new Terminal 3, designated for Low-cost carriers.

April 8 - 9 - Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko make their first visit to Palau, attending a reception hosted by Tommy Remengesau, the President of Palau; also present are the Micronesian President Manny Mori and the Marshall Islands President Christopher Loeak. On the following day, the Emperor and the Empress visit the island of Peleliu, where some 10,000 soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army were killed in the Battle of Peleliu in 1944.

April 10 - The Nikkei 225 index reaches 20,006.00 in the first few minutes of trade, passing the 20,000 level for the first time since April 2000.

April 12 - In the first round of the 2015 Japanese unified local elections, all 10 incumbent governors and 4 incumbent mayors of designated cities campaigning to keep their positions have been re-elected.

April 14

The South Korean government lifts the departure ban on a former chief of the Sankei Shimbun's Seoul bureau, who had been barred from leaving the country for eight months following his indictment in October 2014 for defamation of South Korean President Park Geun-hye. The charges were due to an article, posted on a Sankei website, that referred to a rumor in a South Korean publication that Park was seeing a man on the day of the Sewol ferry disaster in April 2014.

The Fukui Prefecture District Court bans Kansai Electric Power from restarting the nos. 3 and 4 reactors of Takahama Nuclear Power Plant.

Asiana Airlines Flight 162, an Airbus A320 aircraft, skids off the runway of Hiroshima Airport, resulting in 27 injures.

April 17 - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe meets Takeshi Onaga, Governor of Okinawa Prefecture for the first time to push ahead with the government plan to relocate a U.S. military base in Futenma to the proposed location around Camp Schwab in Nago, Okinawa, but failed to reach agreement over the relocation.

April 22

Kagoshima District Court has rejected an attempt by local residents to halt the restart of two nuclear reactors at Sendai Nuclear Power Plant in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima, which was approved by the Nuclear Regulation Authority in September 2014.

A drone which has trace levels of radioactive cesium is discovered on the roof of the Prime Minister's Official Residence, while Prime Minister Abe has been in Jakarta to attend the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference of 1955. Two days later, a 40-year-old man turns himself in to Fukui prefectural police, claiming that he landed the drone in protest against the Japanese government's nuclear energy policy.

May

May 29 - Kuchinoerabu-jima erupts, with pyroclastic flows reaching the coast.

May 30 - An abnormally intense magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurs in the Bonin Islands, with shaking observed throughout the territory. Official reports confirm 13 injuries.

June

June 30 - A passenger commits suicide by setting himself on fire while riding the Tokaido Shinkansen to Odawara, Kanagawa, resulting in two fatalities.ja:東海道新幹線火災事件

July

July 26 - A Piper PA-46 crashes into a residential area in Chofu, Tokyo, starting a fire that ends with three deaths.

August

August 11 - The Sendai Nuclear Power Plant No. 1 reactor is the first reactor to be restarted in accordance with the new regulatory requirements established by the Nuclear Regulation Authority following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident

September

September 11 - A heavy torrential rain along the entire length of the Kinu River leads to a levee collapse and flash flooding in Jōsō, Ibaraki. Official reports confirm 8 fatalities.

Arts and entertainment

Events in anime: 2015 in anime.

Japanese films released this year: List of Japanese films of 2015.

Events in Japanese literature: 2015 in Japanese literature.

Events in manga: 2015 in manga.

Events in Japanese television: 2015 in Japanese television.

Sports

January 23

Yokozuna Grand Champion Hakuhō Shō wins his 33rd career championship with two days to spare at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament in Ryogoku Kokugikan, surpassing the record of 32 titles he shared with sumo legend Taiho Koki, who made the long-lasting record in 1971.

The Japan national football team loses to the UAE in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw at a quarterfinal match of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, marking their earliest exit in 19 years since losing to Kuwait 0-2 at the 1996 Cup quarterfinals, back before the national team had ever made it to the FIFA World Cup.

February 3 - The Japan Football Association(JFA) fires Javier Aguirre as the manager of the Japan national football team, as Aguirre has been involved in an ongoing match-fixing investigation over the Real Zaragoza's 2-1 win against Levante UD on the final day of the 2010–11 La Liga, when Aguirre was the head coach of Zaragoza.

February 21 - Takashi Uchiyama, the super featherweight boxing champion of the World Boxing Association, is promoted to the status of super champion.

March 12 - The JFA announces that Vahid Halilhodžić has been named as the new manager of the Japan national football team.

March 13 - Yu Darvish, a pitcher of Major League Baseball club Texas Rangers, announces his decision to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, which likely will sideline Darvish until early 2016.

March 14-22 - The 2015 World Women's Curling Championship is held at Tsukisamu Gymnasium in Sapporo

March 15 - Yusuke Suzuki sets the new 20 km race walk world record of 1:16:36 at the Asian Race Walking Championships, breaking the former record set by Yohann Diniz by 26 seconds.

March 28 - Yoshihide Kiryu runs the men's 100 meters in 9.87 seconds to win the men's invitational sprint at the Texas Relays, marking the fastest ever electronically recorded performance by an Asian sprinter under any conditions.

April 4 - Mieko Nagaoka becomes the first 100-year-old in the world to complete a 1,500-meter freestyle swim in a time of just over 1 hour and 15 minutes, using the backstroke for the entire duration in a 25-meter pool.

September 8-23 - 2015 FIVB Volleyball Men's World Cup is held at 6 venues in 5 cities over Japan.

Other

July 28 - August 8 - Japan hosts the 23rd World Scout Jamboree.

January

January 12

Keiko Hanagata, voice actress (b. 1935)

Akira Kinoshita, photographer (b. 1936)

January 15 – Chikao Ōtsuka, actor and voice actor (b. 1929)

January 17 – Kazumasa Hirai, novelist (b. 1938)

January 18 – Yasuaki Taiho, baseball player (b. 1963)

January 20 – Hitoshi Saito, judoka (b. 1961)

January 29

Taeko Kono, writer and critic (b. 1926)

Riichiro Manabe, composer (b. 1924)

Tenkoko Sonoda, politician (b. 1919)

February

February 8 – Kenji Ekuan, industrial designer (b. 1929)

February 12 – Tomie Ohtake, artist (naturalized to Brazil) (b. 1913)

February 14 – Sheena, musician (b. 1953)

February 19 – Yutaka Katayama, businessman (b. 1909)

February 21 – Bandō Mitsugorō X, kabuki actor (b. 1956)

February 28 – Shigeo Takii, justice of the Supreme Court of Japan (b. 1936)

March

March 3 – Sangojugo, member of Tokyo Shock Boys (b. 1962)

March 7

Shinji Ogawa, actor and voice actor (b. 1941)

Yoshihiro Tatsumi, manga artist (b. 1935)

March 16 – Kuniyoshi Kaneko, painter, illustrator and photographer (b.1936)

March 19 – Katsura Beicho III, rakugoka (b.1925)

March 31 – Cocoa Fujiwara, manga artist and illustrator (b. 1983)

April

April 1 - Misao Okawa, Supercentenarian, the verified oldest Japanese person ever, the oldest person ever born in Asia, and the fifth oldest verified person ever recorded.(b. 1898)

April 15 - Kinya Aikawa, actor, TV presenter, and voice actor (b. 1934)

June

June 1 - Nobutaka Machimura, politician, former Speaker of the House of Representatives. (b. 1944)

September

September 5 - Setsuko Hara, actress. (b. 1920)

October

October 27 - Miyu Matsuki, voice actress