← 1896 1895 1894 1897 in Japan → 1898 1899 1900
Decades:	1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s
See also:	Other events of 1897 History of Japan Timeline Years

Events from the year 1897 in Japan. It corresponds to Meiji 30 (明治30年) in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

• Emperor: Emperor Meiji^[1]
• Prime Minister: Matsukata Masayoshi

Governors

• Aichi Prefecture: Tokito Konkyo then Egi Kazuyuki
• Akita Prefecture: Saburo Iwao
• Aomori Prefecture: Naomasa Maki then Ichiro Konoshu
• Ehime Prefecture: Chang Masaya Komaki then Yutori Kojiro then Park Shin Maki Naomasa
• Fukui Prefecture: Kunizo Arakawa then Denzaburo Hatano then Shingo Seki
• Fukushima Prefecture: Akiyama then Kimumichi Nagusami
• Gifu Prefecture: Sukeo Kabayama then Yoshinori Yumoto
• Gunma Prefecture: Masataka Ishizata
• Hiroshima Prefecture: Orita Hiraochi then Asada Tokunori
• Ibaraki Prefecture: Egi Kazuyuki then Motohiro Onoda then Prince Kiyoshi Honba
• Iwate Prefecture: Ichizo Hattori
• Kagawa Prefecture: Tsunenori Tokuhisa
• Kochi Prefecture: Ishida Eikichi then Hiroshi Shikakui
• Kumamoto Prefecture: Kanetake Oura
• Kyoto Prefecture: Baron Nobumichi Yamada then Baron Utsumi Tadakatsu
• Mie Prefecture: Terumi Tanabe
• Miyagi Prefecture: Minoru Katsumata then Sukeo Kabayama
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Senda Sadakatsuki
• Nagano Prefecture: Takasaki Chikaaki then Gondo Ka'nichi
• Niigata Prefecture: Asada Tokunori then Minoru Katsumata
• Oita Prefecture: Yasuhiko Hirayama then Shigetoo Sugimoto
• Okinawa Prefecture: Shigeru Narahara
• Osaka Prefecture: Utsumi Tadakatsu then Tokito Konkyo
• Saga Prefecture: Akira Oyama
• Saitama Prefecture: Tomi Senketaka
• Shiname Prefecture: Michio Sokabe then Hikoji Nakamura
• Tochigi Prefecture: Sato Nobu then Egi Kazuyuki then Sento Kiyoshi
• Tokyo: Marquis Michitsune Koga then Viscount Okabe Nagahon
• Toyama Prefecture: Ando Kinsuke then Tsurayuki Ishida
• Yamagata Prefecture: Shuichi Kinoshita then Kikuchi Karasu

Events

• January 17 – A first issue newspaper, Kahoku Shinpō was published in Miyagi Prefecture.^{[citation needed]}
• May – Opening of the Kyoto National Museum.
• June 1 – Opening of Matsugishi Station in Chōshi, Chiba.^[2]
• June 10 – Founding of the publishing company Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha.
• June 18 – establishment of Kyoto University under the name Kyoto Imperial University.

Births

• March 2 – Shizue Kato, politician and activist (d. 2001)
• March 28 – Yusuke Hagihara, astronomer (d. 1979)
• April 19 – Jiroemon Kimura, supercentenarian, oldest man ever, world's oldest living person from December 2012 to June 2013. (d. 2013)
• October 10 – Shigeji Tsuboi, poet (d. 1975)
• October 23 – Yae Ibuka, nurse (d. 1989)
• November 12 – Eddie Imazu, art director (d. 1979)
• November 17 – Kinichiro Sakaguchi, agricultural chemist and microbiologist (d. 1994)
• November 28 – Chiyo Uno, writer and author (d. 1996)
• December 8 – Prince Fushimi Hiroyoshi, naval officer (d. 1938; myocardial infarction)^[3]
• December 26 – Unno Juza, writer, founding father of Japanese science fiction (d. 1949)

Deaths

• August 24 – Mutsu Munemitsu, statesman and diplomat (b. 1844)
• November 29 – Mitsukuri Rinsho, statesman and legal scholar (born 1846)