These are the selected anniversaries for May that appear on the Japan portal. The "edit" links edit the portal subpages that are displayed as sections here.
May 1
May 1:
Events
- 1457 - Edo Castle is fortified by Ōta Dōkan. (Japanese Date: Eighth Day of the Fourth Month, 1457)
- 1837 - Ōshio Heihachirō dies. (Japanese Date: Twenty-seventh Day of the Third Month, 1837)
- 1907 - Sakichi Toyoda is the first subject to patent the world's first automatic loom.
- 1923 - The Tokyo high-speed rail is renamed and Odakyu Electric Railway is founded.
- 1929 - The Imperial Palace of the Times changes its cannons from "Don" to "Siren". When the signal is noon at Tokyo, the sound from the cannon fire in the imperial palace of "Don" was handed to the siren. It is established in three places, but it is inaudible and unpopular. It is not mistaken for a factory whistle and is sounded at 19:00.
- 1932 - The first radio surveys are performed.
- 1937 - Nishinomiya Stadium is opened.
- 1948 - Hibari Misora debuted in the Yokohama international theater. (as Kazue Misora at the time)
- 1952 - A blood incident happened on Labor Day.
- 1975 - Japan's first Nagasaki airport is opened to be the offshore airport.
- 2000 - The Japan Coast Guard introduced "118 = Emergency Telephone Number". It notified incidents and accidents at sea. It has faster sea rescue and helps to prevent the water's edge from smuggling.
Births
Film and television
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May 4
May 4:
Births
- 1914 - Maedayama Eigorō (d. 1971), sumo wrestler, the 39th Yokozuna
- 1918 - Kakuei Tanaka, (d. 1993), soldier and politician, 64th Prime Minister
- 1967 - Akiko Yajima, voice actress
- 1968 - Momoko Kikuchi, actress, entertainer, singer, and scholar
- 1978 - Daisuke Ono, voice actor
- 1990 - Asana Mamoru, actress and model
- 1994 - Sairi Ito, actress
Deaths
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May 5
May 5:
Events
Births
- 867 - Emperor Uda (d. 931)
- 1947 - Daisuke Ban, actor
- 1947 - Sansho Shinsui, actor
- 1961 - Hiroshi Hase, wrestler and politician
- 1962 - Kaoru Wada, composer and conductor
- 1964 - Minami Takayama, voice actress and singer
- 1967 - Takehito Koyasu, voice actor and singer
- 1968 - Atsuro Watabe, actor
- 1974 - Seiji Ara, race car driver
- 1985 - Shoko Nakagawa, actress and singer
- 1992 - Yōsuke Mikami, footballer
- 1992 - Taisuke Miyazaki, footballer
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May 7
May 7:
Events
- 1875 - Japan and Russia signed the Sakhalin Metropolitan Kuril exchange treaty.
- 1888 - The first Japanese Ph.D. is born.
- 1969 - The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo opened.
- 1999 - The administrative agency document, Freedom of Information Act, established. It enforced in April 2001.
Births
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May 8
May 8:
Events
Births
- 1929 - Miyoshi Umeki (d. 2007), Japanese-American actress and singer
- 1936 - Kazuo Koike, author
- 1957 - Rino Katase, actress
- 1959 - Ikue Sakakibara, actress and singer
- 1961 - Akira Taue, wrestler
- 1962 - Masaki Terasoma, actor and voice actor
- 1969 - Akebono Tarō, American-Japanese sumo wrestler, the 64th Yokozuna
- 1973 - Hiromu Arakawa, author and illustrator
- 1977 - Chiaki Takahashi, model and voice actress
- 1981 - Yasuko Tajima, swimmer
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May 12
May 12:
Events
- 1934 - The first radio overseas coverage occurred (ten times of the Far East Championship competition of Manila).
- 1939 - Japan and Soviet Union battle in Manchuria and the Mongolian border in Nomonhan which started the Nomonhan Incident.
- 1948 - The Ministry of Health and Welfare distribute the "Mother's Pocketbook" based on the Child Welfare Act. It handed to pregnant women municipality, maternal health, and the baby's developmental state, distribution of milk, and filling out the vaccination collectively. It later became the "Mother and Child Health Handbook" in 1965.
- 1980 - "Mother" is the death of the post-war half-breed. Director Miki Sawada died at the Elizabeth Sanders Home that was known as the "Mother" and was born in the post-war turmoil half-breed in Spain. From 1948, an investment of private property and embarked on a half-breed rescue, about 2,000 people left home.
- 1984 - NHK satellite broadcasting begins, it became a clear image even in the Ogasawara Islands.
Births
Film and television
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May 14
May 14:
Events
- 1878 - Ōkubo Toshimichi is assassinated in complaints by samurai Kio Isaka
- 1969 - Tokyo's Shinjuku Station west exit underground plaza "Fork Rally" is restricted. The police embark to eliminate as the hinder traffic. The Fork Rally is also a circle of debate over the Vietnam War and the Okinawa issue. Its confrontation with the police intensified until July.
- 1971 - After winning 32 times of large yonozuka, Taihō Kōki retires.
- 1971 - Kiyoshi Ōkubo is arrested for killing eight women.
- 1991 - Fuji announced his retirement of Chiyo.
- 1991 - A train collision accident happened in Shigaraki Kogen railway in Shigaraki Prefecture. Up to 42 people died.
Births
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May 15
May 15:
Births
- 1922 - Jakucho Setouchi, nun and author
- 1935 - Akihiro Miwa, singer, actor, director, composer, and author
- 1946 - Kenichi Mikawa, singer and television personality
- 1948 - Yutaka Enatsu, baseball player
- 1969 - Hideki Irabu (d. 2011), Japanese-American baseball player
- 1982 - Tatsuya Fujiwara, actor
- 1989 - Akina Minami, model
- 1995 - Ryosuke Yamamoto, actor and model
Deaths
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May 16
May 16:
Events
- 1689 - Matsuo Bashō's journey of "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". He went out to Michinoku with his disciples. (Japanese Date: Twenty-seventh Day of the Third Month, 1689)
- 1889 - The Imperial Museum opened in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nara.
- 1949 - Japan joins the World Health Organization.
- 1958 - Television reception contracts exceeded one million.
- 1968 - The Tokachi-oki earthquake occurred, 52 people are either dead or missing.
- 1975 - The Japan Women's expedition succeeded in the first Mount Everest ascent as a woman.
- 1995 - Chizuo Matsumoto of Aum Shinrikyo is arrested.
Births
- 1898 - Kenji Mizoguchi (d. 1956), director and screenwriter
- 1910 - Higashifushimi Kunihide (d. 2014), monk and educator
- 1942 - Isao Sasaki, voice actor, actor, and singer
- 1951 - Unshō Ishizuka, voice actor
- 1953 - Kitanoumi Toshimitsu (d. 2015), sumo wrestler, the 55th Yokozuna
- 1972 - Hideki Naganuma, composer
- 1973 - Kōsuke Toriumi, voice actor
- 1977 - Asami Imai, voice actress and singer
- 1985 - Tadayoshi Okura, singer-songwriter, dancer, and actor
- 1985 - Kazuhito Tanaka, gymnast
Film and television
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May 18
May 18:
Events
- 1870 - Telegrams started between Tokyo and Yokohama. (Japanese Date: Eighteenth Day of the Fourth Month, 1870)
- 1899 - The Bangkok Peace Conference is first held in the Hague.
- 1936 - In a crime that shocked Japan, Sada Abe strangled her lover Kichizo Ishida, cut off his genitals, and carried them around with her for several days until her arrest.
- 1984 - Nationality Act Amendment is established.
Births
Film and television
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May 20
May 20:
Births
- 1940 - Sadaharu Oh, Japanese-Taiwanese baseball player and manager
- 1957 - Yoshihiko Noda, lawyer and politician, 62nd Prime Minister of Japan
- 1964 - Kōichirō Genba, politician, 80th Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs
- 1969 - Kazuya Takahashi, actor
- 1970 - Ryuichi Kawamura, singer-songwriter, actor, and producer
- 1976 - Tomoya Satozaki, baseball player
- 1981 - Kensuke Tanaka, baseball player
- 1987 - Mike Havenaar, footballer
- 1988 - Miyu Nagase, singer and guitarist
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May 21
May 21:
Events
- 1936 - Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
- 2010 - JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.
Births
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May 22
May 22:
Events
Births
- 1834 - Niwa Nagakuni (d. 1904), daimyo
- 1859 - Tsubouchi Shōyō (d. 1935), author, playwright, and educator
- 1885 - Kansuke Naka (d. 1965), novelist
- 1885 - Soemu Toyoda (d. 1957), admiral
- 1911 - Minoru Kawabata (d. 2001), Japanese-American painter and academic
- 1954 - Shuji Nakamura, Japanese-American physicist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1956 - Shinji Morisue, gymnast
- 1960 - Hideaki Anno, animator, director, and screenwriter
- 1980 - Rena Tanaka, actress and television personality
- 1984 - Keita Nakamura, mixed martial artist
- 1985 - Tao Okamoto, model and actress
- 1985 - Hideaki Takeda, footballer
- 1992 - Chinami Tokunaga, singer
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May 23
May 23:
Events
- 1896 - One high baseball team play against a foreign team from Yokohama (first baseball game of a foreigner). The Daiichi baseball team won in 29-4.
- 1919 - 3 Yen or more taxpayers to election law established that gives the right to vote.
- 1969 - A pollution white paper is first announced for the first time.
- 1980 - Kagemusha directed by Akira Kurosawa wins the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. It was the first Japanese film since Jigokumon in 26 years.
Births
Film and television
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May 24
May 24:
Events
- 670 - The Horyuji Temple burned down. (Japanese Date: Thirtieth Day of the Fourth Month, 670)
- 905 - The imperial rescript of Kokin Wakashū compiled. (Japanese Date: Eighteenth Day of the Fourth Month, 905)
- 1878 - The first impaired school in Japan opened in Kyoto.
- 1900 - The Meiji government banned men and women of mixed bathing for more than twelve years of age.
- 1903 - Kobe Golf Club perform its opening ceremony in Kobe and Rokko Mountain, which became Japan's first golf course.
- 1926 - Tokachidake eruption killed 144 people. It caused a large explosion, which is located in the center of Hokkaido, such as Furano pioneer village in the muddy water jet which flowed instantly, and became a catastrophe of 144 dead.
- 1942 - Professional baseball extended 28 times in Nagoya versus ocean warfare.
- 1949 - A law is promulgated change people's age calculation from the traditional "Kazoedoshi Formula" to "How to Count the Full". By promulgation, infants born on December will be two years old in January, it can receive a distribution of sweets, and there was a defect such that reduced the distribution to be calculated sixty generations to reverse. A newspaper reported that "people became a rejuvenated thing".
- 1955 - Emperor Hirohito watched his first sumo in Kokugikan.
- 1956 - The Anti-Prostitution Act is promulgated.
- 1960 - Large damage to the Sanriku region in the tsunami of the Chilean earthquake. 139 people are dead or missing during the disaster.
Births
- 1942 - Ichirō Ozawa, lawyer and politician, Minister of Home Affairs
- 1961 - Show Aikawa, actor
- 1965 - Shinichirō Watanabe, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1974 - Masahide Kobayashi, baseball player and coach
- 1981 - Sayaka Ando, model
- 1985 - Kenjiro Yamashita, dancer and actor
- 1991 - Erika Umeda, singer
- 1994 - Daiya Seto, swimmer
Film and television
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May 25
May 25:
Events
- 723 - The third generation law is enacted. (Japanese Date: Seventeenth Day of the Fourth Month, 723)
- 1892 - The Tokyo Carriage Railway launch a student discount ticket.
- 1949 - The Ministry of International Trade and Industry is installed.
- 1970 - Professional Baseball Match-fixing Incident: In the "Black Fog Incident" three players are expelled permanently. In the Professional baseball Commissioner Committee, match-fixing became a problem in baseball, Nishitetsu (at the time) announced the decision for the six players of the team. They joined the eliminated acts as stipulated in baseball agreement, pitcher Masaaki Ikenaga said that there is a money transfer is the disposal of permanent exile, and three other players also received the disposal of duties stopped ans strict reprimand. Activities of disposal cancellation is still continuing against the disposal of the Ikenaga players.
- 1998 - Singer Seiko Matsuda is married for the second time. They divorced in December 2000.
Births
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May 26
May 26:
Events
- 752 - The Buddha opening memorial of Nara Todaji is performed. (Japanese Date: Ninth Day of the Fourth Month, 752)
- 1869 - The Currency Exchange is renamed in Ginza. (Japanese Date: Fifteenth Day of the Fourth Month, 1869)
- 1916 - Natsume Sōseki serialization initiates a "Meian" in the Asahi Shimbun.
- 1937 - Yama Futaba becomes the 35th Yokozuna.
- 1947 - The "Lucky Zone" is installed in the Koshien.
- 1959 - The Tokyo Olympic Games is determined by the IOC General Assembly.
- 1963 - Taiho Yokozuna play his first-ever six-consecutive accomplishment.
- 1969 - Opening of the Tomei Expressway whole line.
- 1971 - Television shoppin begins.
- 1983 - 99 people died in the Sea of Japan earthquake.
Births
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May 29
May 29:
Births
- 1937 - Hibari Misora (d. 1989), singer and actress
- 1940 - Taihō Kōki (d. 2013), sumo wrestler, the 48th Yokozuna
- 1963 - Ukyo Katayama, race car driver
- 1972 - Közi, singer-songwriter and keyboard player
- 1973 - Tomoko Kaneda, voice actress, singer, and radio personality
- 1976 - Yūsuke Iseya, actor, director, and screenwriter
- 1980 - Shugo Tokumaru, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
- 1985 - Yukihiro Takiguchi, actor
- 1991 - Saori Hayami, voice actress and singer
- 1999 - Yuuri Rukawa, actress
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May 30
May 30:
Events
- 713 - Emperor Genmei ordered the armistice of the "fudoki". (Japanese Date: Second Day of the Fifth Month, 713)
- 1590 - Edo Castle surrendered. (Japanese Date: Twenty-seventh Day of the Fourth Month, 1590)
- 1921 - The Ministry of Communications allowed private wireless telephones.
- 1958 - Closure of the war criminal camp Sugamo Prison.
- 1966 - US military nuclear submarine Snook arrived in Yonosuka for the first time.
- 1967 - Toyo Kogyo's (currently Mazda) Cosmo Sports is the first rotary engine vehicle in the world on sale.
- 1968 - Promulgated Consumer Production Basic Law.
- 1972 - Tel Aviv airport shootings, 26 people were killed.
- 1983 - A policy of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications will allow CATV business to the private sector is announced.
- 1990 - An acid icicle is found in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture.
Births
- 1914 - Akinoumi Setsuo (d. 1979), sumo wrestler, the 37th Yokozuna
- 1920 - Franklin J. Schaffner (d. 1989), Japanese-American director and producer
- 1969 - Naomi Kawase, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1969 - Ryuhei Kitamura, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1972 - Sōichirō Hoshi, voice actor and singer
- 1979 - Rie Kugimiya, voice actress and singer
- 1980 - Ryōgo Narita, author
- 1981 - Hisanori Takada, footballer
- 1982 - Asahi Uchida, actor
- 1993 - Sota Fukushi, actor
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May 31
May 31:
Events
Births
- 1835 - Hijikata Toshizō (d. 1869), commander
- 1914 - Akira Ifukube (d. 2006), composer and educator
- 1962 - Noriko Hidaka, voice actress and singer
- 1964 - Yukio Edano, politician, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs
- 1965 - Yōko Sōmi, voice actress
- 1968 - Kyōka Suzuki, actress
- 1974 - Hiroiki Ariyoshi, comedian and singer
- 1975 - Mac Suzuki, baseball player
- 1980 - Mika Katsumura, actress
- 1980 - Kaori Manabe, television personality and model
- 1987 - Nagi Yanagi, singer-songwriter
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