2010 in Japan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Incumbents

Emperor
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...

– Akihito
Akihito
is the current , the 125th emperor of his line according to Japan's traditional order of succession. He acceded to the throne in 1989.-Name:In Japan, the emperor is never referred to by his given name, but rather is referred to as "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor" which may be shortened to . In...
Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Japan
The is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...

– Yukio Hatoyama
Yukio Hatoyama
is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan between 16 September 2009 and 2 June 2010, and was the first ever Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan....

(Democratic Party
Democratic Party of Japan
The is a political party in Japan founded in 1998 by the merger of several opposition parties. Its socially liberal platform is generally considered center-left in the Japanese political spectrum...

) until June 8, Naoto Kan
Naoto Kan
is a Japanese politician, and former Prime Minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and designated Prime Minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation...

(Democratic Party
Democratic Party of Japan
The is a political party in Japan founded in 1998 by the merger of several opposition parties. Its socially liberal platform is generally considered center-left in the Japanese political spectrum...

)
Chief Cabinet Secretary
Chief Cabinet Secretary
__notoc__The of Japan is a Minister of State who is responsible for directing the Cabinet Secretariat. The main function of Chief Cabinet Secretary is to coordinate the policies of ministries and agencies in the executive branch...

: Hirofumi Hirano
Hirofumi Hirano
is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan , a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet . He is a native of Katsuragi, Wakayama and he started working for Panasonic Corporation in 1971 after graduating from Chuo University. He was elected to the House of Representatives for...

until January 7, Yoshito Sengoku
Yoshito Sengoku
is a Japanese politician serving in the House of Representatives in the Diet as a member of the Democratic Party of Japan. He was born in Tokushima, Tokushima prefecture. While studying in the University of Tokyo, he passed the bar exam and therefore dropped out of the university...
Governor of Tokyo: Shintaro Ishihara
Shintaro Ishihara
is a Japanese author, actor, politician and the governor of Tokyo since 1999.- Early life and artistic career :Shintarō was born in Suma-ku, Kobe. His father Kiyoshi was an employee, later a general manager, of a shipping company. Shintarō grew up in Zushi...

Events

January 1 – The towns of Nijō
Nijo, Fukuoka
was a town located in former Itoshima District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.As of November 2009, the town had an estimated population of 13,011 and a density of 227.98 persons per km². The total area is 57.07 km²....

and Shima
Shima, Fukuoka
was a town located in former Itoshima District, Fukuoka, Japan.As of November 2009, the town had an estimated population of 17,432 and a density of 319.56 persons per km². The total area was 54.54 km²....

merged with the city of Maebaru to form the city of Itoshima
Itoshima, Fukuoka
is a city located in the western area of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city was formed on January 1, 2010, following the merger of the city of Maebaru with the two towns of Shima and Nijo....

.
January 3 – Japan doubles a state-sponsored credit line to troubled airline Japan Airlines
Japan Airlines
is an airline headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan. It is the flag carrier of Japan and its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Tokyo International Airport , as well as Nagoya's Chūbu Centrair International Airport and Osaka's Kansai International Airport...

to Y200bn (US$2.2bn).
January 6 – Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii
Hirohisa Fujii
is a Japanese politician who is a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet and Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Japan . A native of Tokyo, graduate of the University of Tokyo and former official of the Ministry of Finance, he was elected to the House of Councilors for the...

resigns at the age of 77 due to ill health.
January 12 – A gunman kills two people
2010 Habikino shooting
The 2010 Habikino shooting was a deadly spree shooting which occurred at a drinking establishment located just south of Eganoshō Station in Habikino, Osaka Prefecture, Japan on 12 January 2010.The attack was carried out by 49-year-old Yasuhisa Sugiura...

at a bar in Habikino
Habikino, Osaka
is a city located in eastern Osaka, Japan. It is particularly well-known for its grape production, as well as the many ancient burial mounds that dot its landscape.-Within Japan: Kameyama, Mie Gose, Nara...

, Japan, before turning the gun on himself.
January 19 – Japanese air carrier Japan Airlines
Japan Airlines
is an airline headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan. It is the flag carrier of Japan and its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Tokyo International Airport , as well as Nagoya's Chūbu Centrair International Airport and Osaka's Kansai International Airport...

files for bankruptcy protection.
February 1 – The town of Kozakai
Kozakai, Aichi
was a formerly a town located in Hoi District, Aichi, Japan.As of November 1, 2007, the town had an estimated population of 22,708 and a population density of 2,188.31 persons per km². The total area was 9.92 km²....

merged into the city of Toyokawa
Toyokawa, Aichi
is a medium-sized city of about 180,000 people located in the eastern part of Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The city, founded on June 1, 1943, originally comprised the three formerly independent Hoi-gun towns of Toyokawa , Ko , Ushikubo , and the village of Yawata...

.
February 26 – A 7.0 magnitude earthquake strikes off the southern coast of Japan's Ryukyu Island.
March 14 – A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hits central Japan with no reports of damage or casualties.
May 20 – JAXA successfully launched the venus probe Akatsuki (formerly "Planet-C").
April 17 – Snowfall in central Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

matches a record set in April 1967.
April 25 – Nearly 100,000 people rally in Okinawa, Japan, demanding the removal of an American base from the island.
June 2 – Prime minister Yukio Hatoyama
Yukio Hatoyama
is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan between 16 September 2009 and 2 June 2010, and was the first ever Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan....

announced that he would be resigning as Prime Minister.
June 4 – Naoto Kan
Naoto Kan
is a Japanese politician, and former Prime Minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and designated Prime Minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation...

is elected as the leader of the Democratic Party and therefore as Prime Minister of Japan
Prime Minister of Japan
The is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...

, defeating Shinji Tarutoko
Shinji Tarutoko
is a Japanese democratic politician. In June 2010, he declared his intention to run against Naoto Kan for the leadership of the Democratic Party of Japan; had he won, he would have become the next Prime Minister of Japan...

.
June 13 – The first Japanese asteroid probe, Hayabusa
Hayabusa
was an unmanned spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis....

returned to Earth, after having landed on 25143 Itokawa
25143 Itokawa
25143 Itokawa is an Apollo and Mars-crosser asteroid. It was the first asteroid to be the target of a sample return mission, the Japanese space probe Hayabusa.-Discovery and naming:...

in an effort to collect samples.
July 11 – House of Councillors election
Japanese House of Councillors election, 2010
The for the upper house of the legislature of Japan were held on July 11, 2010. In the last election in 2007, the Liberal Democratic Party lost its majority to the Democratic Party of Japan , which managed to gain the largest margin since its formation in 1996. The House of Councillors is...
August 9 – Japan marks the 65th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

of Nagasaki
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Nagasaki was founded by the Portuguese in the second half of the 16th century on the site of a small fishing village, formerly part of Nishisonogi District...

.
September 11 – Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

signs a nuclear co-operation treaty with Japan to build a nuclear power
Nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

plant within 10 years.
September 14 – Naoto Kan
Naoto Kan
is a Japanese politician, and former Prime Minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and designated Prime Minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation...

is reelected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan
Democratic Party of Japan
The is a political party in Japan founded in 1998 by the merger of several opposition parties. Its socially liberal platform is generally considered center-left in the Japanese political spectrum...

and therefore as Prime Minister of Japan
Prime Minister of Japan
The is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...

, defeating powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa
Ichiro Ozawa
is a Japanese politician. Formerly a chief secretary of the Liberal Democratic Party , he later defected from the LDP. He was the president of Japan's main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan , from 2006 until May 2009, when he resigned over a fund scandal, and secretary general of the...

.
October 20 - Devastating floods and landslide in Amami Island, 3 people die.
December 7 – The spacecraft Akatsuki reaches Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

but fails to enter orbit around the planet.

Prefectural elections

February 21 – In the Nagasaki gubernatorial election, 2010 former vice governor Hōdō Nakamura is elected as successor of retiring incumbent Genjirō Kaneko
Genjiro Kaneko
is the governor of Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan. A native of Ikitsuki, Nagasaki and graduate of Keio University, he was elected governor of Nagasaki Prefecture after serving in the assembly of Nagasaki Prefecture for three terms since 1975 and then in the House of Representatives in the Diet for...

.
March 14 – Governor Masanori Tanimoto
Masanori Tanimoto
is the governor of Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, first elected in 2002.- References :...

of Ishikawa is reelected for a fifth term.
April 11 – Kyōto gubernatorial election, 2010: Incumbent Keiji Yamada
Keiji Yamada
is the governor of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. A native of Hyōgo Prefecture and 1977 graduate of the University of Tokyo, he had worked at the Ministry of Home Affairs since 1977 and served as the vice governor of Kyoto Prefecture before elected governor for the first time in 2002...

wins a third term with support from both major parties.
July 11 – In the Shiga gubernatorial election, 2010, center-left supported governor Yukiko Kada
Yukiko Kada
is the governor of Shiga Prefecture. She is the first female governor of Shiga and the fifth female governor in Japanese history. She was first elected in 2006 defeating incumbent governor Yoshitsugu Kunimatsu. Prior to being elected governor she was a professor of environmental sociology at Kyoto...

is reelected against LDP supported former national representative Ken’ichirō Ueno and a Communist candidate.
August 8 – Nagano gubernatorial election, 2010: Supported by the center-left parties, Shuichi Abe, formerly vice governor under polarising governor Yasuo Tanaka
Yasuo Tanaka
is a Japanese novelist and politician. He served as the governor of Nagano prefecture from 2000 to 2006, became president of New Party Nippon and has been elected to Japan's legislatures.- Early life :...

, narrowly beats LDP supported outgoing vice governor Yoshimasa Koshihara by 5.000 votes to succeed retiring incumbent Jin Murai
Jin Murai
is the governor of Nagano Prefecture in Japan. After growing up in Matsumoto, Nagano, he graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1959 and entered the Ministry of International Trade and Industry upon graduation. In 1986 he was elected to the House of Representatives in the Diet for the first time...

who had defeated Tanaka in 2006.
August 29 – Kagawa gubernatorial election, 2010: With broad support from the non-Communist parties Keizō Hamada is elected to succeed governor Takeki Manabe
Takeki Manabe
is the governor of Kagawa Prefecture in Japan, first elected in 2002.- References :...

who retired after three terms.
October 31 – Governor Yūhei Satō
Yuhei Sato
is the governor of Fukushima Prefecture of Japan. He was first elected in November 2006, after the previous governor, Eisaku Satō, was forced to step down after 'politically motivated' bribery charges - References :...

of Fukushima is reelected against only one Communist challenger.
November 28 – Wakayama gubernatorial election, 2010: Incumbent Yoshinobu Nisaka
Yoshinobu Nisaka
is the governor of Wakayama Prefecture in Japan, first elected in 2006.- Education :Mr. Nisaka graduated with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Tokyo in 1974 and entered MITI that same year.- References :...

is reelected with centre-right support; Ehime gubernatorial election, 2010: Tokihiro Nakamura is elected to succeed retiring governor Moriyuki Kato
Moriyuki Kato
is the governor of Ehime Prefecture in Japan. He was elected first in 1999. A native of Yawatahama, Ehime and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he joined the Ministry of Education in 1957.- External links :*...

; Okinawan gubernatorial election, 2010
Okinawan gubernatorial election, 2010
The Okinawan gubernatorial election, 2010 was held on November 28, 2010. The official campaign start will be on November 11. The 2010 election garners national attention mostly for the dispute between the central government and local communities in Okinawa over the planned relocation of Marine...

: Governor Hirokazu Nakaima
Hirokazu Nakaima
is a Japanese bureaucrat, a business leader, and a politician. He was elected governor of Okinawa Prefecture in 2006.- History :Nakaima was born on August 19, 1939 in Higashinari Ward of Osaka. In 1945 during World War II, his family escaped from the air raids in Osaka and evacuated to Meiji,...

defeats anti-USMC-base candidate Yōichi Iha.
December 12 – Ibaraki prefectural election, 2010: With 39 percent of the vote, the LDP wins 33 of 65 seats and defends its majority.
December 26 – In the Miyazaki gubernatorial election, 2010, vice governor Shunji Kōno wins a clear victory; incumbent comedian and former governor Hideo Higashikokubaru had retired after only one term in office.

Deaths

January 1 – Tetsuo Narikawa
Tetsuo Narikawa
was a Japanese actor who was famous for playing the title role of Spectreman. He was also a specialist in karate and judo, and was founder and president of the International Karate League in Japan.-Career:...

, Japanese actor and karate
Karate
is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...

instructor
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

. (born 1944)
January 4 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi
Tsutomu Yamaguchi
, was a Japanese national who survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during World War II. Although at least 160 people are known to have been affected by both bombings, he is the only person to have been officially recognized by the government of Japan as surviving both...

, Japanese survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...

(born 1916)
January 13 – Isamu Tanonaka
Isamu Tanonaka
was a Japanese seiyū from Taitō, Tokyo. During his life he has been attached to Gekidan Tōgei and then Theatre Echo; he was attached to Aoni Production at the time of his death...

, Japanese voice actor
Seiyu
Voice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan's large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, Japanese voice actors, or , are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.Besides acting as narrators and...

(born 1952)
January 16 – Takumi Shibano
Takumi Shibano
was a Japanese science-fiction translator and author. He was a major figure in fandom in Japan and contributed to establishing the Japanese science fiction genre....

, Japanese novelist (born 1926)
January 17 – Maki Asakawa
Maki Asakawa
was a Japanese jazz and blues singer, lyricist and composer.Born in Ishikawa Prefecture, after graduating high school she worked as a civil servant for a short time before moving to Tokyo...

, Japanese singer (born 1942)
January 17 – Daisuke Gōri
Daisuke Gori
was a Japanese voice actor, narrator and actor from Kōtō, Tokyo. Throughout his life, he was attached to TV Talent Center Tokyo, Yoshizawa Theatre School and then Mausu Promotion; he was attached to Aoni Production at the time of his death. His real name, as well as his former stage name, was...

, Japanese voice actor
Seiyu
Voice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan's large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, Japanese voice actors, or , are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.Besides acting as narrators and...

(born 1952)
January 28 – Keiko Tobe
Keiko Tobe
was a Japanese manga artist who wrote primarily josei manga. She was best known for creating With the Light, which won an Excellence Prize in the Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2004 from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs and inspired a television drama.- Biography :Tobe was born in...

, Japanese manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

(born 1957)
February 1 – Atsushi Kuroi
Atsushi Kuroi
was a Japanese professional drifting driver who competed in the D1 Grand Prix series for with . He died on 2 February 2010 during the evening due to a motorcycle accident....

, Japanese professional drifting
Drifting (motorsport)
Drifting refers to a driving technique and to a motorsport where the driver intentionally over steers, causing loss of traction in the rear wheels through turns, while maintaining vehicle control and a high exit speed...

driver (born 1969)
February 5 – Hiroyuki Oze
Hiroyuki Oze
was a Japanese baseball outfielder from Daitō, Osaka who played professionally for the Orix Buffaloes. He played two seasons for the club, hitting .262 in his rookie year in 2008 and .303 in 2009, his final professional season. Before joining the Buffaloes, he played at Jinsei Gakuen High School...

, Japanese baseball player (born 1985)
February 8 – Wahei Tatematsu
Wahei Tatematsu
was a Japanese novelist. He wrote several novels including Enrai and Dogen-Zenji, about the devout Budhist who founded the Soto Sect of Zen Buddhism in 1227.He was also known for his environmental work...

, Japanese novelist (born 1948)
February 11 – Umetsugu Inoue
Umetsugu Inoue
was a Japanese film director and scriptwriter. He directed 115 movies, wrote 101 screenplays, and is credited with the original story for five films...

, Japanese film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

(born 1923)
February 17 – Makoto Fujita
Makoto Fujita
, born Makoto Harada , was a Japanese actor. He was born in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, the son of silent-film actor Rintarō Fujima, and started his career as a comedian in 1952.-Acting Roles:...

, Japanese actor and comedian (born 1933)
February 26 – Nujabes
Nujabes
was a Japanese hip hop producer and DJ who recorded under the name , the reverse spelling of his name in Japanese order. Nujabes was also owner of the Shibuya record stores, T Records and Guinness Records and founder of the independent label Hydeout Productions....

, Japanese hip hop composer (born 1974)
February 28 – Chushiro Hayashi
Chushiro Hayashi
was a Japanese astrophysicist. Hayashi tracks on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram are named after him.He earned his B.Sc in physics at the Imperial University of Tokyo in 1942. He then worked as a research associate under Hideki Yukawa at Kyoto University...

, Japanese astrophysicist (born 1920)
March 4 – Tetsuo Kondo
Tetsuo Kondo
was a Japanese politician who served as Japan's Minister of Labor from 1991 until 1992. He was the father of politician Yosuke Kondo.Kondo, who was from Yamagata Prefecture, began his career as an employee of the Japanese Ministry of Finance. Kondo, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, served...

, Japanese politician, former Minister of Labour (born 1929)
March 16 – Hachiro Maekawa
Hachiro Maekawa
was a former Yomiuri Giants player, and head of scouting for the Giants. In 1936, Maekawa joined the Giants and contributed to their first championship the same year. After fighting in and surviving World War II, Maekawa played for the 1946 Hankyu Braves, the predecessor of the current Orix...

, Japanese baseball player (born 1912)
March 21 – Takeo Kimura
Takeo Kimura
was a Japanese art director, writer and film director. Beginning his career in 1945 he art-directed well over 200 films. He was one of Japan's best known art directors, most famously for his collaborations with cult director Seijun Suzuki through the 1960s at the Nikkatsu Company, exemplified by...

, Japanese art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....

(born 1918)
March 23 – Jiro Nagasawa
Jiro Nagasawa
was a Japanese Olympic swimmer. He is credited with the invention of the modern Butterfly stroke.-Competition:...

, Japanese Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

swimmer and national coach
Coach (sport)
In sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...

(born 1932)
March 26 – Kwon Hyi-ro, Japanese-born Korean murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

er (born 1928)
April 3 – Yasunori Watanabe
Yasunori Watanabe
was a former Japanese rugby player, who played for Japan in three Rugby World Cups from 1999 to 2007.-Career:Watanabe was born in Hokkaido, and joined the team Toshiba Brave Lupus in Tokyo in 1997 after graduating from Nippon Sport Science University...

, Japanese rugby player
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

(born 1974)
April 4 – Shio Satō
Shio Sato
was a Japanese manga artist. Satō was a member of the Post Year 24 Group, a group of female manga artists considered influential in the development of shōjo manga. She also wrote under the pen name . She made her professional debut in 1977 with the publication of Koi wa Ajinomono!? in Bessatsu...

, Japanese manga artist (born 1952)
April 6 – Katsumi Nishikawa
Katsumi Nishikawa
was a Japanese film director most famous for his youth films . Graduating from Nihon University, he started out at the Shochiku studio in 1939 and directed his first film in 1952...

, Japanese film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

(born 1918)
April 7 – Takuya Kimura
Takuya Kimura (baseball)
was a Japanese baseball player for the Yomiuri Giants. He previously played for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp before being traded to the Giants in 2006. He played for the Giants through the 2009 season before retiring as a player, returning to the Giants for 2010 in a coaching capacity.Kimura was born in...

, Japanese baseball player and coach (born 1972)
April 9 – Hisashi Inoue, Japanese pacifist playwright (born 1934)
April 10 – Hiro Muramoto
Hiro Muramoto
was a Japanese cameraman and journalist, who worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Tokyo in the 1990s, and who reported for Reuters television for more than 15 years. Muramoto was based in Reuters' Tokyo bureau.-Career:...

, Japanese news cameraman and journalist (born 1966)
April 20 – Mr. Hito, Japanese professional wrestler (born 1942)
April 27 – Tanie Kitabayashi
Tanie Kitabayashi
was a Japanese actress.Born Reiko Ando in Tokyo, she began as a stage actress. Early in her career, she became well known for portraying older women. Kitabayashi was a founding member of the famed Mingei Theatre, founded in 1950. In 1960, she won best actress awards at the 10th Blue Ribbon Awards...

, Japanese actress (born 1911)
April 30 – Tadahiro Ando
Tadahiro Ando
was the Governor of Miyazaki Prefecture from 2003 to 2006. In 2009, Ando was convicted of bribe-taking and bid-rigging which were offences that he had committed earlier when he was governor.- References :...

, Japanese politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, former Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

of Miyazaki Prefecture
Miyazaki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. The capital is the city of Miyazaki.- History :Historically, after the Meiji Restoration, Hyūga Province was renamed Miyazaki Prefecture....

(born 1895)
May 2 – Kama Chinen
Kama Chinen
was a Japanese supercentenarian, who at the age of 114 years 357 days, became the oldest validated living person when American supercentenarian Gertrude Baines died on 11 September 2009. At the age of 114 years 331 days, she became the last person born in 1895 when American supercentenarian Neva...

, Japanese supercentenarian
Supercentenarian
A supercentenarian is someone who has reached the age of 110 years. This age is achieved by about one in a thousand centenarians....

, verified oldest living person
Oldest people
This is a list of tables of the verified oldest people in the world in ordinal rank, such as oldest person or oldest man. In these tables, a supercentenarian is considered 'verified' if his or her claim has been validated by an international body that specifically deals in longevity research, such...

(born 1895)
May 9 – Teruji Kogake
Teruji Kogake
' was a Japanese triple jumper and sports administrator. He set a low-altitude world record in the triple jump in 1956 at the Japanese Olympic Trials, and finished eighth at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics while carrying an ankle injury.He retired early from the sport and became the track and field...

, Japanese Olympic
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

athlete (born 1932)
May 18 – Shusaku Arakawa
Shusaku Arakawa
was a Japanese artist and architect. He had a personal and artistic partnership with writer and artist Madeline Gins that spanned more than four decades.-Life:...

, Japanese artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

and architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

(born 1936)
May 30 – Hanji Aoki
Hanji Aoki
was a Japanese sports official.He hailed from Chiba Prefecture. He was an active shot putter in his younger days, and became Japanese champion in 1938. He was president of the Japanese Olympic Committee from 1969 to 1973 and the Japan Association of Athletics Federations from 1975 to 1999, and vice...

, Japanese sports official (born 1915)
June 1 – Kazuo Ohno
Kazuo Ohno
was a Japanese dancer who became a guru and inspirational figure in the dance form known as Butoh. It was written of him that his very presence was an "artistic fact."...

, Japanese dancer (born 1906)
June 11 – Shunsuke Ikeda
Shunsuke Ikeda
was a Japanese actor and model.- Acting career :Born ', he was best known to tokusatsu fans as the android Ichiro in the Kikaider 01 series . Ikeda's interest in acting came at an early age from his father, respected swordfight choreographer Tatsuo Ouchi. He also had a black belt in judo and karate...

, Japanese actor (born 1941)
June 15 – Tadashi Kawashima
Tadashi Kawashima
was a Japanese manga artist and manga gensakusha from Ehime Prefecture. He is best known for writing the manga Alive -Saishū Shinkateki Shōnen-.-Career:...

, Japanese manga artist
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

(born 1969)
June 23 – Hiromu Naruse
Hiromu Naruse
Hiromu Naruse was the Japanese chief test driver, chief test engineer of Toyota Motor Corporation and chief of the Gazoo Racing team. Naruse had been a test driver for the Toyota team for 47 years . He was also noted as the chief test driver of the Lexus LFA supercar...

, Japanese chief test driver
Test driver
In motor sports it is common to have one or more test drivers that work with the mechanics to help develop the vehicle by testing new systems on the track.-NASCAR:...

for Toyota Motor Company (born 1944)
June 26 – Akira Nakamura
Akira Nakamura
was a Japanese academic of English literature and self-trained historian specialising in Japan's wartime role in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Tokyo, Nakamura studied English literature and graduated from University of Tokyo in March 1959. He worked as a senior high school teacher of...

, Japanese historian (born 1934)
July 9 – Nobuyoshi Tamura
Nobuyoshi Tamura
was a prominent aikidoka and a direct student of Morihei Ueshiba. Son of a kendo teacher, Tamura entered the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in 1953 as an uchi-deshi of aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba. He was one of Ueshiba's favorite pupils and since 1964 has greatly contributed to the development of aikido in...

, Japanese aikidoka (born 1933)
July 14 – Tetsuo Mizutori
Tetsuo Mizutori
was a Japanese voice actor from Tokyo who was attached to Arts Vision at the time of his death. His family name and his first name are often misprinted as "Mizushima" and "Tetsuya" by numerous journals...

, Japanese voice actor (born 1938)
July 15 – Daisuke Ochida, Japanese vocalist (born 1978)
July 19 – Daiki Sato, Japanese footballer. (born 1988)
August 4 – Daikirin Takayoshi
Daikirin Takayoshi
Daikirin Takayoshi was a sumo wrestler from Saga Prefecture, Japan. He began his professional career in 1958 and reached his highest rank of ozeki twelve years later in 1970...

, Japanese sumo
Sumo
is a competitive full-contact sport where a wrestler attempts to force another wrestler out of a circular ring or to touch the ground with anything other than the soles of the feet. The sport originated in Japan, the only country where it is practiced professionally...

wrestler (born 1942)
August 21 – Masaru Nashimoto
Masaru Nashimoto
was a Japanese show business reporter.Nashimoto was born in Nakano, Tokyo on 1 December 1944.-Career:After graduating from Hosei University in 1968, Nashimoto first worked as a magazine reporter for the publisher Kodansha. He became a reporter for a TV Asahi show in 1976, covering celebrity gossip...

, Japanese reporter (born 1944)
August 23 – Kihachirō Kawamoto
Kihachiro Kawamoto
was a Japanese puppet designer and maker, independent film director, screenwriter and animator and president of the Japan Animation Association from 1989, succeeding founder Osamu Tezuka, until his own death...

, Japanese puppet designer and animator. (born 1925)
August 24 – Satoshi Kon
Satoshi Kon
was a Japanese anime director and manga artist from Kushiro, Hokkaidō and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association . He was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University. He is sometimes credited as in the credits of Paranoia Agent...

, Japanese anime film director (born 1963)
September 1 – Wakanohana Kanji I
Wakanohana Kanji I
was a sumo wrestler, the sport's 45th Yokozuna .Wakanohana's younger brother was the late former ozeki Takanohana Kenshi and he was the uncle of Takanohana Koji and Wakanohana Masaru...

, Japanese sumo wrestler (born 1928)
September 5 – Shoya Tomizawa
Shoya Tomizawa
was a Japanese motorcycle racer. After a successful career in the All Japan Road Race Championship, he switched to MotoGP and competed in the 250cc class during 2009. In the 2010 season he rode in the newly created Moto2 class...

, Japanese motorcycle rider (born 1990)
September 11 – Kei Tani
Kei Tani
was a Japanese comedian, actor and musician. Born in Tokyo, he learned to play the trombone and, while a student at Chuo University, began playing in jazz bands performing for American soldiers during the Occupation of Japan. He quit university and joined the City Slickers with Frankie Sakai in 1953...

, Japanese comedian (born 1932)
September 16 – Keiju Kobayashi
Keiju Kobayashi
was a Japanese actor. Born in Gunma Prefecture, he began acting at the Nikkatsu studio after dropping out of Nihon University and made his film debut in 1942. In a career that spanned 65 years, he appeared in over 250 films, most famously in the "Company President" comedy films made at Toho, where...

, Japanese actor (born 1923)
October 7 - Keiji Ohsawa, Japanese baseball player (born 1932)
October 8 - Ryō Ikebe
Ryō Ikebe
was a Japanese actor. He graduated from Rikkyō University and originally wanted to be a screenwriter, but ended up debuting as an actor at Tōhō in 1941. He did not achieve popularity until starring in a series of youth films in the late 1940s...

, Japanese actor (born 1918)
October 29 - Takeshi Shudo
Takeshi Shudo
was a Japanese scriptwriter. He was best known as chief writer of the Pokémon anime for the Kanto, Orange Islands, and Johto arcs and also wrote the first three films. He departed the series prior to the start of its rehaul as Advanced Generation...

, Japanese scriptwriter (born 1949)

Incumbents

Events

Prefectural elections

Deaths

See also