1989 in Japan

Decades:	1960s; 1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s;
See also:	Other events of 1989; History of Japan • Timeline • Years

Events in the year 1989 in Japan. In the history of Japan, it marks the final year of the Shōwa period, Shōwa 64, upon the death of Emperor Shōwa on January 7, and the beginning of the Heisei period, Heisei 1 (平成元年 Heisei gannen, gannen means "first year"), from January 8 under the reign of his eldest son, the current Emperor Emeritus. Thus, 1989 corresponds to the transition between Shōwa and Heisei periods in the Japanese calendar.

1989 was the first year of Heisei era in Japan as well as the all-time peak of the Nikkei 225 stock market average until being surpassed in 2024.

Incumbents

Emperor:
- Shōwa (until January 7)^[1]
- Akihito (starting January 7)^[2]
Prime Minister:
- Noboru Takeshita (Liberal Democratic–Shimane) (until June 3)
- Sōsuke Uno (Liberal Democratic–Shiga) (June 3 – August 10)
- Toshiki Kaifu (Liberal Democratic–Aichi) (starting August 10)
Chief Cabinet Secretary: Keizo Obuchi (Liberal Democratic–Gunma) until June 3, Tokuo Yamashita (Liberal Democratic–Saga) until August 25, Mayumi Moriyama (Councillor, Liberal Democratic–Tochigi)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Kōichi Yaguchi
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Kenzaburō Hara (Liberal Democratic–Hyōgo) until June 2, Hajime Tamura (Liberal Democratic–Mie)
President of the House of Councillors: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya (Liberal Democratic–Saitama) until July 9 and again from August 7
National Diet sessions: 114th (regular session opened in December 1988, to June 22), 115th (extraordinary, August 7 to August 12), 116th (extraordinary, September 28 to December 16), 117th (regular, December 25 to 1990, January 24)

Governors

Aichi Prefecture: Reiji Suzuki
Akita Prefecture: Kikuji Sasaki
Aomori Prefecture: Masaya Kitamura
Chiba Prefecture: Takeshi Numata
Ehime Prefecture: Sadayuki Iga
Fukui Prefecture: Yukio Kurita
Fukuoka Prefecture: Hachiji Okuda
Fukushima Prefecture: Eisaku Satō
Gifu Prefecture: Yosuke Uematsu (until 5 February); Taku Kajiwara (starting 6 February)
Gunma Prefecture: Ichiro Shimizu
Hiroshima Prefecture: Toranosuke Takeshita
Hokkaido: Takahiro Yokomichi
Hyogo Prefecture: Toshitami Kaihara
Ibaraki Prefecture: Fujio Takeuchi
Ishikawa Prefecture: Yōichi Nakanishi
Iwate Prefecture: Tadashi Nakamura [ja]
Kagawa Prefecture: Jōichi Hirai
Kagoshima Prefecture: Kaname Kamada (until 27 February); Yoshiteru Tsuchiya (starting 27 February)
Kanagawa Prefecture: Kazuji Nagasu
Kochi Prefecture: Chikara Nakauchi
Kumamoto Prefecture: Morihiro Hosokawa
Kyoto Prefecture: Teiichi Aramaki
Mie Prefecture: Ryōzō Tagawa
Miyagi Prefecture: Sōichirō Yamamoto (until 28 March); Shuntarō Honma (starting 28 March)
Miyazaki Prefecture: Suketaka Matsukata
Nagano Prefecture: Gorō Yoshimura
Nagasaki Prefecture: Isamu Takada
Nara Prefecture: Shigekiyo Ueda
Niigata Prefecture: Takeo Kimi (until 13 April); Kiyoshi Kaneko (starting 4 June)
Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
Okayama Prefecture: Shiro Nagano
Okinawa Prefecture: Junji Nishime
Osaka Prefecture: Sakae Kishi
Saga Prefecture: Kumao Katsuki
Saitama Prefecture: Yawara Hata
Shiga Prefecture: Minoru Inaba
Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita
Shizuoka Prefecture: Shigeyoshi Saitō
Tochigi Prefecture: Fumio Watanabe
Tokushima Prefecture: Shinzo Miki
Tokyo: Shun'ichi Suzuki
Tottori Prefecture: Yuji Nishio
Toyama Prefecture: Yutaka Nakaoki
Wakayama Prefecture: Shirō Kariya
Yamagata Prefecture: Seiichirō Itagaki
Yamaguchi Prefecture: Toru Hirai
Yamanashi Prefecture: Kōmei Mochizuki

Events

January

January 4
- Murder of Junko Furuta
January 7
- Death of Hirohito: At 7:55 am, Imperial Household Agency announces that Emperor Hirohito has died peacefully, aged 87.
- Akihito becomes 125th Emperor of Japan upon the death of his father.
January 8: Shōwa era ends and Heisei era officially begins.

February

February 7: Last public performance by singer Misora Hibari held in Kitakyushu.
February 13: The Recruit scandal breaks, and the company's former president is arrested.
February 24: State funeral of Hirohito: A funeral is held at Shinjuku Gyo-en. Emperor Shōwa is buried at Musashi Imperial Graveyard alongside his parents, Emperor Taishō and Empress Teimei.

April

April 1
- Japan introduces its first national consumption tax of three percent.
- Sendai becomes a city designated by government ordinance.
April 25: Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita announces his resignation following a stock-trading scandal.
April 26: The Dragon Ball Z anime series starts on Fuji TV.

June

June 1: 100th anniversary of the foundation of Fukuoka City.
June 2: Takeshita cabinet resigns, Sōsuke Uno becomes Prime Minister.

July

July 1: 100th anniversary of the foundations of Kōfu and Gifu City.
July 12: 100th anniversary of the foundation of Akita City.
July 16: A large-scale landslides occurred, following to a microbus crushed by rockfall prevention in Echizen, Fukui Prefecture, according to official confirmed report, 15 people fatalities.
July 23
- In the 15th regular election for the House of Councillors, Liberal Democrats lose their majority for the first time in party history. In the ensuing "twisted Diet" (nejire kokkai), it must cooperate with the Socialist-led opposition as it does not hold a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives. The Uno cabinet resigns.

August

August 8: Reformist Toshiki Kaifu from the small Kōmoto faction is elected LDP president with 279 votes against Yoshirō Hayashi (Nikaidō group, a breakaway group from the Takeshita faction, 120 votes) and Shintarō Ishihara (formerly with his own faction that merged into the Abe faction in 1984, 48 votes)^[3]
August 9: First Kaifu cabinet formed and formally appointed one day later.

September

September 27: Yokohama Bay Bridge opens.

October

October 1: 100th anniversary of the foundations of Nagoya City, Tottori City and Tokushima City.
October 8: Eight climbers died of hypothermia on Mount Tate, Toyama Prefecture.

November

November 4: Sakamoto family murder - Aum Shinrikyo murders a lawyer, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, as well as his wife, Satoko, and infant son, Tatsuhiko, who had been working on a lawsuit against the religious group.
November 22: The Japan Trade Union Confederation, or "RENGO", is founded with the merger of the Japan Confederation of Labor (Dōmei) and the Federation of Independent Labor Unions (Chūritsu Rōren).

December

December 15: 100th anniversary of the foundation of Matsuyama City.
December 29: The Nikkei 225 index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange reaches its all-time record high of 38,915.87.

Births

January 3 – Kōhei Uchimura, gymnast
January 25 – Mikako Tabe, stage and film actress
February 2 – Shuhei Fukuda, professional baseball player
February 25: Kana Hanazawa, actress and singer
March 17 – Shinji Kagawa, football player
March 18 – Kana Nishino, singer-songwriter
March 23 – Natsuna Watanabe, actress and model
April 8 – Hitomi Takahashi, singer
April 11 – Yoshihiro Maru, professional baseball player
May 30
- Yui Ishikawa, actress and voice actress
- Akiyo Noguchi, professional rock climber
June 5 – Megumi Nakajima, voice actress and singer
June 7 – Seiji Kobayashi, professional baseball player
June 23 – Ayana Taketatsu, voice actress and singer
July 9 – Kiyono Yasuno, voice actress and singer
July 13 – Sayumi Michishige, singer
September 7 – Daiki Yamashita, voice actor
September 17 – Yuhei Nakaushiro, baseball player
September 26 – Chinami Suzuki, model, television host, and actress
September 29 – Makoto Furukawa, voice actor
October 11 – Tomoyuki Sugano, professional baseball pitcher
October 21 – May'n, singer
November 11
- Reina Tanaka, singer
- Chiaki Omigawa, voice actress and actress
November 23 – Shinya Kayama, professional baseball player
December 27 – Maaya Uchida, actress, voice actress and singer
December 29 – Kei Nishikori, tennis player

Deaths

January 4 – Junko Furuta, murder victim (b. 1971)
January 7 – Emperor Shōwa (b. 1901)^[1]
January 31 – Yasushi Akutagawa, composer and conductor (b. 1925)
February 9 – Osamu Tezuka, manga artist (b. 1928)
April 27 – Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Matsushita Electric (b. 1894)
May 15
- Noriko Tsukase, voice actress (b. 1945)
- Yae Ibuka, nurse (b. 1897)
June 2 – Takeo Watanabe, musician and composer (b. 1933)
June 24 – Hibari Misora, singer and actress (b. 1937)
August 15 – Minoru Genda, military aviator and politician (b. 1904)
August 18 – Yuji Koseki, composer (b. 1909)
October 26 – Kumeko Urabe, film actor (b. 1902).^[4]
November 6 – Yūsaku Matsuda, actor (b. 1949)
December 12 – Suiho Tagawa, manga artist (b. 1899)
December 30 – Yasuji Miyazaki, Olympic swimmer (b. 1916)

Statistics

Yen value: US$1 = ¥127 (low) to ¥144 (high)

References

^ ^a ^b "Hirohito | Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
^ "Akihito | Biography, Reign, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
^ Liberal Democratic Party: Historical party president and presidential election results Archived 2011-10-15 at the Wayback Machine
^ ""おばあちゃんアイドル"の浦辺粂子浴衣に引火し火傷死" ["Grandma Idol" Kumeko Urabe Yukata ignites and burns to death]. Nikkan Gendai. 20 June 2018. Archived from the original on 10 April 2021.

External links

Anatomy of Gray, Google Books

[Hirohito-1] "Hirohito | Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 March 2019.

[2] "Akihito | Biography, Reign, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 27 March 2019.

[3] Liberal Democratic Party: Historical party president and presidential election results Archived 2011-10-15 at the Wayback Machine

[4] ""おばあちゃんアイドル"の浦辺粂子浴衣に引火し火傷死" ["Grandma Idol" Kumeko Urabe Yukata ignites and burns to death]. Nikkan Gendai. 20 June 2018. Archived from the original on 10 April 2021.

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