Japan Timeline of Events

Home / Timelines / Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

Timeline of Events

1993

8.6.1993

Heavy rains and debris kill 72 in the Kagoshima and Aira areas of Kyūshū, Japan.

1994

4.26.1994

China Airlines flight 140 crashes at Nagoya Airport in Japan, killing 264 of the 271 people on board.

6.28.1994

Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult release sarin gas in Matsumoto, Japan; 7 persons are killed, 660 injured.

1995

9.14.1995

Body Worlds opens in Tokyo, Japan

1998

4.5.1998

In Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about $3.8 billion USD, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.

5.13.1998

India carries out two nuclear tests at Pokhran, following the three conducted on May 11. The United States and Japan impose economic sanctions on India.

5.28.1998

Nuclear testing: Pakistan responds to a series of nuclear tests by India with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan, and other nations to impose economic sanctions.

7.5.1998

Japan launches a probe to Mars, and thus joins the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation.

1999

7.23.1999

ANA Flight 61 is hijacked in Tokyo, Japan.

2003

9.25.2003

A magnitude-8.0 earthquake strikes just offshore Hokkaidō, Japan.

2004

10.23.2004

A powerful earthquake and its aftershocks hit Niigata prefecture, northern Japan, killing 35 people, injuring 2,200, and leaving 85,000 homeless or evacuated.

2005

4.22.2005

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized about Japan's war records.

4.25.2005

107 die in Amagasaki rail crash in Japan.

2007

2.24.2007

Japan launches its fourth spy satellite, stepping up its ability to monitor potential threats such as North Korea.

7.16.2007

2007 Chūetsu offshore earthquake: an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 and 6.6 aftershock occurs off the Niigata coast of Japan killing 8 people, injuring at least 800 and damaging a nuclear power plant.

2009

4.5.2009

North Korea launches its controversial Kwangmyŏngsŏng-2 rocket. The satellite passed over mainland Japan, which prompted an immediate reaction from the United Nations Security Council, as well as participating states of Six-party talks.

>>6 5 4 3 2 1 <<