2010 in Japan

Incumbents

• Emperor – Akihito
• Prime Minister – Yukio Hatoyama until June 8, Naoto Kan
• Chief Cabinet Secretary: Hirofumi Hirano until January 7, Yoshito Sengoku
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Hironobu Takesaki
• President of the House of Representatives: Takahiro Yokomichi
• President of the House of Councillors: Satsuki Eda until July 25, Takeo Nishioka from July 30
• Diet sessions: 174th, 175th, 176th

  Events

• January 1 – The towns of Nijō and Shima merged with the city of Maebaru to form the city of Itoshima.
• January 3 – Japan doubles a state-sponsored credit line to troubled airline Japan Airlines to ¥200bn.
• January 6 – Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii resigns at the age of 77 due to ill health.
• January 12 – A gunman kills three people at a bar in Habikino, Japan, before turning the gun on himself.
• January 19 – Japanese air carrier Japan Airlines files for bankruptcy protection.
• February 1 – The town of Kozakai merged into the city of Toyokawa.
• May 20 – JAXA successfully launched the venus probe Akatsuki.
• April 17 – Snowfall in central Tokyo 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 announced that he would be resigning as Prime Minister.
• June 4 – Naoto Kan is elected as the leader of the Democratic Party and therefore as Prime Minister of Japan, defeating Shinji Tarutoko.
• June 13 – The first Japanese asteroid probe, Hayabusa returned to Earth, after having landed on 25143 Itokawa in an effort to collect samples.
• July 11 – House of Councillors election
• August 9 – Japan marks the 65th anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki.
• September 11 – Jordan signs a nuclear co-operation treaty with Japan to build a nuclear power plant within 10 years.
• September 14 – Naoto Kan is reelected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and therefore as Prime Minister of Japan, defeating powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa.
• October 20 - Devastating floods and landslide in Amami Island, 3 people die.
• December 7 – The spacecraft Akatsuki reaches Venus but fails to enter orbit around the planet.

  Prefectural elections

• February 21 – In the 2010 Nagasaki gubernatorial election former vice governor Hōdō Nakamura is elected as successor of retiring incumbent Genjirō Kaneko.
• March 14 – Governor Masanori Tanimoto of Ishikawa is reelected for a fifth term.
• April 11 – 2010 Kyōto gubernatorial election: Incumbent Keiji Yamada wins a third term with support from both major parties.
• July 11 – In the 2010 Shiga gubernatorial election, center-left supported governor Yukiko Kada is reelected against LDP supported former national representative Ken'ichirō Ueno and a Communist candidate.
• August 8 – 2010 Nagano gubernatorial election: Supported by the center-left parties, Shuichi Abe, formerly vice governor under polarising governor Yasuo Tanaka, narrowly beats LDP supported outgoing vice governor Yoshimasa Koshihara by 5.000 votes to succeed retiring incumbent Jin Murai who had defeated Tanaka in 2006.
• August 29 – 2010 Kagawa gubernatorial election: With broad support from the non-Communist parties Keizō Hamada is elected to succeed governor Takeki Manabe who retired after three terms.
• October 31 – Governor Yūhei Satō of Fukushima is reelected against only one Communist challenger.
• November 28 – 2010 Wakayama gubernatorial election: Incumbent Yoshinobu Nisaka is reelected with centre-right support; 2010 Ehime gubernatorial election: Tokihiro Nakamura is elected to succeed retiring governor Moriyuki Kato; 2010 Okinawan gubernatorial election: Governor Hirokazu Nakaima defeats anti-USMC-base candidate Yōichi Iha.
• December 12 – 2010 Ibaraki prefectural election: With 39 percent of the vote, the LDP wins 33 of 65 seats and defends its majority.
• December 26 – In the 2010 Miyazaki gubernatorial election, 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

• January 1 – Tetsuo Narikawa, Japanese actor and karate instructor.
• January 4 – Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Japanese survivor of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings
• January 13 – Isamu Tanonaka, Japanese voice actor
• January 16 – Takumi Shibano, Japanese novelist
• January 17 – Maki Asakawa, Japanese singer
• January 17 – Daisuke Gōri, Japanese voice actor
• January 28 – Keiko Tobe, Japanese manga artist

  February

• February 1 – Atsushi Kuroi, Japanese professional drifting driver
• February 5 – Hiroyuki Oze, Japanese baseball player
• February 8 – Wahei Tatematsu, Japanese novelist
• February 11 – Umetsugu Inoue, Japanese film director
• February 17 – Makoto Fujita, Japanese actor and comedian
• February 26 – Nujabes, Japanese hip hop composer
• February 28 – Chushiro Hayashi, Japanese astrophysicist

  March

• March 4 – Tetsuo Kondo, Japanese politician, former Minister of Labour
• March 16 – Hachiro Maekawa, Japanese baseball player
• March 21 – Takeo Kimura, Japanese art director
• March 23 – Jiro Nagasawa, Japanese Olympic swimmer and national coach
• March 26 – Kwon Hyi-ro, Japanese-born Korean murderer

  April

• April 3 – Yasunori Watanabe, Japanese rugby player
• April 4 – Shio Satō, Japanese manga artist
• April 6 – Katsumi Nishikawa, Japanese film director
• April 7 – Takuya Kimura, Japanese baseball player and coach
• April 9 – Hisashi Inoue, Japanese pacifist playwright
• April 10 – Hiro Muramoto, Japanese news cameraman and journalist
• April 20 – Mr. Hito, Japanese professional wrestler
• April 27 – Tanie Kitabayashi, Japanese actress
• April 30 – Tadahiro Ando, Japanese politician, former Governor of Miyazaki Prefecture

  May

• May 2 – Kama Chinen, Japanese supercentenarian, verified oldest living person
• May 9 – Teruji Kogake, Japanese Olympic athlete
• May 18 – Shusaku Arakawa, Japanese artist and architect
• May 30 – Hanji Aoki, Japanese sports official

  June

• June 1 – Kazuo Ohno, Japanese dancer
• June 11 – Shunsuke Ikeda, Japanese actor
• June 15 – Tadashi Kawashima, Japanese manga artist
• June 23 – Hiromu Naruse, Japanese chief test driver for Toyota Motor Company
• June 26 – Akira Nakamura, Japanese historian

  July

• July 9 – Nobuyoshi Tamura, Japanese aikidoka
• July 14 – Tetsuo Mizutori, Japanese voice actor
• July 15 – Daisuke Ochida, Japanese vocalist
• July 19 – Daiki Sato, Japanese footballer.

  August

• August 4 – Daikirin Takayoshi, Japanese sumo wrestler
• August 21 – Masaru Nashimoto, Japanese reporter
• August 23 – Kihachirō Kawamoto, Japanese puppet designer and animator.
• August 24 – Satoshi Kon, Japanese anime film director

  September

• September 1 – Wakanohana Kanji I, Japanese sumo wrestler
• September 5 – Shoya Tomizawa, Japanese motorcycle rider
• September 11 – Kei Tani, Japanese comedian
• September 16 – Keiju Kobayashi, Japanese actor

  October

• October 7 - Keiji Ohsawa, Japanese baseball player
• October 8 - Ryō Ikebe, Japanese actor
• October 29 - Takeshi Shudo, Japanese scriptwriter

  December

• December 28 - Hideko Takamine, actress