1998 in Japan

Events in the year 1998 in Japan. It corresponds to the year Heisei 10 (平成10年) in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

 * Emperor: Akihito
 * Prime Minister: Ryutaro Hashimoto (L–Okayama) until July 30, Keizo Obuchi (L–Gunma)
 * Chief Cabinet Secretary: Kanezō Muraoka (L–Akita) until July 30, Hiromu Nonaka (L–Kyōto)
 * Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Shigeru Yamaguchi
 * President of the House of Representatives: Sōichirō Itō (L–Miyagi)
 * President of the House of Councillors: Jūrō Saitō (L–Mie) until July 25 and again from August 4
 * Diet sessions: 142nd (regular, January 12 to June 18), 143rd (extraordinary, August 7 to October 16), 144th (extraordinary, November 27 to December 14)

Governors

 * Aichi Prefecture: Reiji Suzuki
 * Akita Prefecture: Sukeshiro Terata
 * Aomori Prefecture: Morio Kimura
 * Chiba Prefecture: Takeshi Numata
 * Ehime Prefecture: Sadayuki Iga
 * Fukui Prefecture: Yukio Kurita
 * Fukuoka Prefecture: Wataru Asō
 * Fukushima Prefecture: Eisaku Satō
 * Gifu Prefecture: Taku Kajiwara
 * Gunma Prefecture: Hiroyuki Kodera
 * Hiroshima Prefecture: Yūzan Fujita
 * Hokkaido: Tatsuya Hori
 * Hyogo Prefecture: Toshitami Kaihara
 * Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
 * Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
 * Iwate Prefecture: Hiroya Masuda
 * Kagawa Prefecture: Jōichi Hirai (until 4 September); Takeki Manabe (starting 5 September)
 * Kagoshima Prefecture: Tatsurō Suga
 * Kanagawa Prefecture: Hiroshi Okazaki
 * Kochi Prefecture: Daijiro Hashimoto
 * Kumamoto Prefecture: Joji Fukushima
 * Kyoto Prefecture: Teiichi Aramaki
 * Mie Prefecture: Masayasu Kitagawa
 * Miyagi Prefecture: Shirō Asano
 * Miyazaki Prefecture: Suketaka Matsukata
 * Nagano Prefecture: Gorō Yoshimura
 * Nagasaki Prefecture: Isamu Takada (until 1 March); Genjirō Kaneko (starting 2 March)
 * Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto
 * Niigata Prefecture: Ikuo Hirayama
 * Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
 * Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
 * Okinawa Prefecture: Masahide Ōta (until 10 December); Keiichi Inamine (starting 10 December)
 * Osaka Prefecture: Knock Yokoyama
 * Saga Prefecture: Isamu Imoto
 * Saitama Prefecture: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya
 * Shiga Prefecture: Minoru Inaba (until 20 July); Yoshitsugu Kunimatsu (starting 20 July)
 * Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita
 * Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
 * Tochigi Prefecture: Fumio Watanabe
 * Tokushima Prefecture: Toshio Endo
 * Tokyo: Yukio Aoshima
 * Tottori Prefecture: Yuji Nishio
 * Toyama Prefecture: Yutaka Nakaoki
 * Wakayama Prefecture: Isamu Nishiguchi
 * Yamagata Prefecture: Kazuo Takahashi
 * Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
 * Yamanashi Prefecture: Ken Amano

Events

 * February 7 – February 22: The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano.
 * March 5 – March 14: The 1998 Winter Paralympics are held in Nagano.
 * April 1: Toyota City, Fukuyama City, Kōchi City and Miyazaki City become core cities.
 * April 5: The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about ¥ 500 billion (US$3.8 billion), opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
 * May 26: Takashi Imai is inaugurated as the 9th head of the Keidanren.
 * June 22: Financial Services Agency established.
 * July 5: Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
 * July 12: Election for the House of Councillors held.
 * July 25: Masumi Hayashi poisons a curry pot at a festival in Wakayama, causing the death of two adults and two children.
 * September 3: Metal Gear Solid is first released for the PS1 in Japan.
 * September 7 1998: Serial Experiments Lain Episode 10 : LOVE  is released in [J]apan.
 * September 22 – 23: Typhoon Vivki causes damage to several cultural heritage sites in Wakayama, Nara, Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture and causing 19 deaths.
 * October 8: Japan-South Korea Joint Declaration of 1998.
 * November 13: Free solo climber Alain Robert scales the Shinjuku Center Building and is arrested on its roof.
 * November 26: Japan-China Joint Declaration On Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development.
 * December 18: Mario Party is released in Japan.

Births

 * January 5 - Marie Iitoyo, model and actress
 * January 23 - Yuto Adachi, singer and member of South Korean boy band Pentagon
 * February 8 - Rui Hachimura, basketball player
 * March 19 - Sakura Miyawaki, singer and member of South Korean girl group Le Sserafim
 * March 26 - Satoko Miyahara, figure skater
 * April 6 - Rina Katsuta, singer
 * April 10 - Airi Kinoshita, murder victim (d. 2005)
 * April 28 - Manamo Miyata, singer and member of Hinatazaka46
 * May 13 - Karen Iwata, singer and voice actress
 * May 28 - Riho Sayashi, J-pop singer
 * May 31 - Ryang Hyon-ju, North Korean, footballer
 * June 14 - Taishi Nakagawa, actor and model
 * June 19 - Suzu Hirose, model and actress
 * July 9 - Tiger Onitsuka, jazz drummer
 * July 16 - Rina Matsuno, singer (d. 2017)
 * July 17 - Shione Sawada, actress
 * July 26 - Maya Sakura, singer
 * July 27 - Risa Watanabe, idol and model
 * August 5 - Kanon Suzuki, singer
 * August 17 - Yoshinobu Yamamoto, professional baseball player
 * August 28 - Haruka Fukuhara, actress, model and singer
 * October 30 - Meimi Tamura, singer and actress
 * November 12 - Yuna Taira, actress
 * November 29 - Ayumu Hirano, snowboarder
 * December 24 - Keito Tsuna, actor
 * December 30 - Akari Uemura, pop singer

Deaths

 * January 9 – Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
 * January 21 – Yoshifumi Kondō, animator (b. 1950)
 * January 26 – Shinichi Suzuki, violinist (b. 1898)
 * January 27 – Tamio Kageyama, novelist (b. 1947)
 * January 28 – Shotaro Ishinomori, Manga artist, "Father of Henshin heroes." (b. 1938)
 * February 5 – Takahashi Chikuzan, Tsugaru-jamisen performer and composer (b. 1910)
 * March 10 – Kenkō Satoshi, Sumo wrestler (b. 1967)
 * March 13 – Kosho Uchiyama, Sōtō priest (b. 1912)
 * April 20 – Yoshio Inaba, actor (b. 1920)
 * May 2 – Matsumoto Hideto (hide), Japanese musician (b. 1964)
 * May 10 – Nekojiru, manga artist (b. 1967)
 * May 19 – Sōsuke Uno, Prime Minister (b. 1922)
 * August 3 – Reizo Koike, breaststroke swimmer (b. 1915)
 * August 28 – Hirokazu Kobayashi, aikidoka (b. 1929)
 * September 6 – Akira Kurosawa, screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1910)
 * September 27 – Narita Bryan, racehorse (b. 1991)
 * October 12 – Ineko Sata, communist and feminist author of proletarian literature (b. 1904)
 * November 1 – Silence Suzuka, racehorse (b. 1994)
 * November 5 – Momoko Kōchi, actress (b. 1932)
 * December 1 – Shōji Nakayama, actor (b. 1928)
 * December 2 – Mikio Oda, athlete (b. 1905)
 * December 30 – Keisuke Kinoshita, film director (b. 1912)