Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/April/April 1

April 1:

Events
 * 1867 - Japan participates in its first world expo, the Paris World Expo. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-seventh Day of the Second Month, 1867)
 * 1880 - The Mitsubishi Foreign Exchange, the precursor to the Bank of Mitsubishi, is established.
 * 1889 - Fukuoka City is established. The population at the time was a mere 50,847 people. The following year a proposal to change the name to Hakata City failed to pass by only one vote.
 * 1914 - The Takarazuka Revue perform for the first time.
 * 1929 - The Kotobukiya company, the predecessor to Suntory, begins selling the first whisky distilled in Japan.
 * 1930 - Japan's first underground shopping center is opened in Ueno.
 * 1940 - Income tax withholding begins.
 * 1947 - The 6-3 system of education (6 years of compulsory grade school followed by 3 years of compulsory junior high school) is implemented. The goal of the new system was to achieve equality of education for all. A high school system was implemented the following year and a university system was implemented in 1949.
 * 1957 - A law against prostitution is implemented.
 * 1964 - Restrictions on overseas tourism are lifted.
 * 1982 - The government begins minting 500 yen coins.
 * 1985 - NTT and Japan Tobacco are established.
 * 1987 - Japanese National Railways is split up and privatized.
 * 1989 - Japan's first consumption tax is implemented. The tax started at 3% and was raised to 5% in 1997.
 * 1989  - Sendai becomes the eleventh city designated by government ordinance.
 * 1991 - Participation in the national pension scheme becomes compulsory for everyone between the ages of 20 and 60.
 * 2001 - An electronic consumer goods recycling law is implemented.

Births
 * 1220 - Emperor Go-Saga (d. 1272)
 * 1920 - Toshiro Mifune (d. 1997), Chinese-Japanese actor and producer
 * 1944 - Isao Kuraishi, actor
 * 1971 - Shinji Nakano, race car driver
 * 1976 - Yuka Yoshida, tennis player
 * 1980 - Yūko Takeuchi, actress
 * 1986 - Shunichi Miyamoto, voice actor and singer
 * 1989 - Yumi Sugimoto, model, actress, and singer
 * 1993 - Keito Okamoto, singer

Film and television
 * 1980 - Shadow Warriors begins airing on Fuji Television and Kansai Telecasting Corporation, starring Sonny Chiba
 * 2013 - Amachan begins airing on NHK, starring Rena Nōnen
 * 2015 - April Fools, a comedy drama suspense film starring Erika Toda and Tori Matsuzaka