Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/February/February 17

February 17:

Events
 * 1592 - Toyotomi Hideyoshi orders up his troops for an invasion of Korea. (Traditional Japanese Date: Fifth Day of the First Month, 1592)
 * 1904 - First performance of Madame Butterfly
 * 1906 - The Bungei Kyōkai (Literary Society) is formed by Tsubouchi Shōyō and Shimamura Hōgetsu, and Ōsumi Shigenobu is appointed as its head. Three years later a drama research institute for the training of actors is formed, and in May 1911, graduates of the research institute stage their first performance of Hamlet at the Imperial Theater.
 * 1937 - A failed plot is exposed by a group of five would-be Nichiren martyrs, known as the Shinau Dan (the "Let's die Group"), who were planning to commit ritualistic suicide in front of the Imperial Palace and the Diet
 * 1944 - World War II: Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins. The battle ends in an American victory on February 22
 * 1944  - World War II: Operation Hailstone begins. U.S. naval air, surface, and submarine attack against Truk (Chuuk), Japan's main base in the central Pacific, in support of the Eniwetok invasion
 * 1970 - The Sanrizuka Boys Action Squad is formed to protest the construction of Narita Airport
 * 1972 - Japanese Red Army leader Nagata Yōko and others are arrested in Gunma Prefecture and it is discovered that they were responsible for over 14 lynchings
 * 1977 - The Mito District Court rules that the Japan Self Defense Forces are constitutional
 * 1978 - Bob Dylan visits Japan for the first time

Births
 * 1796 - Philipp Franz von Siebold (d. 1866), German physician and botanist, first European to teach Western medicine in Japan
 * 1862 - Mori Ōgai (d. 1922), author and poet
 * 1955 - Shun Sugata, actor
 * 1960 - Shunji Kosugi, wrestler
 * 1972 - Yuki, singer-songwriter
 * 1974 - Kaoru, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
 * 1975 - Michiko Kichise, actress
 * 1980 - Aya Endō, voice actress
 * 1984 - Kenta Kamakari, actor, voice actor, and singer
 * 1985 - Hiroko Sato, actress, singer, and model