Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/February/February 18

February 18:

Events
 * 661 - Empress Saimei travels to the Dōgo Hot Springs. (Traditional Japanese Date: Fourteenth Day of the First Month, 661)
 * 1772 - Tanuma Okitsugu is appointed Elder Councilor. (Traditional Japanese Date: Fifteenth Day of the First Month, 1772)
 * 1904 - An anti-smoking campaign starts and smoking is prohibited on Tokyo's city trains.
 * 1935 - Minobe Tatsukichi's theory that the emperor is merely a legal figure that exercises power on behalf of the nation in whom sovereignty resides comes under attack in the upper house.
 * 1938 - The Ministry of the Interior issues an order that prohibits the publication, scheduled for the next day, of the March issue of Chūō Kōron. Publication is prohibited because of its inclusion of a novel written by Ishikawa Tatsuzō, based on his experiences in Shanghai, entitled "Living Soldier". The story was considered anti-military.
 * 1950 - Sapporo's first annual Snow Festival takes place.

Births
 * 1530 - Uesugi Kenshin (d. 1578), daimyo
 * 1933 - Yoko Ono, Japanese-American singer-songwriter
 * 1961 - Hironobu Kageyama, singer
 * 1966 - Tetsushi Tanaka, actor
 * 1986 - Sakura Ando, actress