Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/February/February 20

February 20:

Events
 * 668 - Prince Naka no Ōe accedes to the throne as Emperor Tenji. (Traditional Japanese Date: Third Day of the First Month, 668)
 * 1582 - Itō Mansho's entourage leaves for Rome. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-eighth Day of the First Month, 1582)
 * 1923 - The Maru Building, at the time the largest office building in Asia, was completed on this date after 25 months of construction. It was located in front of Tokyo Station in Marunouchi and was only nine stories high with one underground level. It was built at a total cost of 11 million yen. The ground floor consisted of a number of book stores and the second through the ninth floor was filled with over 350 tenants.
 * 1928 - Japan's first public election was held on this day. Voting was limited to males 25 or older.
 * 1933 - Kobayashi Takiji, author of such proletariat novels as Kani Kōsen (The Floating Crab Cannery), is arrested, tortured and brutally murdered at the Tsukiji police station.
 * 1944 – World War II: The United States takes Eniwetok Island.
 * 1968 - Korean resident of Japan Kim Hiro shoots and kills two yakuza gangsters in Shimizu and then takes 20 hostages at the Sumatakyō hot spring resort the next day. He spends the next several days using the media to complain about the treatment of Koreans in Japan until his arrest on the 24th.
 * 1977 - A record 10,710 runners participate in Tokyo's Ōme Marathon.
 * 1985 - The Council on National Language promulgates its reforms on modern kana usage.
 * 1998 – American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Births
 * 1925 - Tochinishiki Kiyotaka (d. 1990), sumo wrestler, the 44th Yokozuna
 * 1936 - Shigeo Nagashima, baseball player and coach
 * 1943 - Antonio Inoki, wrestler, mixed martial artist, and politician
 * 1950 - Ken Shimura, comedian and actor
 * 1969 - Gedo, wrestler
 * 1969  - Azusa Watanabe, actress
 * 1980 - Yuichi Nakamura, voice actor
 * 1984 - Keisuke Koide, actor

Deaths
 * 1996 - Toru Takemitsu (b. 1930), pianist, guitarist, and composer