Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/February/February 8

February 8:

Events
 * 1567 - Ieyasu obtains permission from the court to change his surname from Matsudaira to Tokugawa. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-ninth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1566)
 * 1882 - The Hokkaidō Development Agency is abolished.
 * 1887 - Japan adopts the official postal mark (〒).
 * 1958 - 9,500 people come to see the first western style carnival is held in Yūrakuchō, Tokyo.
 * 1959 - The 6.1 km Kurobe Tunnel in the northern Japan Alps is completed, allowing work on the Kuroyon Power Plant to continue.
 * 1982 - 33 people are killed and 29 are injured in the Hotel New Japan fire in Akasaka, Tokyo.
 * 1983 - The average height of high school senior boys reaches 170 cm (5' 7").

Births
 * 1561 - Fujiwara Seika (d. 1619), philosopher
 * 1720 - Emperor Sakuramachi (d. 1750)
 * 1952 - Daisuke Gōri (d. 2010), actor
 * 1972 - Hiroshi Tsuchida, voice actor and actor
 * 1973 - Keith McDonald, Japanese-American baseball player
 * 1982 - Sousuke Takaoka, actor
 * 1985 - Nao Matsushita, actress and singer
 * 1988 - Nozomi Sasaki, model

Deaths
 * 2006 - Akira Ifukube (b. 1914), composer