Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/January/January 25

January 25:

Events
 * 1573 - Battle of Mikatagahara; Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
 * 1660 - The first bridge to span the Sumida River in Tokyo, the Ryōgoku Bridge, is built to give people a means of escape from fires. (Traditional Japanese Date: Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1659)
 * 1683 - Yaoya Oshichi sets fire to her home in the hopes of being able to meet a young priest with whom she fell in love while seeking shelter from a previous fire. The fire destroyed a large section of Edo (present day Tokyo). Oshichi was later caught and punished for her crime by being burned at the stake. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-eighth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1682)
 * 1879 - Japan's popular daily, Asahi Shimbun, begins printing.
 * 1936 - Yokoyama Ryūichi's Edokko Kenchan, a precursor to the popular comic Fukuchan, makes its first appearance in the Asahi Shimbun.
 * 1970 - The director of Godzilla, Tsuburaya Eiji of Toho Studios, dies.
 * 1979 - The 22.23 kilometer Daishimizu tunnel, connecting Minakami-machi, Gunma Prefecture and Yuzawa-machi, Niigata Prefecture, is completed.

Births
 * 1858 - Mikimoto Kōkichi (d. 1954), businessman
 * 1885 - Kitahara Hakushū (d. 1942), poet and author
 * 1900 - Yōjirō Ishizaka (d. 1986), author and educator
 * 1938 - Shotaro Ishinomori (d. 1998), author and illustrator
 * 1938 - Leiji Matsumoto, author, illustrator, and animator
 * 1942 - Kenichi Shinoda, mobster
 * 1944 - Tōru Emori, actor, voice actor, and director
 * 1972 - Shinji Takehara, boxer
 * 1982 - Sho Sakurai, singer-songwriter and actor
 * 1988 - Ryota Ozawa, actor
 * 1989 - Mikako Tabe, actress and singer
 * 1992 - Mayuko Arisue, model, actress, and entertainer

Deaths
 * 1949 - Makino Nobuaki (b. 1861), politician, 15th Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs
 * 1957 - Ichizō Kobayashi (b. 1873), businessman, founded Hankyu Hanshin Holdings
 * 1957  - Kiyoshi Shiga (b. 1871), physician and bacteriologist
 * 1970 - Eiji Tsuburaya (b. 1901), director and producer