Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/January/January 26

January 26:

Events
 * 1700 - The Mw 8.7–9.2 Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese tsunami records.
 * 1870 - The first public utility, Denshin, is established. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-fifth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1869)
 * 1882 - Painter Georges Ferdinand Bigot arrives in Japan.
 * 1886 - The Hokkaidō Agency opens, with its main office in Sapporo and branch offices in Hakodate and Nemuro.
 * 1924 - The future Emperor Shōwa marries Princess Kuninomiya Nagako.
 * 1948 - Twelve employees of the Shiina branch of the Teikoku Bank (a precursor to the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation) die from arsenic poisoning. Hirasawa Sadamichi is arrested later that year and sentenced to death, but the sentence was never carried out because of problems with his conviction. He later died in prison of natural causes in May 1987.
 * 1949 - The main hall of Hōryūji burns down.
 * 1958 - Japanese ferry Nankai Maru capsizes off southern Awaji Island, 167 killed.
 * 1979 - Umekawa Akiyoshi, wielding a hunting rifle, kills 2 policemen and 2 employees and takes 40 hostages at the Kitabatake branch of Mitsubishi Bank (in Osaka). He is shot and killed 2 days later.
 * 1985 - Takenaka Masahisa, the boss of the Yamaguchi-gumi (a yakuza group), is shot. He dies the next day.
 * 1992 - Takanohana becomes the youngest sumo wrestler to ever win a championship.

Births
 * 1497 - Emperor Go-Nara (d. 1557)
 * 1902 - Jokichi Ikarashi (d. 2013), super-centenarian
 * 1921 - Akio Morita (d. 1999), businessman, co-founded Sony
 * 1966 - Kazushige Nagashima, actor, sportscaster, and baseball player
 * 1967 - Toshiyuki Morikawa, voice actor
 * 1973 - Mayu Shinjo, author and illustrator
 * 1976 - hitomi, singer-songwriter and actress
 * 1978 - Atsuko Kurusu, actress
 * 1980 - Sanae Kobayashi, voice actress
 * 1982 - Gō Ayano, actor
 * 1982  - Yuki Koyanagi, singer
 * 1982  - Yasushi Tsujimoto, wrestler
 * 1986 - Matt Heafy, Japanese-American singer-songwriter and guitarist
 * 1988 - Yukiyo Mine, softball player
 * 1989 - Yukari Kabutomushi, entertainer

Deaths
 * 1998 - Shinichi Suzuki (b. 1898), violinist and educator

Film and television
 * 2010 - Nakanai to Kimeta Hi begins airing on Fuji Television, starring Nana Eikura
 * 2013 - Strawberry Night, a film starring Yūko Takeuchi, Takao Osawa, and Hidetoshi Nishijima