Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/January/January 8

January 8:

Events
 * 1989 - Beginning of Heisei era.

Births
 * 1556 - Uesugi Kagekatsu (d. 1623), daimyo
 * 1907 - Keizō Hayashi (d. 1991), civil servant and military official
 * 1926 - Hanae Mori, fashion designer
 * 1941 - Yoshinori Watanabe (d. 2012), mobster
 * 1942 - Junichiro Koizumi, politician, 56th Prime Minister of Japan
 * 1942  - Junko Maya, actress
 * 1961 - Kazuki Takahashi, manga writer and artist
 * 1968 - Bull Nakano, wrestler and golfer
 * 1975 - Reiko Chiba, actress, voice actress, model, and singer
 * 1986 - Maria Ozawa, Japanese-Canadian porn actress and model
 * 1991 - Asuka Hinoi, singer

Deaths
 * 2007 - Iwao Takamoto (b. 1925), Japanese-American animator, director, and producer

Film and television
 * 2001 - Hero begins airing on Fuji Television, starring Takuya Kimura
 * 2012 - Penance begins airing on WOWOW, starring Kyōko Koizumi, Yū Aoi, Eiko Koike, Sakura Ando, and Chizuru Ikewaki