Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/May/May 21

May 21:

Events
 * 1936 - Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her handbag. Her story soon becomes one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
 * 2010 - JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, launches the solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS aboard an H-IIA rocket. The vessel would make a Venus flyby late in the year.

Births
 * 1837 - Itagaki Taisuke (d. 1919), soldier and politician
 * 1969 - Masayo Kurata, voice actress and singer
 * 1981 - Kaori Shimizu, voice actress and singer
 * 1998 - Koki Ogawa, actor and entertainer