Events
- 1205 - The New Collection of Ancient and Modern Waka is completed. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-sixth Day of the Third Month, 1205)
- 1906 - Japan initiates express train service with an express train from Shimbashi to Kobe. The trip took thirteen hours and 40 minutes.
- 1949 - Japan's first off-track betting facility opens in Kōrakuen, Tokyo.
- 1955 - The Mount Bota mine in Sasebo, Nagasaki collapses, killing 68.
- 1978 - Japan holds its first women's marathon at Lake Tama Field. Forty-nine women participated and 100,000 spectators turned out to watch.
- 1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev makes his first visit to Japan as the leader of the Soviet Union.
Births
- 1874 - Jōtarō Watanabe (d. 1936), general in the Imperial Japanese Army and victim of the February 26 Incident
- 1948 - Kazuyuki Sogabe (d. 2006), voice actor and guitarist
- 1971 - Seigo Yamamoto, race car driver
- 1973 - Hirofumi Nojima, voice actor
- 1973 - Bonnie Pink, singer-songwriter
- 1986 - Shinji Okazaki, footballer
- 1988 - Alisa Durbrow, model, actress, and singer
- 1991 - Yurie Midori, actress and model
Deaths
- 1972 - Yasunari Kawabata (b. 1899), Nobel Prize winning short story writer and novelist
Film and television
- 1997 - Gift begins airing on Fuji Television, starring Takuya Kimura and Shigeru Muroi
- 2007 - Operation Love begins airing on Fuji Television, starring Tomohisa Yamashita and Masami Nagasawa
- 2015 - I'm Home begins airing on TV Asahi, starring Takuya Kimura and Aya Ueto
Holidays, observances, and anniversaries
- 1882 - Ōkuma Shigenobu forms the Progressive Party