Events
- 1201 - Japan's top female poet, Shokushinai Shinnō, dies. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-fifth Day of the First Month, 1201)
- 1891 - The Tokyo Clearing House is established for the exchange of bank drafts.
- 1911 - The Imperial Theater is completed, but is later lost to fire during the Great Kanto earthquake.
- 1919 - The March First Movement is held -- a display of Korean protest against Japanese occupation.
- 1932 - Japan announces the establishment of the Manchukuo puppet state in Manchuria.
- 1938 - Taxis in Kyoto introduce the fare meter, which spreads to the rest of the country beginning in November of the same year.
- 1939 – Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump exploded at Hirakata, Osaka, killing 94.
- 1941 - The National School Proclamation is issued. Beginning on April 1, 1941, all former elementary schools become national schools, and the period of compulsory education is extended to include 6 years of elementary school and 2 years of high school.
- 1954 - Tuna fishing boat No. 5 Fukuryūmaru is exposed to heavy doses of radiation and "ashes of death" from the experimental detonation of a hydrogen bomb by Americans on the Bikini Atoll.
- 1962 - Takashimaya department store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo opens the first vertical parking garage.
- 1988 - Guilty verdicts are handed down against the president and other executives of Chisso Corporation in connection with the severe mercury poisoning (known as Minamata disease, after the region where most victims are from).
Births
- 1889 - Tetsuro Watsuji (d. 1960), historian and philosopher
- 1892 - Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (d. 1927), author
- 1895 - Ogura Yuki (d. 2000), painter
- 1943 - Cha Katō, comedian and actor
- 1943 - Akinori Nakayama, gymnast and coach
- 1958 - Chosei Komatsu, Japanese-American conductor
- 1963 - Mayo Kawasaki, actor and singer
- 1970 - Miho Nakayama, singer, actress, and model
- 1978 - Sakura Nogawa, voice actress
- 1986 - Ayumu Goromaru, rugby union player
- 1993 - Syuusuke Saito, actor and singer