1991 in Japan

Template:Short description Template:Year in region Events in the year 1991 in Japan. It corresponds to Heisei 3 (平成3年) in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

• Emperor: Akihito
• Prime Minister: Toshiki Kaifu (L–Aichi) until November 5, Kiichi Miyazawa
• Chief Cabinet Secretary: Misoji Sakamoto (L–Ishikawa) until November 5, Kōichi Katō (L–Yamagata)
• Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Ryōhachi Kusaba
• President of the House of Representatives: Yoshio Sakurauchi (L–Shimane)
• President of the House of Councillors: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya (L–Saitama) until October 4, Yūji Osada (L–proportional)
• Diet sessions: 120th (regular session opened in December 1990, to May 8), 121st (extraordinary, August 5 to October 4), 122nd (extraordinary, November 5 to December 21)

Governors

• Aichi Prefecture: Reiji Suzuki
• Akita Prefecture: Kikuji Sasaki
• Aomori Prefecture: Masaya Kitamura
• Chiba Prefecture: Takeshi Numata
• Ehime Prefecture: Sadayuki Iga
• Fukui Prefecture: Yukio Kurita
• Fukuoka Prefecture: Hachiji Okuda
• Fukushima Prefecture: Eisaku Satō
• Gifu Prefecture: Taku Kajiwara
• Gunma Prefecture: Ichiro Shimizu (until 12 June); Hiroyuki Kodera (starting 28 July)
• Hiroshima Prefecture: Toranosuke Takeshita
• Hokkaido: Takahiro Yokomichi
• Hyogo Prefecture: Toshitami Kaihara
• Ibaraki Prefecture: Fujio Takeuchi
• Ishikawa Prefecture: Yōichi Nakanishi
• Iwate Prefecture: Template:Interlanguage link (until 29 April); Iwao Kudō (starting 29 April)
• Kagawa Prefecture: Jōichi Hirai
• Kagoshima Prefecture: Yoshiteru Tsuchiya
• Kanagawa Prefecture: Kazuji Nagasu
• Kochi Prefecture: Chikara Nakauchi (until 6 December); Daijiro Hashimoto (starting 7 December)
• Kumamoto Prefecture: Morihiro Hosokawa (until 10 February); Joji Fukushima (starting 11 February)
• Kyoto Prefecture: Teiichi Aramaki
• Mie Prefecture: Ryōzō Tagawa
• Miyagi Prefecture: Shuntarō Honma
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Suketaka Matsukata
• Nagano Prefecture: Gorō Yoshimura
• Nagasaki Prefecture: Isamu Takada
• Nara Prefecture: Shigekiyo Ueda (until 27 November); Yoshiya Kakimoto (starting 28 November)
• Niigata Prefecture: Kiyoshi Kaneko
• Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
• Okayama Prefecture: Shiro Nagano
• Okinawa Prefecture: Masahide Ōta
• Osaka Prefecture: Sakae Kishi (until 22 April); Kazuo Nakagawa (starting 23 April)
• Saga Prefecture: Kumao Katsuki (until 22 April); Isamu Imoto (starting 23 April)
• Saitama Prefecture: Yawara Hata
• Shiga Prefecture: Minoru Inaba
• Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita
• Shizuoka Prefecture: Shigeyoshi Saitō
• Tochigi Prefecture: Fumio Watanabe
• Tokushima Prefecture: Shinzo Miki
• Tokyo: Shun'ichi Suzuki
• Tottori Prefecture: Yuji Nishio
• Toyama Prefecture: Yutaka Nakaoki
• Wakayama Prefecture: Shirō Kariya
• Yamagata Prefecture: Seiichirō Itagaki
• Yamaguchi Prefecture: Toru Hirai
• Yamanashi Prefecture: Kōmei Mochizuki (until 16 February); Ken Amano (starting 17 February)

Events

• January 1: Telephone numbers in Tokyo are expanded from 7 digits to 8 digits
• March 14: A under constructing to Hiroshima Astram Line bridge girder falling accident, kills 14, injures 9.
• April 1: Tokyo Metropolitan Government moved its offices from Marunouchi to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building in Shinjuku.
• April 26: Self-Defense Forces dispatched to assist in the Gulf War.
• May 14: Shigaraki train disaster – 42 fatalities, 614 injures in Shiga Prefecture.
• June 3: Mount Unzen in Nagasaki Prefecture saw a pyroclastic flow, resulting in 43 deaths.
• June 15: The International Olympic Committee awards the 1998 Winter Olympics to Nagano, Japan.
• June 20: Tohoku Shinkansen line is extended from Ueno Station to Tokyo Station.
• July 13: 1991 Itoman special breach of trust case, six arrested by Japanese authorities.
• July 31: Lotte Orions baseball team announces it will move to Chiba and become the Chiba Lotte Marines.
• August 5: Aerospatiale SA365N helicopter crash in Muraoka, Mikata District, Hyōgo Prefecture, 8 fatalities.
• August 14 – NTT Docomo was founded.
• September 11: USS Independence (CV-62) arrives at Yokosuka, replacing the USS Midway (CV-41) as the U.S. Navy's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier.
• September 27: Typhoon Mireille kills 45 people in Japan.
• October 3: Kaifu resigns as prime minister.
• October 20: At the Japanese Grand Prix held at the Suzuka Circuit, Ayrton Senna wins his third and last F1 Drivers' Championship.
• November 5: Miyazawa announces his first cabinet.

Births

January

• January 8: Asuka Hinoi, singer
• January 14: Kana Ichikawa, sprinter
• January 19: Yu Takahashi, model and actress

February

• February 4: Aya Ōmasa, fashion model and actress

March

• March 4: Aoi Nakamura, actor
• March 10: Kenshi Yonezu, singer-songwriter
• March 14: Michiko Kashiwabara, cross country skier
• March 14: Miu Nakamura, tarento and gravure idol
• March 15: Kii Kitano, gravure idol and actress
• March 28: Rin Asuka, actress

April

• April 8: Minami Takahashi, singer
• April 11: Erina Mano, J-pop singer
• April 11: Kenta Matsudaira, table tennis player
• April 12: Daisuke Kikuchi, footballer
• April 15: Daiki Arioka, singer
• April 16: Misato Ugaki, announcer
• April 17: Shinsaku Uesugi, FIDE master
• April 20: Yuko Shintake, artistic gymnast
• April 29: Misaki Doi, tennis player
• May 3: Narita Brian, racehorse (died 1998)

May

• May 24: Erika Umeda, singer
• May 26: Takumi Abe, football player
• May 29: Saori Hayami, voice actress and singer

June

• June 15: Rina Takeda, actress and martial artist
• June 17: Yusei Kikuchi, baseball pitcher
• June 25: Kyousuke Hamao, actor and model
• June 27: Haruka Yamazaki, voice actress and singer
• June 30: Kaho, actress

July

• July 3: Tomomi Itano, singer, actress and idol
• July 10: Atsuko Maeda, singer
• July 11: Kentaro Sakaguchi, model and actor
• July 12: Tomoki Kameda, boxer
• July 15: Yuki Kashiwagi, singer, actress and idol
• July 18: Mizuki Yamamoto, model and actress
• July 25: Miyu Nagaoka, volleyball player
• July 27: Rena Matsui, singer and idol
• July 28: Rina Aizawa, actress

August

• August 3: Kaori Kawanaka, archer
• August 16: Yūki Tokiwa, voice actor

September

• September 17: Ryo Ishikawa, golfer

October

• October 15: Sayaka Nakaya, idol
• October 16: Miori Takimoto, actress
• October 23: Princess Mako
• October 26: Riho Iida, actress and child model
• October 27: Sōta Murakami, actor and voice actor

November

• November 12: Takatoshi Abe, track and field athlete
• November 16: Tomomi Kasai, singer
• November 19: Genki Yamamoto, cyclist
• November 22: Saki Shimizu, singer
• November 26: Yoshi Tsutsugo, professional baseball player
• November 28: Mayuko Kawakita, actress and model

December

• December 3: Masahiro Usui, actor
• December 7: Dori Sakurada, actor and singer
• December 14: Mitsuki Takahata, actress and singer
• December 19: Sumire Uesaka, voice actress and singer
• December 24: Shion Kokubun, figure skater
• December 30: Kurumi Nara, tennis player

Deaths

• January 2: Hiroshi Noma, author (b. 1915)
• January 29: Yasushi Inoue, author (b. 1907)
• February 24: Shingo Kanemoto, voice actor (b. 1932)
• May 15: Shintaro Abe, politician (b. 1924)
• May 26: Kisaburo Osawa, aikido teacher (b. 1910)
• June 3: Takeshi Nagata, earth scientist (b. 1913)
• July 5: Nobuo Nakamura, actor (b. 1908)
• July 11: Hitoshi Igarashi, scholar (b. 1947)
• August 5: Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda Motor Company (b. 1906)
• August 8: Mitsuko Yoshikawa, actress (b. 1901)
• September 3: Susumu Ishii, second kaicho (Godfather) of Inagawa-kai (b. 1924)
• October 22: Hachiro Kasuga, enka singer (b. 1924)
• November 12: Keizō Hayashi, civil servant and military general (b. 1907)
• November 14: Yoshikata Yoda, screenwriter (b. 1909)
• November 23: Ken Uehara, film actor (b. 1909)
• November 27: Yō Yoshimura, voice actor (b. 1909)

Statistics

• Yen value: US$1 = ¥124.85 (December 31)

See also

• 1991 in Japanese football
• 1991 in Japanese television
• List of Japanese films of 1991