1997 in Japan

Decades:	1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s; 2010s;
See also:	Other events of 1997; History of Japan • Timeline • Years

Events in the year 1997 in Japan. It corresponds to the year Heisei 9 (平成9年) in the Japanese calendar.

Incumbents

Emperor: Akihito^[1]
Prime Minister: Ryutaro Hashimoto (L–Okayama)
Chief Cabinet Secretary: Seiroku Kajiyama (L–Ibaraki) until September 11, Kanezō Muraoka (L–Akita)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Toru Miyoshi until October 30, Shigeru Yamaguchi from October 31
President of the House of Representatives: Sōichirō Itō (L–Miyagi)
President of the House of Councillors: Jūrō Saitō (L–Mie)
Diet sessions: 140th (regular, January 20 to June 18), 141st (extraordinary, September 29 to December 12)

Governors

Aichi Prefecture: Reiji Suzuki
Akita Prefecture: Kikuji Sasaki (until 31 March); Sukeshiro Terata (starting 23 April)
Aomori Prefecture: Takeshi Numata
Chiba Prefecture: Akiko Dōmoto
Ehime Prefecture: Sadayuki Iga
Fukui Prefecture: Yukio Kurita
Fukuoka Prefecture: Wataru Asō
Fukushima Prefecture: Eisaku Satō
Gifu Prefecture: Taku Kajiwara
Gunma Prefecture: Hiroyuki Kodera
Hiroshima Prefecture: Yūzan Fujita
Hokkaido: Tatsuya Hori
Hyogo Prefecture: Toshitami Kaihara
Ibaraki Prefecture: Masaru Hashimoto
Ishikawa Prefecture: Masanori Tanimoto
Iwate Prefecture: Hiroya Masuda
Kagawa Prefecture: Jōichi Hirai
Kagoshima Prefecture: Tatsurō Suga
Kanagawa Prefecture: Hiroshi Okazaki
Kochi Prefecture: Daijiro Hashimoto
Kumamoto Prefecture: Joji Fukushima
Kyoto Prefecture: Teiichi Aramaki
Mie Prefecture: Masayasu Kitagawa
Miyagi Prefecture: Shirō Asano
Miyazaki Prefecture: Suketaka Matsukata
Nagano Prefecture: Gorō Yoshimura
Nagasaki Prefecture: Isamu Takada
Nara Prefecture: Yoshiya Kakimoto
Niigata Prefecture: Ikuo Hirayama
Oita Prefecture: Morihiko Hiramatsu
Okayama Prefecture: Masahiro Ishii
Okinawa Prefecture: Masahide Ōta
Osaka Prefecture: Knock Yokoyama
Saga Prefecture: Isamu Imoto
Saitama Prefecture: Yoshihiko Tsuchiya
Shiga Prefecture: Minoru Inaba
Shiname Prefecture: Nobuyoshi Sumita
Shizuoka Prefecture: Yoshinobu Ishikawa
Tochigi Prefecture: Fumio Watanabe
Tokushima Prefecture: Toshio Endo
Tokyo: Yukio Aoshima
Tottori Prefecture: Yuji Nishio
Toyama Prefecture: Yutaka Nakaoki
Wakayama Prefecture: Isamu Nishiguchi
Yamagata Prefecture: Kazuo Takahashi
Yamaguchi Prefecture: Sekinari Nii
Yamanashi Prefecture: Ken Amano

Events

January 2 – Oil spill in Sea of Japan near the Oki Islands from the Russian crude oil tanker, Nakhodka.^[2]^[3]
February 1 – 1997 Aisin fire
February 7 – MDM Corporation, as predecessor for Rakuten, founded in Tokyo.^{[page needed]}
March 1 – Osaka Dome, a baseball stadium in Osaka, is completed.
April 1 – The consumption tax rate is raised from 3 to 5%.
May 8 – The Japanese Diet passes the Ainu Culture Law and repeals the Ainu Protection Act.
May 30 – Nippon Kaigi is organized.
July 10 – Debris blown by heavy rain in Harihara, Izumi, Kagoshima, kills 21, injures 13.^[4]
July 12 – Hayao Miyazaki's anime film Princess Mononoke is released in cinemas.
October 1 – Nagano Shinkansen open between Takasaki to Nagano, with Tokyo to Nagano direct high-speed rail train start.
October 11 – The mixed martial arts organization PRIDE Fighting Championships holds its inaugural event at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. In the main event Rickson Gracie defeats Nobuhiko Takada by armbar.
November – Financial institutions bankruptcy is linked, include Yamaichi Securities, Hokkaido Takushoku Bank, Sanyo securities and Tokuyo City Bank.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]
December 11 – Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties held in Kyoto. As a result of the meeting, the Kyoto Protocol to impose greenhouse gas emission reduction targets was adopted.^[9]^[10]
December 16 – "Dennō Senshi Porygon", an episode of the Pokémon TV series, is aired in Japan, inducing seizures in hundreds of Japanese children.^[11]
December 18 – Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line opens.^[12]
The Toyota Prius, the first hybrid vehicle to go into full production, is unveiled in Japan on October 24, and goes on sale in Japan on December 9. It comes to U.S. showrooms on July 11, 2000.^[13]

Births

January 7 – Ayumi Ishida, singer
January 10 – Ayuri Konno, actress
January 22 – Erika Ikuta, actress
February 1 – Yūki Takahashi, professional baseball pitcher
February 4 – Ayami Nakajō, actress and model
February 23 – Shiena Nishizawa, singer
March 4 – Daoko, singer
March 7 – Miki Honoka, actress
March 8 – Jurina Matsui, singer
March 24 – Mina, singer and member of K-pop girl group Twice
April 9 – Haruna Suzuki, figure skater
April 27 – Sayuki Takagi, singer
May 7 – Irori Maeda, singer
May 20 – Kaoru Mitoma, footballer
June 4
- Riho, professional wrestler
- Kana Nakanishi, singer
June 6 – Akane Yamaguchi, badminton player^{[citation needed]}
June 14 – Fujii Kaze, singer-songwriter
July 7 – Erina Ikuta, singer
July 10 – Rena Katō, singer
August 10 – Sara Takatsuki, actress, model and singer
September 3 – Hana Kimura, professional wrestler (d. 2020)
September 6 – Tsukushi, professional wrestler
October 14 – Miru Shiroma, singer and model
October 16 – Naomi Osaka, tennis player
November 14 – Ibuki Kido, actress
November 20 – Erii Yamazaki, voice actress
November 23 – Akari Takeuchi, singer
December 17 – Shoma Uno, figure skater
December 20 – Suzuka Nakamoto, singer (Babymetal)

Deaths

February 17 – Ichimaru, Japanese recording artist and geisha (b. 1906)
March 10 – Yorozuya Kinnosuke, actor (b. 1932)
April 4 – Haruko Sugimura, actress (b. 1909)
May 9 – Kazumi Kawai, actress (b. 1964)
June 21 – Shintaro Katsu, actor (b. 1931)
July 23 – Chūhei Nambu, athlete (b. 1904)
August 1 – Norio Nagayama, spree killer and novelist (b. 1949)
August 28 – Masaru Takumi, Japanese yakuza lord (b. 1936)
September 30 – Nobuo Fujita, conducted only wartime aircraft-dropped bombing on continental United States of America (b. 1911)
October 4 – Gunpei Yokoi, creator of Game Boy and Game & Watch handheld systems (b. 1941)
November 18 – Un'ichi Hiratsuka, print-maker (b. 1895)
December 19 – Masaru Ibuka, electronics industrialist, co-founder of Sony (b. 1908)
December 20 – Juzo Itami, film director (b. 1933)
December 24 – Toshiro Mifune, actor (b. 1920)