Portal:Japan/Anniversaries/January/January 3

1087 - Retired Emperor Shirakawa initiates cloistered rule. (Traditional Japanese Date: Twenty-sixth Day of the Eleventh Month, 1086)
1721 - The Love Suicides at Amijima (心中天網島, Shinjūten no Amijima) is performed for the first time at the Takemoto Theater. (Traditional Japanese Date: Sixth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1720)
1868 - The Chōshū and Satsuma clans proclaim a restoration of ruling power to the emperor -- the start of the new Meiji government. (Traditional Japanese Date: Ninth Day of the Twelfth Month, 1867)
1938 - Actress Okada Yoshiko and Actor Sugimoto Ryōkichi defect to the Soviet Union.
1951 - The Kōhaku Uta Gassen holds its first broadcast. The Kōhaku Uta Gassen is a singing competition between female celebrity singers, representing the red team, and male celebrity singers, representing the white team. Although it is now a well known television program that is broadcast every New Year's Eve, it actually began as a 50-minute radio program that was first broadcast on January 3, 1951. The television version began on December 31, 1953.
1972 - Japan and the United States reach a trade agreement on textiles.