2012 in Japan

2012
in
Japan

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Decades:	1990s • 2000s • 2010s
See also:	Other events of 2012 List of years in Japan

Events in the year 2012 in Japan.

Incumbents

January 1 – A strong (magnitude 7.0), but very deep (370 km) earthquake shakes large parts of Eastern Japan at a JMA-intensity of 4. The quake with an epicenter about 500 km South of mainland Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean near Torishima, Tokyo doesn't cause any reported serious damage or injuries, but can be felt (intensity≥1) from Southern Hokkaidō to Chūgoku.^[1]^[2]

March 31: Analogue television broadcasts in the disaster-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima are terminated completing the switchover to digital television.^[3]^[4]
May 22: Scheduled opening of Tokyo Sky Tree^[5]

National, prefectural and major municipal (designated cities) elections due or scheduled in 2012:

April and October (if necessary) – By-elections for both Houses of the national Diet
February 5 (official campaign period starts January 22);^[6] – Kyoto City mayoral election: In the traditional Communist stronghold, incumbent mayor Daisaku Kadokawa seeks re-election with support from the major parties and probably faces only one JCP-supported challenger.^[7]
around March (term ends April 15) – Kumamoto gubernatorial election, incumbent Ikuo Kabashima has announced his intention to seek re-election, the three largest parties DPJ, LDP and Kōmeitō support his bid.^[8]
in or before June (term ends June 24) – Okinawa prefectural election
in or before July (term ends July 27) – Kagoshima gubernatorial election
in or before August (term ends August 22) – Yamaguchi gubernatorial election
in or before October (term ends October 24) – Niigata gubernatorial election
in or before November (term ends November 8) – Toyama gubernatorial election
in or before November (term ends November 11) – Okayama gubernatorial election
in or before December (term ends December 8) – Tochigi gubernatorial election

January 4 – Nagakute town in the former Aichi county of Aichi becomes a city.^[9]
April 1 – Kumamoto City, the capital of Kumamoto, becomes a City designated by government ordinance.

Years in Japan (1868–present)

Meiji period (1868–1912)

1868 1869 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1877 1879 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912

Taishō period (1912–1926)

1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926

Shōwa period (1926–1989)

1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

Heisei period (1989–present)

1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

2012 in Asia

Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia People's Republic of China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine Republic of China (Taiwan) South Ossetia

Dependencies and other territories	Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau