2001 in Japan

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Incumbents

Emperor: Akihito
Prime Minister: Yoshiro Mori (L–Ishikawa) until April 26, Junichiro Koizumi (L–Kanagawa)
Chief Cabinet Secretary: Yasuo Fukuda (L–Gunma)
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Shigeru Yamaguchi
President of the House of Representatives: Tamisuke Watanuki (L–Toyama)
President of the House of Councillors: Yutaka Inoue (L–Chiba), reelected August 7
Diet sessions: 151st (regular, January 31 to June 29), 152nd (extraordinary, August 7 to August 10), 153rd (extraordinary, September 27 to December 7)

Junichiro Koizumi became prime minister in April.

January 6: Nurse Daisuke Mori arrested for an attempted murder of 11-year-old girl.^[1]
January 26: A JR yamanote line train coming into Shin-Ōkubo Station hits and kills a man who fell off the platform and two others who jumped onto the rails to rescue him.
January 31: 2001 Japan Airlines mid-air incident

February 9: The fishing boat Ehime Maru is struck by a U.S. submarine and sunk.

March 24: 2001 Geiyo earthquake, kill two people with injure 288 in Hiroshima and Ehime.
March 31: Universal Studios Japan opens in Osaka.

April 1: Sakura Bank and Sumitomo Bank merge to form Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
April 6: Japanese government institutes new overtime regulations.
April 24: Junichiro Koizumi defeats Ryutaro Hashimoto in LDP polls to become prime minister.
April 26: Koizumi announces his first cabinet, with Makiko Tanaka as foreign minister and Heizo Takenaka as Minister of State for the Economy.

July 13: Osaka is removed on the first ballot for the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

July 20: Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away premieres; it becomes the first anime film to win an Academy Award.
July 29: Japanese House of Councillors election, 2001.

September 1: Myojo 56 building fire kills 44.
September 4: Tokyo DisneySea opens.
September 11: The first case of Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Japan is discovered.
September 12: In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, the Nikkei 225 index drops below 10,000 for the first time since 1984.

October 18: The East Japan Railway Company introduces the Suica smart card service to the Tokyo area.

December 1: Princess Aiko, potential heiress to the Imperial throne, is born.
December 9: Television performer Masashi Tashiro is arrested for peeping in a male bath-house.
December 21: TIME removes Masashi Tashiro from its "Person of the Year" poll after 2channel users vote the "bad boy" performer into first place.

February 4: Fūka Haruna, actress.
May 28: Rikako Sasaki, singer.
August 4: Seishiro Kato, actor.
October 1: Pankun, chimpanzee.
December 1: Princess Aiko, the daughter and only child of Crown Prince Naruhito, heir apparent to the Japanese throne, and Crown Princess Masako.

Years in Japan (1868–present)

Meiji period (1868–1912)

1868 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 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 2013 2014 2015

2001 in Asia

Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Burma (Myanmar) Cambodia 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 South Ossetia Taiwan

Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau