1998 in Japan

Decades:	1970s; 1980s; 1990s; 2000s; 2010s;
See also:	Other events of 1998; History of Japan • Timeline • Years

Events in the year 1998 in Japan.

Incumbents

February 7–February 22 - The 1998 Winter Olympics are held in Nagano.
April 5 - The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge linking Shikoku with Honshū and costing about ¥ 500 billion, opens to traffic, becoming the largest suspension bridge in the world.
July 5 - Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as an outer space-exploring nation.
July 25 - Masumi Hayashi poisons a curry poy at a festival in Wakayama causing the death of two adults and two children.
October 8 - Japan-South Korea Joint Declaration of 1998
November 26 - Japan-China Joint Declaration On Building a Partnership of Friendship and Cooperation for Peace and Development

January 9 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1918)
January 27 - Tamio Kageyama, novelist (b. 1947)
January 28 - Shotaro Ishinomori, Manga artist, "Father of Henshin heroes." (b. 1938)
March 10 - Kenkō Satoshi, Sumo wrestler (b. 1967)
March 13 - Kosho Uchiyama, Sōtō priest (b. 1912)
April 20 - Yoshio Inaba, actor (b. 1920)
May 2 - Matsumoto Hideto (hide), Japanese musician (b. 1964)
May 19 - Sosuke Uno, Prime Minister (b. 1922)
August 3 - Reizo Koike, breaststroke swimmer (b. 1915)
August 28 - Hirokazu Kobayashi, aikidoka (b. 1929)
September 6 - Akira Kurosawa, screenwriter, producer, and director (b. 1910)
September 27 - Narita Bryan, racehorse (b. 1991)
October 12 - Ineko Sata, communist and feminist author of proletarian literature (b. 1904)
November 5 - Momoko Kōchi, actress (b. 1932)
November 18 - Tase Matsunaga, supercentenarian (b. 1884)
December 1 - Shōji Nakayama, actor (b. 1928)
December 2 - Mikio Oda, athlete (b. 1905)