Language/Japanese/Culture/Japan-Timeline
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Historical Timeline for Japan - A chronology of key events
Japan Timeline[edit | edit source]
Paleolithic period (before 14000 BC)[edit | edit source] | |
Jōmon period (14000 BC - 1000 BC)[edit | edit source]corded pattern pottery. Hunting and gathering. | |
Yayoi period (400 BC - 300)[edit | edit source]
introduction of rice cultivation. Bronze and iron from China and Korea. | |
Kofun period (300-538)[edit | edit source] | |
c. 400 | The war of the clans: the Yamato clan takes power around 400. The first leaders are the ancestors of the lineage of the imperial court. |
538 | Introduction of Buddhism by China and Korea. |
Asuka period (538-710)[edit | edit source] | |
593-622 | Regent Shōtoku Taishi promotes Buddhism as a state religion and takes a stand in relation to China. |
630 | First embassy in China. |
645 | Coup d'Etat and major reforms of Taika. |
Nara period (710-794)[edit | edit source] | |
710 | The capital is established in Nara. |
712 | Writing of the Kojiki, the oldest chronicle in Japan. |
Heian period (794-1185)[edit | edit source] | |
794 | The capital becomes Heian-kyō (current Kyōto). |
c. 800 | Invention of Kana. |
858-1160 | Dominance of the Fujiwara family. |
1180-1185 | Genpei War. Minamoto clan victory; Kamakura shogunate established |
Kamakura period (1185-1333)[edit | edit source] | |
1185 | The Taira clan loses the battle of Dan no Ura. Yoritomo Minamoto established his bakufu (stronghold) in Kamakura. |
1191 | The monk Eisei teaches Zen. |
1192 | Yoritomo Minamoto is appointed shōgun (general-in-chief of the armies). |
1219 | Assassination of the last shōgun Minamoto. Seizure of power by the Hōjō, descendants of the Taira clan. |
1274 | First Mongolian attack repelled at Kyūshū thanks to a typhoon, the god wind or kamikaze. |
1332 | Takauji Ashikaga reinstates power in Kyoto in the name of Emperor Go-Daïgo. The Hōjō family is exterminated. New dynasty of Shōgun Ashikaga. |
Kenmu Restoration (1333-1336)[edit | edit source] | |
Muromachi period (1336-1573)[edit | edit source] | |
1333-1392 | Period of the southern and northern courts. Civil wars between the northern court, installed in Kyōto, and the southern court, exiled in Yamato. |
1467 | Construction begins on Edo Castle, where the eastern garden of the Tokyo Imperial Palace now stands. |
1467-1477 | War of Ōnin. Dismantling of central power. Appearance of the daimyō, the provincial lords. |
1524 | Hōjō Ujitsuna invests Edo Castle, confirming the supremacy of his clan over the Uesugi. |
1543 | Arrival of the Portuguese at Tanegashima (firearms and Christianity). |
1571 | The port of Nagasaki opens to European trade. |
Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573-1603)[edit | edit source] | |
1575 | Oda Nobunaga uses firearms against the Takeda cavalry. |
1587 | Ban on Christianity. |
1590 | Tokugawa Ieyasu captures Edo Castle. |
1592-1598 | Imjin War |
1598 | Death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. |
1600 | Battle of Sekigahara, decisive Tokugawa victory; beginning of Tokugawa shogunate. |
Edo period (1603-1868)[edit | edit source] | |
1603 | Tokugawa becomes shōgun and rules Japan from Edo. The city then experienced rapid development. |
1633 | Sakoku begins. |
1637 | The construction of Edo Castle, with the addition of a tower, is completed. |
1786 | Great fire in Edo. |
1853 | Arrival of Commodore Perry's ships in Uraga (Edo Bay). Sakoku ends. |
1855 | An earthquake causes many deaths and damage in Edo. |
1858 | Commercial treaties with the United States, Great Britain, Russia and France. Concessions granted to foreigners. Ii Naosuke, in favor of opening up Japan to the world, is assassinated by a group of samurai. |
1868-1869 | Boshin War. End of the Tokugawa shōgunate. Yoshinobu Tokugawa, the last shōgun in Japanese history, abdicated and left Edo the following year after a defeat against regional lords favorable to the return of the emperor. |
Meiji period (1868-1912)[edit | edit source] | |
1868 | Abolition of the shōgunat; creation of the press. Beginning of the Meiji restoration. Emperor Meiji decides to rename Edo in Tōkyō (note: capital of the East). |
1869 | Emperor Meiji moves to Tokyo, and makes the city's castle the Imperial Palace. This done, the capital was never "officially" transferred from Kyōto to Tōkyō. |
1871 | A new administrative system is decreed, putting an end to the feudal organization called han. |
1872 | The prefecture of Tokyo expands and now includes what is delimited as being the 23 districts of the Japanese capital. A first train line is built over several tens of kilometers. |
1879 | Ryūkyū Annexation |
1885 | The first section of what is known today as the Yamanote train line opens to the public, between Akabane and Shinagawa stations. Shibuya and Shinjuku stations are then built. |
1894-1895 | Sino-Japanese War. Victory for Japan. Treaty of Shimonoseki: Japan receives Formosa (current Taiwan), the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaodong peninsulas. |
1904-1905 | Russo-Japanese War. The Russian fleet is wiped out by Admiral Tōgō, in the Tsushima Strait (between Japan and Korea). The Treaty of Portsmouth gives Japan control of the railroad in Manchuria, the southern half of the Sakhalin Islands and the Guandong. |
1910 | Annexation of Korea. |
1912 | Death of Emperor Meiji. His son succeeds him. |
Taishō period (1912-1925)[edit | edit source] | |
1914 | First World War. Japan declares war on Germany. |
1918 | Rice riots. 200,000 peasants revolt. Strikes in mines and shipyards. |
1919 | Treaty of Versailles. Japan receives German possessions from the Pacific north of the equator. |
1920 | Japan joins the League of Nations (SDN). |
1923 | Earthquake in Tokyo and Yokohama: 150,000 dead. |
Shōwa period (1926-1989)[edit | edit source] | |
1925 | Hiro-Hito accedes to the throne. |
1927 | The first metro (Ginza line) is launched. |
1933 | Japan leaves the League of Nations. Manchuria becomes a Japanese state (Manchukuo). |
1937 | Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Second Sino-Japanese War begins. |
1940 | Tripartite pact with Germany and Italy (the Axis). |
1941 | Occupation of Indochina. The United States declares the embargo on oil. Pearl Harbor attack. The United States enters the war. |
1942 | Battle of Midway, start of the Japanese withdrawal. Tokyo suffered the military assault "Doolittle", the first launched by the Americans. |
1945 | Bombing of Tokyo
Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9.
Declaration of war by the Soviet Union on August 8. Imperial rescript ending the war on August 15. Treaty of Potsdam on September 2. |
1945-1952 | American occupation. Constitution of 1946. Constitutional monarchy. The emperor renounces his divine ancestry. San Francisco Peace Treaty ending the American occupation (September 1951). |
1954 | Creation of the self-defense forces. Japanese-American mutual defense assistance pact. |
1964 | Tokyo and Japan host the Olympic Games for the first time in their history. |
1967 | Japanese GDP becomes the world's third gross national product after the United States and the USSR. |
1986 | Beginning of what economic analysts call the "bubble". The real estate sector is at an all-time high. |
1989 | Death of the emperor Hiro-Hito and end of the Shōwa era. |
Heisei period (1989-2019)[edit | edit source] | |
1989 | Akihito, the 125th emperor, ascends the throne. |
1990 | The "bubble" bursts. Beginning of crisis. |
1993 | First defeat of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLD) since 1954. |
1995 | Kobe earthquake: more than 6,000 dead. Aum sect sarin gas attack in the Tokyo metro. |
1998 | Keizō Obuchi is appointed Prime Minister. Japan is experiencing a very sharp increase in unemployment: 3,500,000 unemployed. |
2000 | Keizō Obuchi suddenly dies. First North Korea-South Korea summit. |
2002 | Two Japanese receive the Nobel Prize in physics. The Tepco company is accused of having concealed serious dysfunctions: many nuclear units are shut down. In 2002, Japan jointly organized the FIFA World Cup with South Korea. |
2003 | Two Japanese diplomats victims of an attack in Iraq. The Japanese law on the state of threat of the country is adopted. |
2005 | The landslide victory of the Liberal Democratic Party in the senatorial elections. Aichi Universal Exhibition from March to December. Growing deterioration of Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean (South Korea) relations. Several anti-Japanese riots break out in |
2006 | Birth of the new Abe cabinet, succeeding Koizumi in September. Nuclear tests carried out by North Korea in October. Birth of Hisahito d'Akishino, first heir to the imperial family. |
2007 | Shinzō Abe resigns in September from his post as Prime Minister. His unpopularity is right about him. He succeeded Yasuo Fukuda who in turn resigned a year later. |
2008-2009 | Tarō Asō takes over the management of the 92nd ministerial cabinet. Japan is experiencing its deepest economic recession in 35 years. |
2009 | In power almost continuously since 1954, the PLD loses the elections to the Democratic Party of Japan (PDJ). Yukio Hatoyama becomes Prime Minister, but resigns in June 2010 to make way for Naoto Kan, who himself resigned in September 2011 in favor of Yosh |
2010 | China officially becomes the world's second economic power, ahead of Japan. |
2011 | A gigantic tsunami ravages the coast of northeastern Honshu, causing the death of tens of thousands of people, billions of damage, and a nuclear crisis of considerable magnitude. |
2012 | Serious diplomatic crisis with China over the Senkaku (or Diaoyu) islands following Tokyo's decision to nationalize these islands. |
2012 | In the legislative elections in December, a landslide victory for the PLD, which regains power. Shinzō Abe becomes Prime Minister again. |
2013 | Tokyo wins the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. In December, the National Security Council meets for the first time to discuss the national security strategy in response to China's establishment of 'an aerial identification zone in the East China S |
2014 | The early legislative elections of December 14 give the absolute majority to Shinzō Abe's party. |
2016 | The legislative elections are largely won by the PLD, the party of Prime Minister Abe. |
2017 | Japanese MPs vote for an emergency law that allows Emperor Akihito (83) to abdicate. |
2019 | Emperor Akihito or Heisei Tennou abdicates in favor of his son, Naruhito, who ascends to the throne on May 1. Japan is leaving the Heisa era to enter the Reiwa era, or "orderly harmony". |
Source[edit | edit source]
World Timelines[edit source]
Other Lessons[edit | edit source]