Timeline for June 2023

1

Fujii Sōta becomes the youngest shōgi player to win the Meijin title at the age of 20 years and 10 months. He is also only the second player to hold seven major titles since Habu Yoshiharu achieved this in 1996.

Fujii Sōta holds a card reading “Meijin” at a press conference after winning the title of the same name in Takayama, Nagano Prefecture, on June 1, 2023. (© Jiji)

2

Revised legislation scrapping health insurance cards in autumn 2024 and incorporating their functions into My Number cards is enacted in a House of Councillors plenary session.

The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare publishes demographic statistics showing that the total fertility rate, indicating the number of children a woman has in her lifetime, dropped by 0.04 points to 1.26 in 2022, matching the record lowest level in 2005.

4

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrest former House of Councillors lawmaker GaaSyy (Higashitani Yoshikazu) for alleged threats of defamation against celebrities in his YouTube videos.

7

Digital Minister Kōno Tarō announces that 130,000 My Number cards intended to be used for payments of public benefits are linked to the bank accounts of family members of card holders, rather than the holders themselves.

8

Katō Miyu wins the mixed doubles competition at the French Open with Tim Pütz of Germany. On June 4, Katō and her partner were disqualified from the women’s doubles competition after she accidentally hit a ball girl with the ball in a third-round match.

Katō Mitu and Tim Pütz hold the French Open mixed doubles trophy in Paris on June 8, 2023. (© Jiji)

The Fukuoka District Court rules that it is an unconstitutional situation that same-sex marriages are not allowed in Japan, responding to a case brought by a same-sex couple in Kyūshū based on the rights of freedom of marriage and equality under the law included in the Constitution. No damages are awarded.

9

Revisions to the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act to allow for the deportation of foreign applicants for refugee status are enacted by a majority vote in a House of Councillors plenary session.

10

Tennis player Oda Tokito defeats world number one Alfie Hewett of Britain to win the wheelchair men’s singles title at the French Open, becoming the youngest winner of a wheelchair men’s Grand Slam tournament at the age of 17.

Oda Tokito’s French Open win on June 10, 2023, lifted him to become the youngest ever men’s wheelchair world number one. (© Jiji)

11

Aoki Mikio, who served as chief cabinet secretary and House of Councillors chairman for the Liberal Democratic Party, dies at the age of 89.

Aoki Mikio, who was known as the “don of the upper house,” pictured at center left in January 2010. (© Jiji)

13

Prime Minister Kishida Fumio announces that from October 2024 income limits for childcare benefits will be abolished and benefits will continue until high school.

14

An 18-year-old trainee for the Self-Defense Force kills two instructors and injures another with a rifle during a live-fire training exercise at a Ground SDF base in Gifu, Gifu Prefecture. The trainee, who joined the SDF in April, is arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

The GSDF Hino basic firing range in Gifu where the shooting took place on June 14, 2023. (© Jiji)

16

New laws to secure financing for increases in the defense budget and to address LGBT discrimination are enacted by majority votes at a House of Councillors plenary session.

17

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako begin a seven-day stay as state guests in Indonesia. This is their first official trip to promote international friendship since Naruhito ascended to the throne in 2019.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo drives Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako (both sitting on the right), with Indonesian First Lady Iriana behind him, from Bogor Palace to Bogor Botanical Gardens on June 19, 2023. (© Jiji)

21

The regular Diet session ends without extension.

22

The Sapporo District Court rules that Hokkaidō Prefecture should pay damages for infringement of freedom of expression to one of two citizens removed by police for heckling from the site of a speech by former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō in Sapporo in 2019. However, for the other plaintiff, it reverses a lower court ruling that the prefecture should pay compensation.

23

Okinawa marks 78 years since the Battle of Okinawa at an annual memorial service in the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman.

24

Ohtani Shōhei hits his twenty-fifth home run of the season for the Los Angeles Angels against the Colorado Rockies. It is also the two hundredth homer of his professional career in both Japan and the United States.

26

Tokyo Electric Power Company announces that equipment for releasing treated water into the sea from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station is complete.

27

Tokyo police arrest kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke on suspicion of assisting the suicide of his mother. Ennosuke was found collapsed at home on May 18 along with his parents, who died, and he is suspected of having given his parents sleeping medication.

28

The Ministry of Finance announces that new ¥1,000, ¥5,000, and ¥10,000 banknotes will be issued in July 2024. The ¥10,000 note will feature Shibusawa Eiichi, known as the father of Japanese capitalism; the ¥5,000 note Tsuda Umeko, who helped raise the position of women; and the ¥1,000 note Kitasato Shibasaburō, who developed a method for treating tetanus.

The new banknotes will use the latest hologram technology so that the portraits appear to move in three dimensions when they are tilted. Photo taken at the National Printing Bureau’s Tokyo plant on June 28, 2023. (© Jiji)

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Fujii Sōta, the youngest winner of the Meijin tournament and second-ever holder of seven major shōgi titles, stands in front of the Fujii-sō inn where the competition took place in Takayama, Nagano Prefecture, on June 2, 2023.)