Timeline for October 2024

1

Ishiba Shigeru is elected as Japan’s new prime minister after winning the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election in September. Later the same day, he chooses his first cabinet, retaining Hayashi Yoshimasa as chief cabinet secretary and selecting Iwaya Takeshi as minister for foreign affairs.

Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru, at front center, poses for a commemorative photo with the members of his new cabinet at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on October 1, 2024. (© Jiji)

Ohtani Shōhei of the Los Angeles Dodgers finishes the season with the most home runs (54) and runs batted in (130) in the National League.

Leading universities Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University merge to form the Institute of Science Tokyo.

2

A US shell from World War II explodes at Miyazaki Airport, creating a 7-meter-long hole in a taxiway and leading to the cancelation of 78 flights.

October 2, 2024. (Courtesy Civil Aviation College; © Jiji)

3

Shirai Toshiaki, the head of the Kyoto Prefectural Police, is removed from his post after the National Police Agency decides his saying “I’ll kill you” to a subordinate was abuse of power.

5

Prime Minister Ishiba makes his first visit to the disaster-hit Noto Peninsula after assuming his post, going to Wajima and Suzu. Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan leader Noda Yoshihiko also visits the area.

6

Prime Minister Ishiba announces that the LDP will not give official endorsement to some party members who were punished by the party in April. He also says that lawmakers who did not record fundraising money in reports will not be allowed to run both in single-party constituencies and via proportional representation.

8

The Diet enacts a law to pay ¥15 million to victims of sterilization under the former Eugenic Protection Act. Their spouses will receive ¥5 million.

9

Prosecutors decide not to appeal the verdict of not guilty handed down by the Shizuoka District Court in the retrial of Hakamata Iwao, who was sentenced to death for killing four people in 1966, meaning that this verdict is final. This is the fifth time since World War II for someone condemned to death to be found not guilty in a retrial.

The House of Representatives is dissolved, with campaigning beginning on October 15 for an October 27 election. It is the earliest postwar dissolution after the appointment of a new prime minister, coming just eight days into the new administration.

11

Nihon Hidankyō (the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations) is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons and for demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again.”

Tanaka Terumi (second from left) of Nihon Hidankyō speaks at a Tokyo press conference on October 12, 2024, after the group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. (© Nippon.com)

Ōyama Nobuyo’s agency announces that the voice actress who performed as Doraemon in the hit anime for 26 years died at the age of 90 on September 29.

14

Children’s book author Nakagawa Rieko dies at the age of 89. She was known for her series about the twin mice Guri and Gura.

15

Campaigning begins for the House of Representatives election. There are 1,344 candidates for the 465 seats, with a record 314 female candidates.

16

The Nuclear Regulation Authority approves Kansai Electric Power’s plans to continue operating Takahama Nuclear Power Plant in Fukui Prefecture, Japan’s oldest nuclear plant, which will have been in use for 50 years in November 2024. The plans to operate for another decade cover areas including inspections and plant management.

17

Actor Nishida Toshiyuki, known for appearing in the long-running Tsuribaka nisshi (Diary of a Fishing Nut) series, dies at the age of 76.

19

A 49-year-old man is arrested for throwing Molotov cocktails at LDP headquarters in Tokyo and crashing his vehicle into the fence outside the prime minister’s office.

20

Empress Emerita Michiko turns 90.

21

Tsuda Takayoshi, the head of the Shizuoka prefectural police, visits the home of Hakamata Iwao in Hamamatsu to apologize to him directly after Hakamata was found innocent in a retrial.

Shizuoka prefectural police chief Tsuda Takayoshi (left) apologizes to Hakamata Iwao (second from right), who sits with his sister Hideko (right) in Hamamatsu on October 21, 2024. (© Jiji)

23

The Japanese Communist Party newspaper Shimbun Akahata reports that the LDP made payments of ¥20 million each to party branches with candidates implicated in its kickbacks scandal, from whom it had withdrawn official support. LDP Secretary-General Moriyama Hiroshi denies that the money was for supporting candidates, saying that it was for building local strength.

Tokyo Metro makes its stock market debut on the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Prime section. It opens at ¥1,630, or 35.8% above the initial offering price of ¥1,200, and its market capitalization rises to over ¥1 trillion by the end of the first day’s trading.

24

The Tokyo District Court decides to start bankruptcy proceedings for audio and video equipment manufacturer Funai. A company director had filed a quasi-bankruptcy petition at the court.

27

In the House of Representatives election, the LDP wins 191 seats and Kōmeitō 24, for a combined coalition total of 215, falling short of the 233 required for a majority. The CDPJ makes major gains, with its total rising 50 seats to 148.

28

Olympus announces the resignation of Stefan Kaufmann, its president and CEO, after he reportedly purchased illegal drugs.

29

Tōhoku Electric Company restarts the number 2 reactor at Onagawa Nuclear Power Station in Miyagi Prefecture, 13 years after it was shut down following the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. It is the first plant in eastern Japan to restart after the 2011 disaster.

31

The Ministry of Defense reports that North Korea launched an intercontinental-class ballistic missile. It splashes down in the Sea of Japan, outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, around 200 kilometers west of Okushiri Island in Hokkaidō.

Japan’s baseball fans watch as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in game five of the World Series (played on October 30 in New York) to become champions. Designated hitter Ohtani Shōhei and pitcher Yamamoto Yoshinobu join the list of Japanese-born players who have appeared in the Major League championship series.

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru (left) and Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Moriyama Hiroshi stand in front of a board showing winning election candidates at LDP headquarters in Tokyo on October 27, 2024. © Takashi Aoyama/Pool/AFP)