1899 in Japan
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{{Year in Japan|1899}}
Events in the year 1899 in Japan. It corresponds to Meiji 32 (明治32年) in the Japanese calendar.
Incumbents
=Governors=
- Aichi Prefecture: Mori Mamoru
- Akita Prefecture: Takeda Chiyosaburo
- Aomori Prefecture: Munakata Tadashi
- Ehime Prefecture: Tai Neijro
- Fukui Prefecture: Saburo Iwao
- Fukushima Prefecture: Kimumichi Nagusami then Arita Yoshisuke
- Gifu Prefecture: Tanaka Takamichi then Kawaji Toshikyo
- Gunma Prefecture: Suehiro Naokata
- Hiroshima Prefecture: Asada Tokunori
- Ibaraki Prefecture: Prince Kiyoshi Honba then Fumi Kashiwada
- Iwate Prefecture: Ganri Hojo
- Kagawa Prefecture: Yoshihara Saburo
- Kochi Prefecture: Tadashi Tanigawa
- Kumamoto Prefecture: Tokuhisa Tsunenori
- Kyoto Prefecture: Baron Utsumi Tadakatsu then Baron Shoichi Omori
- Mie Prefecture: Yuji Rika then Duke Isaburo Yamagata then Arakawa Yoshitaro
- Miyagi Prefecture: Motohiro Onoda
- Miyazaki Prefecture: Sukeo Kabawaya
- Nagano Prefecture: Oshikawa Sokkichi
- Niigata Prefecture: Minoru Katsumata
- Oita Prefecture: Marques Okubo Toshi Takeshi
- Okinawa Prefecture: Shigeru Narahara
- Osaka Prefecture: Tadashini Kikuchi
- Saga Prefecture: Seki Kiyohide
- Saitama Prefecture: Marquis Okubo Toshi Takeshi
- Shiname Prefecture: Matsunaga Takeyoshi
- Tochigi Prefecture: Korechika
- Tokyo: Baron Sangay Takatomi
- Toyama Prefecture: Kaneoryo Gen
- Yamagata Prefecture: Baron Seki Yoshiomi
Events
- February 1 – Telephone service begins between Tokyo and Osaka.
- February 7 – Keiō and Waseda become Japan's first private universities.
- February 13 – The income tax law is promulgated.
- March 1 – Sankyo Pharmaceutical established in Yokohama, as predecessor of Daiichi Sankyo.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
- March 4 – Japan passes its first copyright law.
- March 9 – Japan promulgates its commercial code, the Shōhō, to take effect on June 16."Commercial and Corporate Law in Japan", by Harald Baum and Eiji Takahashi, in History of Law in Japan Since 1868 (Brill, 2005) p. 355
- July 15 – Japan's first comprehensive copyright law takes effect and, on the same day, Japan agrees to join the Berne Convention.
- July 17 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital.
- November – Momijigari, the oldest extant Japanese film, is shot an open space behind the Kabuki-za in Tokyo.{{cite journal|last1=Irie|first1=Yoshiro|title=Saiko no Nihon eiga ni tsuite|journal=Tōkyō Kokuritsu Kindai Bijutsukan Kenkyū Kiyō|date=2009|issue=13|page=67|url=http://www.momat.go.jp/research/kiyo/13/pp65_91.pdf|access-date=9 December 2014|publisher=National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo|language=ja|issn=0914-7489|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119181900/http://www.momat.go.jp/research/kiyo/13/pp65_91.pdf|archive-date=19 January 2013}}
- Unknown date – Morinaga Confectionery was founded, as predecessor name was Morinaga Western Confectionery.{{page needed|date=May 2020}}
- Unknown date – The Hokkaido Former Aborigines Protection Act is enacted by the Imperial Diet
Births
- January 20 – Kenjiro Takayanagi, television engineer, creator of the world's first all-electronic television receiver (d. 1990)
- February 10 – Suihō Tagawa, manga artist (d. 1989)
- February 13 – Yuriko Miyamoto, novelist (d. 1951)
- March 7 – Jun Ishikawa, writer (d. 1987)
- June 11 – Yasunari Kawabata, writer, novelist, Nobel laureate in Literature (d. 1972)
- August 1 – Saburō Matsukata, journalist, businessman and mountaineer (d. 1973)
- August 5 – Sakae Tsuboi, novelist and poet (d. 1967)
- September 1 – Takuma Nishimura, general (d. 1951)
- September 8 – Akiko Seki, soprano (d. 1973)
- October 1 – Matsutarō Kawaguchi, novelist, playwright and film producer (d. 1985)
- November 7 – Daisuke Nanba, communist activist (d. 1924)
- December 3 – Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1965)
- Unknown – Genkei Masamune, botanist, (d. 1993)
Deaths
- January 21 – Katsu Kaishū, statesman and naval engineer (b. 1823)
- May 11 – Kawakami Soroku. General (b. 1848)
- September 26 – Ōki Takatō, statesman, Mayor of Tokyo (b. 1832)
- December 26 – Harada Naojirō, yōga-style painter (b. 1863)