February 8: The Ground Self-Defense Force's main unit of the SDF dispatched to Iraq enters Samawah, Iraq.
February 12: The Tokyo District Court has ruled two years in prison and five years in prison for former member of the House of Representatives Kiyomi Tsujimoto who was accused of fraudulent misappropriation of secretary salary. Neither the prosecution nor the defendant appealed, and the ruling was finalized on March 26.
February 17: Avian influenza virus infection in pet chicken (chabo) was confirmed in Kokonoe-cho, Oita Prefecture (the second case this year following Yamaguchi).
Teito Rapid Transit Authority becomes Tokyo Metro.
April 7: Three Japanese civilians taken hostage in Iraq.
April 8: Economist and graduate school professor Kazuhide Uekusa is arrested for trying to peep under a schoolgirl's skirt on the escalator of JRShinagawa Station.
May 22: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visits Pyongyang to bring back 5 Japanese youths who were born while their parents were hostages in North Korea.
July 8: Naha District Court in Okinawa sentences US Marine Major Michael Brown to a suspended one-year prison term on charge of attempted rape against a Filipina.
July 11: In elections for the Upper House. the LDP suffers a small setback.
September 8: Typhoon Songda hit in western Honshu area, according to official document figure, 45 person fatalities, with injures 1324.[6]
September 17: Japanese baseball players announce a weekend strike, the first baseball strike in Japanese history.
September 27: Koizumi reshuffles his cabinet.
September 29–30: Typhoon Meari, according to Fire and Disaster Management Agency official confirmed report, 27 persons were human fatalities and 95 persons wounded.[citation needed]