April 1
1920 Famed Japanese actor MIFUNE Toshiro was born in Northern China. Mifune grew up in Japanese occupied Manchuria and served in the Imperial Air Force during the Pacific War. In 1946 Mifune became an actor entirely by mistake -- he had applied for an assistant cameraman's job at a movie studio. Instead, he wound up in front of the camera and became Japan's best known star. He worked especially closely with KUROSAWA Akira, starring in virtually all the great director's films between 1948 and 1965, including the classics Rashomon (1950), Shichinin no Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954), and Yojimbo (1960). Beginning in the 1960s, Mifune also appeared in US productions, most famously as Toranaga, the shogun, in the 1980 television miniseries Shogun. Mifune died in 1997.
Several websites are devoted to Mifune. Among the best is one created by Ramona Boersma.
1938 In Japan, the National Mobilization Law was decreed providing the government the authority to secure and assign human and physical resources for wartime use.
1945 US forces began their assault on Okinawa, a campaign that would not be completed until late June. More than 7,000 US soldiers and 100,000 Japanese soldiers and militiamen died in the conflict.
1986 Japan's equal employment opportunity law went into effect. "Protective" laws limiting overtime and late night work for women remained in place, but a law prohibiting companies from dismissing women for opting to take up to 14 weeks of maternity leave was enacted. The equal opportunity law was revised in 1999.
The Japanese Ministry of Labor website has information concerning its efforts to aid women entering the workforce. The Ministry has designated the week beginning on April 10 (commemorating the day in 1946 when Japanese women first voted) "women's week." The Temple University Law Program in Japan website includes an article by Kazutoshi Kakuyama on litigating sexual discrimination cases in Japan. In 1999 Women 2000, a Japanese non-governmental organization prepared a report on women and the economy.
1987 Japan's National Railroad split into 11 private railroads.
Click here to view Japan Rail West's website.
1996 Two of Japan's largest banks, Mitsubishi Bank and the Bank of Tokyo, merged, creating the world's largest financial institution.
The Teaching about Japan website is
edited by Clayton Dube.
He welcomes your comments and suggestions.
© 2001 UCLA Center for East Asian Studies