1899 in Japan

Incumbents

• Emperor: Emperor Meiji
• Prime Minister: Yamagata Aritomo

  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 4 - Japan passes its first copyright law
• 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.
• Unknown date - Morinaga Confectionery was founded, as predecessor name was Morinaga Western Confectionery.

  Births

• January 20 - Kenjiro Takayanagi, television engineer, creator of the world's first all-electronic television receiver
• February 10 - Suihō Tagawa, manga artist
• February 13 - Yuriko Miyamoto, novelist
• March 7 - Jun Ishikawa, writer
• June 11 - Yasunari Kawabata, writer, novelist, Nobel laureate in Literature
• August 1 - Saburō Matsukata, journalist, businessman and mountaineer
• August 5 - Sakae Tsuboi, novelist and poet
• September 8 - Akiko Seki, soprano
• October 1 - Matsutarō Kawaguchi, novelist, playwright and film producer
• November 7 - Daisuke Nanba, communist activist
• December 3 - Hayato Ikeda, Prime Minister of Japan
• Unknown - Genkei Masamune, botanist,

  Deaths

• January 21 - Katsu Kaishū, statesman and naval engineer
• September 26 - Ōki Takatō, statesman, Mayor of Tokyo
• December 26 - Harada Naojirō, yōga-style painter