1990s in Japan

[1] While the Lost Decade would finally end in 2000 for Japan,[1] this would become the era where young Japanese salarymen were forced to find different lines of work.

As the cost of gasoline surged, individuals in Japan and other oil-reliant countries increasingly relied on high-speed rail networks and other forms of mass transit, such as buses.

[2] The average price of gasoline at the end of the next decade would rise to $8/gallon on a national level; making it unaffordable for most Japanese people to drive long distances unless necessary.

[3] While new gaming consoles like the Super Famicom[4] and the Sony PlayStation[5] flooded the market, most young people began to move in with their parents, and read manga.

This was due to the fact that individuals were unable to secure employment that would allow them to maintain their accustomed standard of living and desired amenities.

Video games that were released in Japan employed some form of sexual content,[8] brought forth the invocation of religious symbols,[8] utilized a level of violence never seen in North American games[8] (until the release of Doom in the mid-1990s), and mentioning tobacco in addition to alcohol so that the story could have more flavor.

The only perfect game of the 1990s for the Nippon Professional Baseball league came on May 18, 1994, with the Yomiuri Giants shutting out the Hiroshima Toyo Carp by a score of 6–0.

), was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on March 20, 1995, in Tokyo, Japan by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult.

The Great Hanshin Earthquake, which occurred on January 17, 1995, in the southern part of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, was a devastating event.

It lasted for 20 seconds, causing significant damage, including destroying nearly 400,000 buildings, elevated road and rail bridges, and port quays.

The earthquake also profoundly impacted transportation infrastructure, with elevated expressways and railways sustaining substantial damage.

Despite initial beliefs that collapsed structures were negligently constructed, it was later revealed that many complied with the building codes of the 1960s, which were later found to be inadequate.

In the aftermath, there were extensive efforts to repair and rebuild infrastructure, with the Kobe Municipal Subway resuming operations a day after the earthquake.