Here is a list of major events scheduled for 2021 in Japan and beyond, with hyperlinks to their related articles.

Jan. 18 (Mon) -- Japanese parliament to convene a regular five-month session.

Jan. 20 (Wed) -- Joe Biden to be sworn in as U.S. president.

A countdown board in Nagasakis is lit up on Oct. 26, 2020, showing 88 days before the coming into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  (Kyodo) 

Jan. 22 (Fri) -- Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to take effect.

Feb. 23 (Tues) -- Japanese Emperor Naruhito's 61st birthday.

March 5 (Fri) -- China to convene national congress.

March 11 (Thurs) -- 10th anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

March 25 (Thurs) -- Domestic leg of the Tokyo Olympic torch relay to begin in Fukushima Prefecture.

May 1 (Sat) -- 2nd anniversary of Japanese Emperor Naruhito's ascension.

May 18 (Tues) -- World Economic Forum to be held in Davos, Switzerland, through May 21.

The Olympic rings are reinstalled in Tokyo Bay off Odaiba Marine Park on Dec. 1, 2020, after they were temporarily removed in August following the Tokyo Games' one-year postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Kyodo)

July 23 (Fri) -- Tokyo Olympics to open, run through Aug. 8.

Aug. 15 (Sun) -- Japan to mark the 76th anniversary of its surrender in World War II.

Aug. 24 (Tues) -- Tokyo Paralympics to open, run through Sept. 5.

Sept. 11 (Sat) -- 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Sept. 30 (Thurs) -- Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's current term as head of Japan's ruling party to expire.

Members of environmental groups stage a protest near the venue of a U.N. Climate Change Conference, known as COP25, in Madrid on Dec. 5, 2019, calling for Japan to abolish coal-fired power generation, one of the causes of global warming. (Kyodo)

Oct. 21 (Thurs) -- Japanese House of Representatives members' current term to expire.

Nov. 1 (Mon) -- 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, through Nov. 12.

Dec. 10 (Fri) -- Nobel Prize ceremony to be held in Stockholm, Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo.

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