← 1885 1884 1883 1886 in Japan → 1887 1888 1889
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
See also:	Other events of 1886 History of Japan  • Timeline  • Years

Events in the year 1886 in Japan. It corresponds to Meiji 19 (明治19年) in the Japanese calendar.

• Monarch: Emperor Meiji^[1]
• Prime Minister: Itō Hirobumi

• Aichi Prefecture: Minoru Katsumata
• Akita Prefecture: Akagawa then Sada Aoyama
• Aomori Prefecture: Kyusei Fukushima then Nabeshima Miki
• Ehime Prefecture: Shinpei Seki
• Fukui Prefecture: Tsutomu Ishiguro
• Fukuoka Prefecture: Yasujo
• Fukushima Prefecture: Kinichi Akashi then Hiraochi Orita
• Gifu Prefecture: Toshi Kozaki
• Gunma Prefecture: Katori Yoshihiko
• Hiroshima Prefecture: Senda Sadaaki
• Ibaraki Prefecture: Shima^[who?] then Sadanori Yasuda
• Iwate Prefecture: Shoichiro Ishii
• Kanagawa Prefecture: Baron Tadatsu Hayashi
• Kochi Prefecture: Yoshiaki Tonabe
• Kumamoto Prefecture: Yoshiaki Tonabe
• Kyoto Prefecture: Baron Utsumi Tadakatsu
• Mie Prefecture: Ishii Kuni
• Miyagi Prefecture: Matsudaira Masanao
• Miyazaki Prefecture: Teru Tananbe
• Nagano Prefecture: Baron Seiichiro Kinashi
• Niigata Prefecture: Shinozaki Goro
• Oita Prefecture: Ryokichi Nishimura
• Okinawa Prefecture: Sadakiyo Osako then Minoru Fukuhara
• Osaka Prefecture: Tateno Tsuyoshi
• Saga Prefecture: Kamata^[who?]
• Saitama Prefecture: Kiyohide Yoshida
• Shimane Prefecture: Sada Kotedayasu
• Tochigi Prefecture: Sukeo Kabayama
• Tokyo: Hiroshi Watanabe^[who?] then Marquis Shigeru Hachisuke
• Toyama Prefecture: Kunishige Masafuni then Fujishima Masaki
• Yamagata Prefecture: Orita Hirauchi then Shibahara Sum

• January 26 - The Hokkaidō Agency opens, with its main office in Sapporo and branch offices in Hakodate and Nemuro.

• January 28 – Hidetsugu Yagi, electrical engineer (d. 1976)
• February 10 – Raichō Hiratsuka, writer, journalist, political activist (d. 1971)
• February 20 – Takuboku Ishikawa, poet (d. 1912)
• February 23 – Yahiko Mishima, athlete (d. 1954)
• May 20 – Chieko Takamura, artist (d. 1938)
• June 9 – Kosaku Yamada, composer and conductor (d. 1965)
• June 10 – Sessue Hayakawa, actor (d. 1973)
• June 18 – Tsuruko Haraguchi, psychologist and the first Japanese woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy (d. 1915)
• July 17 – Chizuko Mifune, clairvoyant (d. 1911)
• July 20 – Misao Fujimura, student and poet (d. 1903)
• July 24 – Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, writer and novelist (d. 1965)
• November 1
  • Sakutarō Hagiwara, writer (d. 1942)
  • Sumako Matsui, actress and singer (d. 1919)
• November 27 – Tsuguharu Foujita, painter (d. 1968)