| 1 November | •
| Koizumi Cabinet announced results of free time and tourism survey showing 45.5% of respondents not stayed away from home at all during last year (5% up since 1999). Shortage of money cited by 34.3% of respondents with 48.2% wanting more foreign visitors to Japan, 32.4% not, and 90.2% citing fears of increased crime by foreigners |
| 5 November | •
| All Nippon Airways (ANA) started regular domestic freight service between Haneda and Sapporo airports using late-night passenger planes |
| 6 November | •
| JR East, Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., and three other companies announced plans to build two super-skyscrapers (about 205 m each) at Yaesu side of Tokyo Station |
| 15 November | •
| Kochi Airport renamed Kochi Ryoma Airport as first airport in Japan named after person (late Edo-period samurai) |
| •
| Gangplank collapsed under sightseers boarding newly built Queen Mary II (142,200 tonnes) in Saint-Nazaire shipyard, western France, killing 16 people and injuring about 30 |
| 18 November | •
| Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) announced start of developmental testing of railway signal safety system using quasi-zenith satellite system for high-accuracy global positioning to track trains |
| 19 November | •
| Second Koizumi Cabinet formed after general election on 9 November |
| •
| JR Central and Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) achieved Maglev world-record rail speeds of 579 km/h (unmanned) and 570 km/h (manned) at Yamanashi Test Track |
| 22 November | •
| JR Kyushu's Tsubame reached top design speed of 260 km/h between Shin Yashiro and Nishi Kagoshima on Kyushu Shinkansen with opening scheduled for March 2004 |
| 23 January | •
| Path rapid transit service resumed operations between Manhattan and New Jersey 50 months after terrorist attacks on World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 |
| 29 November | •
| Russian-built Antonov 26 passenger plane crashed after takeoff near Boende in Democratic Republic of Congo, killing all 22 passengers and crew |
| 2 December | •
| JR Central and RTRI achieved world-record speed of 581 km/h in Maglev manned running tests on 18.4-km Yamanashi Test Line |
| 4 December | •
| Tour bus overturned on national highway about 50 miles north-west of Cairo, injuring 18 Japanese passengers and tour guide |
| 5 December | •
| Severo-Munaisky Tunnel opened on Baykal-Amur (BAM) Railroad to complete second link between Siberia and Europe 70 years after first planning |
| •
| Train exploded near Stavropol in southern Russia near Chechen Republic, killing 42 people and injuring 2 |
| •
| JR Kyushu shipped twelve Series 12 passenger trains donated to Philippine National Railways |
| 6 December | •
| Star Alliance international organization of airlines announced cooperation with Japanese government's Visit Japan Campaign aimed at attracting 200,000 foreign visitors to Japan by 2010. |
| 13 December | •
| Bus carrying Japanese tourists overturned outside Cusco in southern Peru, injuring 21 people to varying degrees |
| •
| Large bus fell 80 m into ravine near Cerro De Pasco north-east of Lima in Peru, killing 24 passengers and injuring 53 |
| 16 December | •
| Boeing announced full-scale start of design of next-generation 7E7 Dreamliner with capacity of 200 to 250 passengers and scheduled to enter service in 2008 |
| 19 December | •
| JR East announced tests using mobile phone with built-in SUICA chip to pass ticket gates with aim of commercial introduction within 24 months |
| 20 December | •
| Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) approved application by Sendai City for category-1 railway licence to operate planned (2015 opening) 13.9-km linear-motor subway Tozai Line between Dobutsu-koen and Arai |
| 22 December | •
| MLIT announced international terminal fee of ¥2,400 for adults starting from 1 April for passengers departing from Haneda Airport on international flights |
| 25 December | •
| Boeing 727 bound for Beirut crashed into Atlantic Ocean after taking off from Benin in West Africa, killing 80 people |
| 1 January | •
| Undercarriage of Japan Air System (JAS) MD81 (169 passengers and crew) collapsed while landing at Tokunoshima Airport in Kagoshima, causing left wing to clip runway |
| •
| National Police Agency announced 7702 traffic fatalities for 2003—7.5% decrease over 2002 and first time below 8000 in 46 years |
| 3 January | •
| Flash Airlines (Egypt) B737 crashed into Red Sea immediately after takeoff from Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheik, killing all 148 passengers and crew aboard |
| •
| Bus caught fire on expressway in China's Jiangsu Province, killing 12 and injuring 14 |
| 5 January | •
| Arsonist set fire on train at Admiralty Station on Tsuen-Wan line of Hong Kong's MTR subway, injuring 14 people through smoke inhalation. |
| 8 January | •
| Japan Airlines (JAL) began testing 'e-Check-in' biometric authentication system at Japan's New Tokyo International Airport (Narita) and Korea's Inchon Airport with aim of bringing system into full use next year |
| •
| Bus fell into irrigation canal near Bhakkar in central Pakistan, killing at least 28 people |
| 13 January | •
| Passenger plane crashed on landing at Tashkent in Uzbekistan, killing all 37 people on board. |
| 15 January | •
| Final section of 2979-km freight and passenger railway opened, linking Adelaide and Darwin in Australia |
| •
| Direct train service linking India and Pakistan began operations after 2-year hiatus |
| 18 January | •
| Cracks found in engines of 20 MD81 planes belonging to JAS, impacting travel schedules of 40,000 people and resulting in lost revenues of ¥500 million |
| 19 January | •
| Cargo ship capsized off coast of Norway, leaving two crew dead and 16 missing |
| 21 January | •
| Bus fell about 500 m into ravine in southern Peru, killing at least 20 on board |
| 22 January | •
| Cessna 172P light aircraft crashed into parking lot next to kindergarten in Kofu, Japan, killing all three on board |
| 23 January | •
| Greek cargo ship sank off coast of Malta, leaving all 17 crew missing |
| 27 January | •
| Tokyo's Teito Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA) announced new name of Tokyo Metro for TRTA subways to be privatized in April 2004 |
| 28 January | •
| JR Hokkaido announced development of dual mode vehicle (DMV) running on both roads and rails and now in testing with expected service start in 3 years |
| 30 January | •
| Kawasaki Heavy Industries unveiled 12-car train set for Taiwan Shinkansen (345 km from Taipei to Kaohsiung) to open in October 2005 with total order for 360 cars divided between three manufacturers |
| •
| Japan National Tourist Organization announced 19.5% year-on-year drop in overseas travel by Japanese to 13.297 million people due to impact of SARS fears; number of foreign visitors to Japan also fell by 0.2% to 5.231 million |
| 2 February | •
| Japan Airlines System (JAL) commemorated 50th year of international flights with special campaigns, including charter flight to Hawaii |
| 3 February | •
| Singapore Airlines started non-stop flights between Singapore and Los Angeles using Airbus A340-500 to cover approximately 14,000-km flight in 16 to 18.5 hours |
| 5 February | •
| Thousands of passengers evacuated from Town Hall subway station in central Sydney, Australia due to major gas leak |
| 6 February | •
| Bomb exploded on subway train near Paveletskaya Station in central Moscow, killing 39 people and injuring more than 200 |
| 10 February | •
| JR East announced FY2007 introduction of E954 shinkansen with operations speed of 360 km/h and E955 able to operate on both shinkansen and conventional tracks |
| •
| Iranian Kish Airlines passenger plane (Fokker 50) crashed on approach to Sharjah Airport in United Arab Emirates, killing 43 people |
| 14 February | •
| Roof of indoor pool at multipurpose sports facility in Moscow collapsed, killing at least 25 people |
| 16 February | •
| JR East announced planned move in 2007 of Transportation Museum from current location in central Tokyo to Saitama City, north of Tokyo with renaming as The Railway Museum |
| 18 February | •
| JAL named (from 1 June) Mr Isao Kaneko (current President of holding company) as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Board, and Mr Toshiyuki Shinmachi (current Vice President) as President. |
| •
| Freight train carrying petroleum and chemicals exploded near Neyshabur in north-eastern Iran, killing at least 200 people and injuring more than 500 |
| 20 February | •
| JR West announced completion of full privatization with public sale of all share holdings (31.7%) on domestic and foreign stock markets in March 2004 |
| 26 February | •
| Diamond Princess completed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Nagasaki Shipyard as world's largest cruise ship (290 m and 116,000 tonnes) |
| •
| Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and eight staff killed when small aircraft crashed near Stolac in southern Bosnia-Herzegovina |
| 28 February | •
| Singaporean-flagged tanker carrying industrial ethanol exploded and sank off Virginia, USA, killing two crew and leaving 19 missing |
