Japan: Formation of new government coalition - timeline
Searching more than 75 years of world history
- June 2009. Kunio Hatoyama, the communications and internal affairs minister, resigns in an attempt to derail reform of the Japan Post Holdings Co. The resignation reveals significant divisions within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
- March 2009. Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), resigns over the party funding scandal which emerged in March. His decision to remain as leader damages the DPJ's lead in the polls.
- April 2009. The LDP government announces a new economic stimulus package to counter Japan's worst post-war recession.
- March 2009. The DPJ is shaken by a funding scandal and a senior aide to the party leader is indicted.
- February 2009. The finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, resigns after apparently drunken behaviour at a G-7 press conference. The loss of this key ally weakens Prime Minister Taro Aso's position further.
- January 2009. Aso's approval ratings drop to 20 per cent and a senior LDP figure resigns saying that the party is "disconnected from the people" and not seriously committed to necessary reform.
- November 2008. Japan enters recession against the back drop of the world financial crisis.
- September 2008. In the face of poor opinion poll ratings, mounting economic problems and political deadlock in the legislature Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigns. Aso replaces him.
- August 2008. Fukuda reshuffles his cabinet in an attempt to boost his government's popularity ahead of upcoming elections.
- June 2008. The House of Councillors (the upper chamber of the Diet, the bicameral legislature) passes a censure motion against the government over health and pension issues.
- March 2008. The DPJ twice blocks the government's candidate for governor of the central bank. The LDP's poll ratings drop as the impasse continues.
- November 2007. Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of the DPJ, offers to resign after sympathetically receiving an offer of a grand coalition arrangement with the LDP. The party is weakened by the affair despite Ozawa withdrawing his resignation in the interest of unity.
- September 2007. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the LDP steps down after electoral defeat in the House of Councillors elections and a string of scandals involving members of his government. Fukuda, seen as an uncontroversial choice, replaces him as prime minister.
- July 2007. The DPJ win a crushing victory over the LDP in elections to the House of Councillors.
- June 2007. Prime Minister Abe of the ruling LDP reaches an agreement with New Komeito (the LDP's coalition partner) to secure a 12-day Diet extension in order to achieve approval of a number of pieces of government legislation.
- May 2007. Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, facing corruption allegations, dies after apparently hanging himself at his Tokyo residence.
- April 2007. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao makes an official visit to Japan, the first Chinese leader to do so in over six years.
- March 2007. The government faces continuing pressure to apologise for the forced prostitution of thousands of women, many of them Korean and Chinese, during World War II in Japanese imperial army brothels.
- January 2007. Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa causes widespread protest when, commenting on the low national birth rate, he refers to women as "baby-making machines" who should "do their best" to produce more children.
- December 2006. A contentious bill upgrading the status of Japan's defence agency to that of a ministry, one of Prime Minister Abe's stated priority measures, is passed by both houses of the legislature.
- October 2006. Prime Minister Abe attends summit talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Beijing (the capital of China) at which they agree to increase ties and work towards "a strategic relationship of mutual interest".
- September 2006. Shinzo Abe is elected as prime minister and leader of the ruling LDP.
- August 2006. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pays a controversial visit to the Yasukuni shrine war memorial; media reports claim that Shinzo Abe had visited the Yasukuni shrine in April; Abe formally declares his candidacy for the leadership of the LDP.
- July 2006. The LDP leadership contest commences.
- May 2006. Japan and China hold their highest-level talks for some months when their respective foreign ministers meet on the sidelines of an Asian development meeting in Doha (the capital of Qatar).
- January 2006. There are calls for Emperor Akihito to visit the Yasukuni shrine.
- December 2005. Foreign Minister Taro Aso exchanges sharp words with Chinese officials over regional military threats.
- October 2005. Abe is appointed chief cabinet secretary; a visit by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni shrine prompts a diplomatic dispute with China and South Korea.
- September 2005. The LDP and its partner, New Komeito, win a two-thirds majority in early elections to the lower house.
- August 2005. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi declines to visit the Yasukuni shrine on the 60th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II and instead offers an apology for Japan's war record, pledging to uphold the country's post-war pacifist constitution.
- June 2005. Relations between Japan and China remain tense.
- May 2005. Relations with China deteriorate further.
- April 2005. The Education Ministry publishes a new school textbook, which omits to mention Japan's war crimes, sparking the biggest crisis in Sino-Japanese relations in decades.
- January 2005. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announces his plans to revise Japan's pacifist constitution.
- December 2004. Relations with China deteriorate.
- November 2004. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and President of China Hu Jintao meet for the first time in over a year at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum summit in Chile.
- September 2004. Abe is replaced as the LDP's secretary general when he resigns after the LDP's poor showing in elections in to the upper house.
- July 2004. Elections to the upper house are held.
- February 2004. Japan deploys a military force in Iraq, interpreted by some analysts as an attempt to promote change to the pacifist constitution.
- June 2003. Three bills are passed giving the government greater powers to respond to a foreign attack.
- February 2003. Minister of State (Director General of Defence) Shigeru Ishiba announces that Japan would consider launching a pre-emptive attack if it feared an imminent attack from North Korea.
- January 2003. A dispute erupts over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni shrine.
- April 2002. A diplomatic overture is made by China amid tensions over visits to the Yasukuni shrine.
- December 2001. The government announces the purchase of four B767 mid-air refuelling tankers from Boeing Co. as part of an ambitious modernisation programme for the Self-Defence Forces (SDF).
- April 2001. Junichiro Koizumi becomes Prime Minister.
- September 1999. Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi wins a resounding victory to retain the presidency of the ruling LDP.
- August 1999. Abill allowing a constitutional review is approved.
- February 1999. The publication of a controversial book containing a frank account of the rape and slaughter of Chinese civilians in the 1937 Nanking massacre is halted after threats from right-wing extremists.
- July 1998. Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto resigns after the LDP suffers significant losses in partial elections to the upper house.
- November 1996. Fumio Kyuma is appointed director general of the defence agency in Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's cabinet.
- July 1993. Undermined by scandals and internal divisions the LDP fails to win a majority in the House of Representatives, despite remaining by far the largest party. A seven-member coalition government is formed with the LDP in opposition.
- October 1991. Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu resigns.
- May 1991. The former leader of the second-largest faction in the LDP, Shintaro Abe, Shinzo Abe's father, dies.
- August 1987. Former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, Shinzo Abe's grandfather, dies.
- May 1983. Controversy erupts in China, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, over the introduction in Japan of new school text books glossing over Japanese war crimes in the region during the period 1910-45.
- October 1972. Japan and China normalise relations after 75 years of enmity.
- April 1965. A draft treaty on basic relations between Japan and South Korea is initialled in Seoul (the capital of South Korea), after discussions between Japanese Foreign Minister Etsusaburo Shiina and South Korean Foreign Minister Tong Won Lee.
- July 1960. The US-Japanese security treaty is ratified; a campaign of strikes and demonstrations is launched by the Japanese opposition. Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, Shinzo Abe's grandfather, resigns.
- November 1955. The LDP is formed by amalgamation of the Democratic and Liberal parties. The new party commands a majority in the House of Representatives.
- April 1946. A new constitution for Japan is made public. The constitution was initially drafted by the occupying forces and drew on the US, British and French constitutions. Under its terms Japan may not maintain armed forces or go to war.
- August 1945. The USA drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, prompting the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.
- December 1941. Japan declares war on the UK and the USA and bombs the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.
- December 1937. Japanese forces brutalise and massacre the citizens of Nanking, China.
- September 1937. Japanese forces invade Chinese Manchuria.
