Constitutional revision research project

January 9 - Formal transition of the Defense Agency (Bōeichō) to the Ministry of Defense (Bōeishō).

January 26 - In a speech before the Diet, PM Abe calls for constitutional revision and sets progress on the issue as a major goal for his administration.

March 5 - PM Abe claims a lack of proof that the Japanese government or the military forced women into sexual servitude during WWII. His comments spark outrage in Asia.

March 8 - The LDP opens a new inquiry into the use of 'comfort women' by the Japanese army during WWII.

March 27 - Parliamentarians’ Alliance for an Autonomous Constitution (Jishu Kenpo Kisei Giin Domei), established in 1955, renames itself to Parliamentarians’ Alliance for Establishing a New Constitution (PAENC; Shin Kenpo Seitei Giin Domei) and starts its activity as a nonpartisan group comprising approximately 200 incumbent and former diet members. The group is chaired by former PM Nakasone Yasuhiro.

March 30 - The Ministry of Education discloses its high school textbook screening results, decreeing that there is insufficient evidence to prove that Japanese soldiers forced Okinawa civilians to commit mass suicides at the end of WWII.

April 5 - Nakasone Yasuhiro meets PM Abe to report the start of PAENC and his inauguration as the chairperson of the group. Abe expresses his support as the head of LDP seeking the constitutional revision for the party’s goal.

April 8 - Ishihara Shintarō re-elected governor of Tokyo for his third term.

April 13 - The House of Representatives approves guidelines for constitutional revision.

May 14 - The House of Councilors passes the National Referendum Law to revise the constitution. The legislation holds that a referendum on the issue cannot take place before 2010, and requires the approval of a majority of voters.

May 18 - The House of Representatives approves the three revised education related laws, which in part require schools to teach patriotism in the course of compulsory education..

May 27 - Ota Akihiro, head of the New Komeito, warns that his party will refrain from supporting PM Abe's campaign for the upcoming House of Councilors election if Abe goes too far in calling for amending the Constitution.

June 24 - Okinawa politicians protest government plans for textbook revision that would deny the Japanese army's ordering of civilians to commit mass suicide (shūdan jiketsu) at the end of WWII.

July 29 - For the first time in its history, the LDP coalition suffers crushing defeat in the House of Councilors election at the hands of the DPJ.

July 30 - The U.S. House of Representatives calls on Japan's government to formally apologize for its role in the system of 'comfort women' in World War II.

August 7 - The Deliberative Councils on the Constitution for both Houses are established. However, due to the domestic political backdrop, the council head and the members are not selected, thus, leaving the group to be inactive in reality.

August 15 - PM Abe avoids making a visit to Yasukuni Shrine on the 62nd anniversary of Japan's surrender in WWII.

September 12 - PM Abe announces his intention to resign the post of Prime Minister, citing DPJ opposition to continuation of the naval mission in the Indian Ocean as a reason.

September 26 - Official resignation of PM Abe. Fukuda Yasuo elected as his successor in the LDP. Inauguration of the Fukuda Cabinet.

September 29 - Over 100,000 people demonstrate against the textbook revision of military involvement in the Okinawa mass suicides. According to the Kyodo News agency, this is the biggest rally staged on Okinawa since its return to Japan by the United States in 1972.

October 1 - PM Fukuda lays out a policy agenda that supports extending the Japanese naval mission in the Indian Ocean supporting US-led troops in Afghanistan, saying that building security in the region serves Japan's national interests.

October 4 - PM Fukuda qualifies the intended textbook revision, stating that it is not a question of denying military involvement in the mass suicides of Okinawa, but a question of determining whether or not all the mass suicides were ordered by the army. The DPJ calls for the textbook screening process on this issue to be re-opened, questioning the neutrality of the first screening results.

October 9 - DPJ efforts to push for a second round of the textbook screening process are blocked by its inability to achieve a consensus even amongst its members in the House of Councilors, where it has a majority.

October 9 - Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura rejected DPJ President Ozawa Ichiro’s suggestion that Japan participate in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

October 17 - The Cabinet approves an anti-terrorism bill that allows the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) to continue supporting U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan. The current deployment is scheduled to end on November 1st.

October 24 - U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer calls on Japan to maintain support for U.S. forces in Afghanistan by continuing the JMSDF mission in the Indian Ocean.

November 1 - Termination of the JMSDF deployment in the Indian Ocean. Japan withdraws the two ships supporting U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.

November 1 - Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura announces that the Japanese government is set to consider establishing a permanent law on the dispatch of the Self-Defense Force (SDF) overseas.

November 9 - Japan's parliament extends its current session as the LDP tries pushing through a law to renew support for the U.S.-led mission in Afghanistan.

November 12 - PM Fukuda withdraws from his membership of PAENC. He serves as the vice-chairperson of the group.

November 13 - The House of Representatives approves the bill to resume the JMSDF mission.

November 14 - Suit filed against 2006 revision to the Fundamental Law on Education.

November 16 - During talks in the White House, PM Fukuda pledges to resume Japan's naval support for U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan to US President George W. Bush.

November 24 - The Article 9 Association counters moves to revise Pacifist Constitution in Tokyo. The group calls on the public to form pro-Article 9 groups in their communities, schools and workplaces so they can link up with each other and seek further support for the clause..

November 28 - The House of Councilors votes to end the JASDF (Japan Air Self-Defense Force) mission in Iraq.

December 4 - The House of Councilors begins debating a bill to allow the redeployment of the JMSDF in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.

December 14 - For the first time in fourteen years, the government extends the parliamentary session into the succeeding year in an effort to pass the JMSDF bill.

December 18 - Japan carries out tests of its anti-missile system and shoots down a mock ballistic missile off Hawaii. This is the first time such a test has been carried out by a U.S. ally.

December 26 - The Education Ministry announces that it will partly reinstate references in textbooks to the military's involvement in civilian mass suicides during the Battle of Okinawa in WWII.

December 27 - The DPJ approves the use of space for defense purposes in the outline of a bill on space it plans to submit to the next ordinary Diet session. The DPJ bill will constitute a counterproposal to the bill on space use jointly submitted by the LDP and the New Komeito in June.

January 1 - PM Fukuda rules out a cabinet reshuffle to rally public support, instead pledging more efforts to pass the controversial bill to redeploy the JMSDF in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan.

January 10 - PAENC submits a petition with 318 signatures of the diet members to the President of Upper House Eda Satsuki, and to the Speaker of Lower House Kono Yohei the next day, demanding the Deliberative Councils on the Constitution at both Houses to initiate their activities.

January 11 - The LDP forces through the JMSDF redeployment bill by using its majority in the House of Representatives to override opposition lawmakers who had voted down the bill in the upper house hours earlier. This is the first such move in fifty seven years and follows months of deadlock over the proposed legislation.

January 14 - The Defense Ministry carries out its first test of the viability of a missile defense system to be established in major cities. The Ministry plans to establish 11 missile defense sites by 2011, and is also co-operating with the US on ship-based missile defence systems.

January 16 - The Prime Minister's Office (shusho kantei) announces and implements new anti-terror legislation.

January 17 - Based on the new anti-terror legislation passed on the 16th, Defense Minister Ishiba Shigeru orders the resumption of the JMSDF mission in Afghanistan.

February 2 - The Kanagawa prefectural education board decides to continue collecting the names of teachers who refuse to stand when the "Kimigayo" national anthem is sung in school ceremonies.

February 7 - The Tokyo District Court orders the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to pay ¥27.5 million in lost wages to 13 former high school teachers who were denied postretirement re-employment because they refused to sing the national anthem. The teachers had been reprimanded for disobeying a metropolitan directive of October 2003 that requires all teachers to stand and sing "Kimigayo" while facing the Hinomaru flag during official school ceremonies.

February 7 - An annual rally is held to demand the return of four disputed islands – known as the Kuriles in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan – which Russia seized in the closing days of World War II.

February 9 - Japan scrambles 22 jets and lodges an official protest with the Russian embassy after discovering a Russian Tupolev 95 bomber in Japanese air space, over the isle of Sofugan, 650km (400 miles) south of Tokyo. Russia denies that it violated Japanese air space.

February 11 - U.S. Marine Sgt Tyrone Hadnott is arrested in Okinawa for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl. Foreign Minister Komura Masahiko warns that this latest allegation is "definitely not good for the US-Japan alliance".

February 13 - The LDP begins discussing the establishment of a permanent law to dispatch Self-Defense Forces units overseas whenever necessary, in lieu of issuing a Special Measures Bill for each case.

February 20 - Human rights campaigners in Japan and East Timor announce the joint creation of a set of exhibition panels showing testimony by former Timorese "comfort women." The panels were initially created in Japanese for a display at the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM) in Tokyo last year.

February 22 - In order to curtail crimes by U.S. military-related personnel, the LDP announces new measures compelling the U.S. to report annually on the number of service members, employees and family members living off bases in Japan.

February 26 - Japan plans to establish a new law that would ban foreign ships from staying in its territorial waters without a legitimate reason. The planned legislation would also authorize the Japan Coast Guard to tighten restrictions on such vessels.

February 26 - The government considers dispatching Self-Defense Forces personnel to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations in Sudan as early as June in a move partly aimed at underscoring Japan's international contributions ahead of hosting the Group of Eight summit in July.

February 29 - Japanese prosecutors release US marine Tyrone Hadnott, who was arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl, after her family decided not to pursue charges. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to Japan earlier this week, voiced deep regret over the case.

March 3 - PAENC holds its general meeting. Former PM Abe, LDP Secretary-General Ibuki Bunmei, LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Tanigaki Sadakazu and DPJ Secretary General Hatoyama Yukio takes up a post as senior advisor of the group and DPJ Deputy Leader Maehara Seiji as deputy chairperson. With the DPJ senior members joining, the group gains a new impetus. Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura also attends the meeting stating, “Receiving the order (of Mr. Nakasone) to represent the cabinet, I recognize it as a voice from heaven and am pleased to attend.”

March 8 - An executive committee is established in Okinawa Prefecture to organize a rally against crimes committed by U.S. military personnel. At the panel's inaugural meeting in Naha, participants agreed to press both the Japanese and U.S. governments to consolidate and reduce U.S. military bases in Okinawa and drastically revise the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

March 10 - Fukaya Takashi, an LDP lawmaker who heads the House of Representatives' special antiterrorism panel, says he will strive to establish in 2008 a permanent law to dispatch Self-Defense Forces units overseas.

March 11 - Governors representing 14 prefectures that host U.S. bases petition the central government to revise the SOFA in light of recent crimes allegedly committed by U.S. servicemen. They hold meetings with Foreign Minister Kōmura Masahiko and Defense Minister Ishiba Shigeru.

March 25 - PM Fukuda Yasuo says that the government will draft permanent legislation during the current Diet session allowing for the dispatch of the SDF overseas for multinational operations.

March 25 - The DPJ, the Social Democratic Party and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party) compile a joint proposal to revise the SOFA to mandate that the U.S. hand over its military personnel suspected of crimes on the order of Japanese authorities. Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura Nobutaka rejects the proposal.

March 27 - A Defense Ministry think tank, the National Institute for Defense Studies, says in a report titled "East Asian Strategic Review 2008" that China's evolving space program should be closely watched for the impact it could have on its military buildup. Among its concerns is the possibility that visits of China's defense officials and port calls by its military vessels are for the purpose of using Japan to advance Chinese propaganda.

March 28 - Japanese judges dismiss a libel case against Nobel laureate Ōe Kenzaburō, who was accused of lying about the country's war time past. Ōe's book Okinawa Notes claims that the Japanese military ordered hundreds of civilians to commit suicide as US troops advanced during World War II. Judge Fukami Toshimasa did not rule on whether the military ordered the mass suicides, but concluded that the former Imperial Japanese Army had been deeply involved.

March 28 - The education ministry publishes revised education curriculum guidelines (Atarashii gakushū shidō yōryō) for elementary and junior high schools that promotes patriotism and instructs elementary school children on how to sing the national anthem.

March 31 - The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education punishes twenty public school teachers for disobeying an order to stand and face the flag during the singing of the national anthem in graduation ceremonies in March.

April 2 - A House of Representatives panel passes an agreement obliging Japan to pay part of the costs to host U.S. military bases, paving the way for its approval by the full Lower House.

April 2 - The U.N. has sounded out Japan about dispatching Self-Defense Forces personnel to take part in U.N. peacekeepers' mine-removal efforts in southern Sudan.

April 3 - The House of Representatives passes a bilateral agreement with the United States obliging Japan to pay some ¥140 billion a year to help operate U.S. military bases until fiscal year 2010.

April 4 - Despite possible right-wing intimidation, more than 10 theaters nationwide confirm they will screen "Yasukuni," a controversial documentary film on Tokyo's war-linked shrine, in May or later as originally planned.

April 10 - The LDP convenes a project team to work towards establishing a permanent law on international peace that would allow the SDF to be deployed overseas at any time. The Diet unanimously voted for the new law to combine the current Special Measures Bills on peacekeeping operations, Iraq reconstruction assistance, and terrorism prevention.

April 11 - Japan extends, for another 6 months, the economic sanctions on North Korea that were imposed after its nuclear test in October 2006.

April 11 - The Supreme Court fines three peace activists a combined ¥500,000 for trespassing on a Self-Defense Forces housing compound in western Tokyo and distributing antiwar leaflets.

April 17 - The Nagoya High Court rules that the dispatch of the JASDF to Iraq in the form of airlifting multinational combat troops to assist U.S. forces in Baghdad violates the first clause of Article 9. This is the first anti-SDF dispatch suit that has been ruled as unconstitutional. In response to this ruling, the JASDF Chief of Staff Tamogami Toshio states in vulgar Japanese that "in this situation, [that ruling] doesn't matter." After protests by the plaintiff, the Iraq Action Group, Tamogami concedes that the wording of his view had been "in part, inappropriate".

April 18 - Japan, the United States and Australia hold senior working-level talks in Hawaii on security issues, including on how to better strengthen mutual cooperation in international peacekeeping missions.

April 19 - Some 100 JASDF personnel returning from Iraq were greeted by antiwar activists as they arrived at Komaki Air Base in Aichi Prefecture after completing their tours of duty.

May 1 - A U.S.-Japan Special Measures Agreement obliging Japan to pay some ¥140 billion a year to support U.S. military bases through fiscal year 2010 takes effect. Last month, the previous pact expired March 31 due to a delay in the Diet. This current implementation is due to the Lower House overriding the Upper House in the Diet.

May 1 - PAENC convenes in Tokyo with the presence of Former PMs Kaifu Toshiki and Abe Shinzō. The convention adopts a resolution that calls for the immediate initialization of the Deliberative Councils on the Constitution in both Houses. However, members from senior DPJ leaders, including Party’s Secretary General Hatoyama Yukio and Deputy Leader Maehara Seiji, do not attend the meeting.

May 3 - Japanese peace groups are set to unveil a cenotaph in Guam on May 18 to honor the more than 20,000 Japanese and U.S. soldiers and islanders who lost their lives in the Battle of Guam in 1944.

May 3 - Peace Ring of Guam, a Guam-based nonprofit organization, and its Japanese arm have erected the monument by the sea in Agat Village, one of two locations on the western coast where U.S. forces landed and fought Japanese troops.

May 3 - Marking the 61st anniversary of the enforcement of the postwar Constitution, hundreds of people gathered in Tokyo's Hibiya Park to call for keeping Article 9, which renounces war.

May 3 - Documentary on Yasukuni Shrine by Chinese filmmaker screens in Tokyo.

May 4-6 - International peace activists gather in Chiba for the Global Article 9 Conference to Abolish War. Participants include Cora Weiss, president of the Hague Appeal for Peace from the United States, and Beate Sirota Gordon, a co-author of Japan's constitution.

May 8 - Japan is considering beginning negotiations with Iraq to conclude a status of forces agreement to stipulate the legal status of Air Self-Defense Force personnel conducting missions there. U.N. Security Council Resolution 1790, which authorizes the current deployment of multinational forces in Iraq, expires at the end of 2008.

May 10 - Backed by the DPJ, New Komeito and the LDP, the House of Representatives panel passes a bill intended to allow the use of space for defense purposes. This is a departure from Japan's decades-long policy restricting the development and use of space to nonmilitary purposes.

May 19 - The education ministry plans to clearly state in a supplement of the government's new educational guideline for junior high school students that a Seoul-controlled islet in the Sea of Japan is an "integral part of Japan." According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, the supplement referring to the island called Takeshima in Japanese and Dokdo in Korean will be compiled around June or July for use from fiscal year 2012.

May 20 - US ambassador Schieffer urges Japan to boost military spending amid splurge by Asian neighbors.

May 21 - The Diet enacts Japan's first law on the use of space. This law modifies the former principle of the non-military use of space (based on a 1969 Diet resolution under the Constitution) and paves the way for the development of space defense equipment, including full-scale spy satellites.

May 23 - The government declares null and void a 1949 state-imposed ban on public schools organizing field trips to the Yasukuni Shrine.

May 27 - A position paper released by the Cabinet states that Japan will refrain from identifying Takeshima (a pair of Seoul-controlled rocky islets in the Sea of Japan known as Dokdo in South Korea) as an "integral part of Japan" in educational documents.

May 29 - The DPJ submits a bill aimed at providing ¥3 million in special benefits to each Korean and Taiwanese convicted of Class B or C war crimes at the Tokyo tribunal.

May 29 - The LDP Human Rights Issues Research Council (Jiminto no jinken mondai to chosakai) begins debating a working draft of the Human Rights Protection Bill (jinken yogo hoan) that would implement a system of relief aid for victims of human rights violations. The Bill's previous proposal was withdrawn in 2002, and the current move to resubmit it for consideration is controversial.

June 3 - A House of Councilors committee unanimously approves a bill to enable people with gender identity disorder who are parents to change their officially registered sex if their offspring are adults. Previously, having no children was a condition of a sex-change law enacted in July 2003 to enable people with gender identity disorder to alter their sex in their family registries.

June 4 - The Supreme Court of Japan rules that denying citizenship to persons whose parents were not married at the time of their birth is unconstitutional, granting 10 children of Filipino women the right to Japanese nationality. The ruling overturns Article 3 of the Nationality Law (kokuseki hō), which restricts children born to unwed foreign mothers to the nationality of their mother's country if their Japanese fathers do not recognize them before birth.

June 5 - The Justice Ministry initiates steps to amend the Nationality Law following the Supreme Court ruling of 6.4.2008. It instructs its regional bureaus not to reject applications for nationality from the parents of children whose circumstances fall within the bounds of the ruling.

June 6 - Ichiro Fujisaki, the new Japanese Ambassador to the U.S., says he is determined to ensure policy continuity on U.S.-Japan issues, and claims his first priority as building strong relationships with those in the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, rather than preparing for the next administration to be launched in January 2009.

June 9 - A team of Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, and SDF official depart for Afghanistan to explore the possibility of dispatching the SDF there on an assistance mission.

June 10 - The Diet enacts a revised law designed to allow people with gender identity disorder greater ease of changing their registered sex (kaisei sei dōitsu sei shōgaisha seibetsu tokurei hōan.

June 12 - PAENC holds its regular meeting and, for the third time, adopts a resolution that calls for the immediate initialization of the Deliberative Councils on the Constitution in both Houses. Following Nakasone’s remark, “Being aware of how news writers are seeing the movement of constitutional revision and getting their advices are critical to promote the movement itself,” chief political editors of Sankei and Yomiuri Shimbun give a presentation.

June 13 - Japan extends its Kuwait-Iraq airlift mission and refueling mission in the Indian Ocean until July and January 2009, respectively, citing the need to provide continued assistance in the reconstruction of Iraq as well as U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan.

June 19 - Bound for China, a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer (海上自衛隊護衛艦) departs from Kure (呉), Hiroshima Prefecture, carrying Self-Defense Force personnel in official uniform. This is the first such visit ever made to China by uniformed SDF personnel.

June 30 - The government decides to send two or three Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF Rikujō Jieitai 陸上自衛隊) personnel to Sudan as early as September to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations there.

July 8 - The MEXT reconsiders a plan to state in an educational document that the Takeshima islands are an "integral part of Japan" in order to avoid straining Japan-Korea relations.

July 15 - The government panel on Reform of the Ministry of Defense (Bōeishō Kaikaku Kaigi 防衛省改革会議), headed by Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura Nobutaka, endorses a nonbinding report that proposes leaving the management of SDF units to uniformed officers rather than bureaucrats.

July 18 - The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly adopts a nonbinding resolution against a joint Japan-U.S. plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma (普天間) within Okinawa. Japan abandons the idea of dispatching the SDF to assist Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts, citing the deteriorating security situation in that country.

July 25 - At a defense conference in London, British Ministry of Defense official Teresa Jones expresses hopes that Japan will continue to provide support for antiterrorism operations in the Indian Ocean.

July 28 - The MOD conducts a missile defense exercise in Tokyo using the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3 パトリオット･ミサイル) ballistic missile interception system. This is the first full-fledged test of the missile carried out by the ministry.

July 29 - The JASDF's mission in Iraq will terminate by the end of this year when the current U.N. resolution authorizing the deployment of multinational forces there expires.

A team of Japanese officials arrives in Egypt to conduct research on dispatching defense personnel to U.N. peacekeeping operations in Sudan. The SDF’s participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations in southern Syria is extended for six more months until March 31.

August 5 - PM Fukuda indicates his lack of plans to visit Yasukuni Shrine on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II. But Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka (安岡興治), a member of PM Fukuda’s restructured cabinet, stated his intention to go.

August 8 - In Tokyo, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher announces that Japan can decide its own contribution it wishes to make to antiterrorism efforts in Afghanistan. Under a special law that expires in January, the JMSDF has been engaged in refueling a U.S.-led coalition in the Indian Ocean.

August 15 - Over fifty Cabinet ministers and Diet members visit Yasukuni Shrine on the 63rd anniversary of the end of WWII.

August 15 - Over 260 protesters and war bereaved gather in Tokyo to protest politicians' visits to Yasukuni Shrine. They also demand that Article 9 of the Constitution be protected.

August 22 - Bilateral sources of Kyodo News reveal that PM Fukuda promised to continue the JMSDF's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean beyond its January expiration when he met U.S. President George W. Bush on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido in July.

August 28 - Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura Nobutaka voices anger over the kidnapping and killing of aid worker Ito Kazuya (伊藤和也) in Afghanistan, but insists that this will not deter Japan's anti-terror mission.

September 1 - PM Fukuda announces his intent to resign.

September 11 - In an address at the MOD, Defense Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa (林芳正) states that Japan will earn more respect around the world through acting to fight terrorism instead of just providing money. Hayashi reiterated in his address the need for Japan to extend the bill for the JMSDF to continue its refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.

September 12 - The MOFA reveals that Denmark's ships will also receive fuel from the JMSDF's Indian Ocean support mission. Denmark is the eighth country after the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and Pakistan to receive refueling aid from Japan.

September 17 - The JASDF successfully guns down a mock ballistic missile in Japan's first test of a U.S.-developed land-based missile interception system. The test was conducted at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The firing of the two Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3 パトリオット･ミサイル) interceptors concludes testing on the key capabilities of the nearly ¥1 trillion missile shield that Japan hopes to complete around fiscal 2010.

September 25 - Kyodo News sources reveal that the United States urged Japan in July to reconsider its decision not to dispatch SDF troops to Afghanistan. During a visit to Tokyo late that month, special U.S. presidential envoy Bobby Wilkes, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Central Asia, met with top officials of the Foreign and Defense ministries (MOFA and MOD) and urged Japan to go beyond JMSDF refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.

September 27 - The government sends two Ground Self-Defense Force officers to Sudan by late October to help with U.N. peacekeeping operations there. The JGSDF (Japan Ground Self-Defense Force) officers will be dispatched to the headquarters of the U.N. Mission in Sudan until June 30 next year.

September 30 - Finance Minister Nakagawa Shōichi creates a stir by backing a plan to display the Hinomaru flag in the ministry's press briefing room.

October 1 - The Tokyo High Court rejects a suit filed by a group of residents calling on Yokosuka to cancel permission for the government accommodation of the U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington.

October 2 - In an interview, Defense Minister Hamada Yasukazu states that Japan's involvement in antiterrorism efforts in the Indian Ocean must continue regardless of which party holds power in the Diet.

October 3 - The Cabinet approves a mission sending two Ground Self-Defense Force officers to Sudan to take part in U.N. peacekeeping operations. Foreign Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro tells reporters that the dispatch of the two officers will both advance ties between Japan and Sudan and contribute to installing security and peace in the region.

October 5 - The Saitama Prefectural Government provides local public elementary and junior high schools with a central government document lifting a ban on field trips to Yasukuni Shrine. 

October 10 - Japan extends its ban on port calls by North Korean-registered vessels and all imports of goods from the country for another six months, citing the lack of progress in denuclearization and its failure to come clean on its past abductions of Japanese nationals.

October 10 - The Lower House begins deliberating the government's special antiterrorism bill for extending the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. It also opens debate on a contentious bill that would allow SDF troops to be dispatched for support activities in Afghanistan.

October 11 - Having reached agreement with Pyongyang over verification of its nuclear programs, the United States informs Japan it will remove North Korea from its list of terrorism-sponsoring states by the end of October.

October 17 - Japan is elected to a record-breaking tenth two-year term as a revolving member of the UN Security Council.

October 17 - Prime Minister Asō presses the continuation of Japan's controversial refueling mission in the Indian Ocean next year.

October 17 - 48 lawmakers, including a special adviser to Prime Minister Asō, pay a group visit to the autumn festival held at Yasukuni Shrine.

October 17 - The Finance Ministry displays the Hinomaru flag in its press briefing room under orders from Finance Minister Nakagawa Shōichi.

October 18 - Prime Minister Asō attends an annual ceremony at the Defense Ministry to mourn Self-Defense Force personnel killed while performing their official duties.

October 19 - Hoshyar Zebari, foreign minister of Iraq, expresses hope that Japan will increase investment in and economic support for the reconstruction of Iraq even after its airlift mission in the country ends this year.

October 20 - Prime Minister Asō visits the Tokyo tomb of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru. This is his first such call since taking office last month.

October 21 - The Lower House approves a special antiterrorism bill that enables the MSDF to continue refueling multinational warships engaged in counterterrorism operations in the Indian Ocean.

October 22 - A Liberal Democratic Party panel approves a bill to make Nov. 12, 2009, a one-time national holiday marking the 20th anniversary of Emperor Akihito's accession to the Chrysanthemum Throne. Its members include former Prime Minister Mori Yoshirō, DPJ leader Ozawa Ichirō New Komeito head Ota Akihiro, and Watanuki Tamisuke, leader of Kokumin Shinto.

October 22 - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets in Tokyo with Prime Minister Asō. The two leaders sign a joint declaration on security cooperation aimed at improving the safety of Japanese vessels navigating the Indian Ocean, and they agree to continue to work toward concluding an economic partnership agreement at an early date.

October 22 - A bill to extend Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling support for US and coalition ships in the Indian Ocean clears the House of Representatives and is submitted to the opposition-controlled House of Councillors.

October 27 - At a lecture in Tokyo, Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen urges Japan to continue its naval refueling mission in the Indian Ocean and to cooperate with the Netherlands on international efforts to secure peace in Afghanistan.

October 27 - The Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) holds its biggest homeland defense drill to date in Hokkaido, mobilizing some 3,000 personnel and digging some 2,000 hillside caves and trenches to hide troops, tanks and command posts.

October 28 - At a committee session of the House of Councilors, Prime Minister Asō cites legal restrictions on sending the SDF to Afghanistan.

October 30 - Defense Minister Hamada Yasukazu announces that Gen. Tamogami Toshio, the ASDF Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff, will be dismissed for having written an essay justifying Japan's wartime aggression in Asia and urging the country to exercise its right to collective defense.

October 31 - The Yokohama District Court will retry a case in the so-called Yokohama Incident, Japan's worst wartime repression of free speech. In the incident, more than 60 journalists were arrested between 1942 and 1945 on charges of promoting communism in violation of the now-defunct Peace Preservation Law.

October 31 - The U.S. Marine Corps orders its staff in Okinawa to stay away from residential areas, schools, cemeteries and other public sites. This is an apparent effort to ease local anger over a slew of incidents involving its personnel.

November 1 - China and South Korea excoriate Tamogami Toshio for his essay seeking to justify Japan’s military actions in Asian countries before and during World War II.

November 3 - In his first public appearance since being fired from the SDF, Tamogami defends his nationalist essay, claiming that his justification of the Japan's war in Asia was intended to instill the country and its people with a sense of confidence.

November 4 - Lt. Gen. Edward A. Rice Jr., commander of U.S. Forces in Japan, says that the Tamogami controversy will not affect Japan's security alliance with the United States.

November 6 - In a meeting with DPJ lawmakers, Defense Ministry officials reveal that 78 Air Self-Defense Force members submitted essays to the same contest won by Tamogami Toshio. This finding fuels suspicions that the essays were orchestrated by Tamogami, since 62 of the 78 belong to an ASDF unit in Ishikawa Prefecture formerly commanded by him.N

Novmeber 7 - The Tokyo Metropolitan Government conducts Japan’s first drill against “dirty bombs.”

Novmeber 7 - Tamogami Toshio's successor as head of the ASDF, Gen. Hokazono Kenichirō, says that his predecessor's nationalist essay was “inappropriate” and “damaged public trust” in the ASDF.

November 8 - The Japan Times publishes an editorial arguing for greater civilian control of the SDF.

November 10 - The nuclear submarine USS Providence makes a port call in Okinawa without giving the normal prior notification to Japanese authorities. Since 1964 the United States’ policy has been to give at least 24 hours’ notice before its nuclear submarines enter Japanese ports.

November 11- Tamogami defends his contentious justification of Japan’s wartime past before the Diet. He also calls for the Constitution to be amended so that Japan can engage in collective self-defense.

November 12 - A bipartisan group of Japanese lawmakers voices concern over growing South Korean capital investment in Tsushima City, Nagasaki Prefecture.

November 13 - The Defense Ministry says that the U.S. military in Japan will stop allowing the public to watch its artillery training in Hokkaido involving marines and will no longer hold a press conference about the drills. The U.S. forces will instead post information and photos regarding the drills on the Internet.

November 20- Vice Defense Minister Masuda Kōhei refuses to respond to criticism that some lecturers at the Defense Ministry's Joint Staff College hold nationalistic views.

November 25 - At the ninth Solidarity Conference for the Issue of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, DPJ Upper House member Konno Azuma says that “The government has kept its eyes shut and ignored the issue.” Victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery are joined by international activists and lawmakers to demand proper apology and compensation from the government for its past atrocities.

November 28 - The government officially orders an end to the Air Self-Defense Force’s mission to airlift supplies and personnel between Iraq and Kuwait. Withdrawal is scheduled to begin in mid-December and be completed by March 2009.

November 28 - During a symposium at the Afghan Embassy in Tokyo, experts say that Japan's continued contributions are needed to halt borderless acts of terrorism in Afghanistan. Afghan Senior Minister Hedayat Amin Arsala urges Japan to continue its refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.

November 28 - Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada says that the Self-Defense Forces will not acquire more advanced cluster bombs even though they would not be banned under a new accord on the munitions.

December 1 - During a news conference in Tokyo, Tamogami Toshio says that his justification of Japan's wartime acts is shared by many lawmakers and military personnel, and that his opinions are not “particularly militaristic or of a rightwing nature.”

December 5 - The Diet clears the revised Nationality Law, which will allow children born out of wedlock to a Japanese man and a foreign woman to obtain Japanese nationality even if the father acknowledges paternity after birth. (At present, a child born outside marriage can obtain nationality only if the Japanese father recognizes paternity before birth.) This follows a Supreme Court ruling on June 4 that the current provisions violate Article 14 of the Constitution's Article 14, which stipulates equality under the law.

December 7 - The results of a Kyodo News opinion poll conducted December 6–7 show support for Prime Minister Asō's administration at 25.5%, a 15.4-point decline from the previous survey conducted in November. When asked whom they would prefer as prime minister, Asō or opposition Democratic Party of Japan leader Ozawa Ichirō, 33.5% picked Asō and 34.5% Ozawa. It was the first time since Asō took office that he fell behind Ozawa by this measure.

December 8 - Two Chinese survey vessels enter Japanese territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku islets. Japan protests through diplomatic channels.

December 8 - The organizers and judges of a controversial essay contest back former ASDF Chief of Staff's Tamogami Toshio's entry, saying that its contents “awoke the Japanese public.”

December 10 - The Defense Ministry releases a report on its basic reform policy stating that the authority of ranking officers over Self-Defense Forces units will be increased while the influence of bureaucrats will be decreased.

December 12 - After being voted down in the opposition-controlled House of Councilors, a bill to extend Maritime Self-Defense Force refueling operations in the Indian Ocean for naval vessels engaged in counterterrorism activities goes back to the House of Representatives, where ruling-coalition members pass it with a two-thirds majority vote.

December 13 - Prime Minister Asō meets with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at a groundbreaking trilateral summit in Fukuoka Prefecture. The three leaders agree to boost cooperation in the face of the economic crisis.

December 15 - The ASDF transport unit in Kuwait begins withdrawing after completing an airlift mission that lasted four years and nine months.

December 17 - The Fukuoka High Court upholds a district court ruling that it is constitutional for public school principals to order teachers to sing the national anthem at school ceremonies.

December 22 - A draft revision of the education ministry's curriculum guidelines for high schools released Monday does not mention the Takeshima islets under dispute with South Korea.

December 24 - The MSDF refueling mission in the Indian Ocean is officially extended to July 15, 2009. Without the extension, the legal basis for the mission would have ended on Jan. 15.

December 26 - Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada says that Prime Minister Asō has ordered him to consider sending the MSDF on an antipiracy mission off Somalia.

December 28 - House of Representatives Speaker Kōno Yōhei lays flowers at a U.S. memorial cemetery in Honolulu where victims of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 are among those commemorated.

January 11 - The results of a Kyodo News telephone survey show support for Prime Minister Asō Taro's cabinet at 19.2%, down 6.3 points from the previous survey in December. The disapproval rate climbed to 70.2%, the highest level since Prime Minister Mori Yoshirō's cabinet was in power roughly eight years ago.

January 12 - Prime Minister Asō and President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea hold talks in Seoul. The two leaders pledge to cooperate to resolve the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and work closely with the administration of incoming US President Barack Obama.

January 13 - Watanabe Yoshimi, former minister of state for financial services and administrative reform, resigns from the Liberal Democratic Party to protest the administration’s backtracking on civil service and administrative reform.

January 26 - Vice Foreign Minister Yachi Shōtarō, Japan's representative on key diplomatic issues, states that Japan needs to seriously consider sending civilians to aid the reconstruction of Afghanistan as dispatching the SDF would require new legislation.

January 27 - Foreign Minister Nakasone Hirofumi announces he will visit Okinawa this weekend to discuss the stalled accord on reorganizing the U.S. military in Japan.