Aug. 15, 1975 — Takeo Miki becomes the first sitting prime minister to visit Yasukuni Shrine on the anniversary of the end of World War II.
Aug. 15, 1978 — Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda visits Yasukuni.
Oct. 17, 1978 — The shrine begins honoring wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo and other Class-A war criminals.
Aug. 15, 1980 — Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki visits Yasukuni. He also visits the shrine on the surrender anniversary in 1981 and 1982.
Aug. 15, 1985 — Yasuhiro Nakasone goes to Yasukuni in an official capacity as prime minister, the first leader since the end of the war to make such a visit.
July 29, 1996 — Ryutaro Hashimoto visits Yasukuni, the first prime minister in 11 years to do so.
Aug. 6, 1999 — Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka calls for giving Yasukuni the status of a special corporation without a religious flavor after dedications to class-A criminals are removed from the shrine.
Aug. 13, 2001 — Junichiro Koizumi visits Yasukuni, the first prime minister in five years to do so.
April 21 2002 — Koizumi pays his second visit to Yasukuni.
Dec. 24, 2002 — A private advisory panel to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda submits a report advocating the need for a separate government-run facility to pray for the war dead and peace.
Jan. 14, 2003 — Koizumi pays his third visit to Yasukuni.
Jan. 1, 2004 — Koizumi again visits the shrine.
Oct. 17, 2005 — Koizumi goes to Yasukuni for a fifth time.
Aug. 15, 2006 — Koizumi visits the shrine for the sixth and last time as prime minister.
Oct. 17, 2012 — Shinzo Abe, as president of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, visits Yasukuni.
April 2013 — Abe, now prime minister, makes a ritual offering to Yasukuni without going there in person.
Aug. 15 — Abe pays for a ritual offering to Yasukuni at his own expense.
Dec. 26 — Abe visits Yasukuni on the first anniversary of the launch of his government, the first prime minister in seven years to do so.