1992   Japan formally apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.

1994   Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Japan opens to the public

1995   A gunman fires four shots at the chief law enforcement officer of Japan, Takaji Kunimatsu. Kunimatsu is seriously injured but survives the attack.

1997   The Osaka Dome opens in Osaka, Japan.

1998   Four people are killed and 63 are wounded after being poisoned by arsenic at a festival in Wakayama Prefecture, Japan.

2000   Five people are killed and 33 are injured when two trains collide in Tokyo, Japan.

2000   Yoshiro Mori replaces Keizo Obuchi as prime minister of Japan after Obuchi falls into a coma.

2001   Junichiro Koizumi is elected as Prime Minister of Japan.

2001   The Japanese cities of Yono, Urawa, and Omiya merge to form the city of Saitama.

2003   Mad cow disease is discovered in U.S. cattle for the first time. Several countries ban U.S. beef including Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Russia, and Australia.

2004   Three Japanese citizens are taken hostage in Iraq.

2005   A train derailment in Amagasaki Hyogo Prefecture, Japan kills 107 people and injures 555.

2005   Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is re-elected Prime Minister of Japan. His Liberal Democratic Party wins one of the largest parliamentary majorities in Japanese history.