| 712 | Kojiki (record of ancient things) |
| 720 | Nihongi (collection of myths) |
| 10,000 years ago | Ainu roots |
| 19th C | samurai backed merchants and forced Ainu to work for them during fishing season |
| 1868 | Hokkaido open to Japanese settlement |
| 1st C | Japan lived in clans |
| 400 | Yamato clan - Jimmu Tenno; Shinto influences Japan |
| 552 | Buddhist monasteries come from South Korea; Prince Shotuku - first convert |
| 794 | Fujiwara family - important; rise of samurai and Japanese feudalism |
| 1185 | Minamoto clan too over - Yoritomo Shogunate |
| 1543 | Portuguese traders came to Japan |
| 1549 | St Francis Xavier came from Spain - Spain converted Japanese to Christianity. Japanese government did not like what had happened in Philippines. Did not like minorities. Wanted to show their country as having the same kind of people. |
| 1603 - 1868 | Tokugawa Shogunate - closed off Japan |
| 1614 | Christians ordered out of Japan |
| 1637 | 1000s Christians killed |
| 1853 | Commodore Perry arrives in Japan |
| 1858 | Great Britain, Netherlands, and Russia granted extraterritoriality |
| 1867 | Meiji restoration |
| 1894-95 | Japan war with China - gained Taiwan, Liaotung peninsula, and Korea |
| 1904-05 | Russo-Japanese war - Japan surprisingly won |
| 1914 - 1918 | WWI; Japan - a world power? |
| 1932 | Japan conquers Manchuria |
| 1937 | Japan conquers a lot of Chinese territory |
| Dec 7, 1941 | Pearl Harbor bombing |
| 1939 - 1945 | WWII |
| Aug 6, 1945 | Hiroshima bombed with a nuclear bomb |
| Aug 9, 1945 | Nagasaki bombed with a nuclear bomb |
| 1947 | new constitution for Japan - US bound to protect emperor; not allowed army |
| 1952 | US occupation ends in Japan? |
| 1964 | Tokyo Olympics |
| 1972 | US leaves Okinawa |
| 1990s | Japan scares China; Japanese economy going down |