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| 1991, April 17 |
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| Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev traveled to Japan for talks with Prime Minister Kaifu concerning economic aid, the Kurile Islands, and the like. Sovereignty over the islands remained unresolved. | 1 |
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| Aug |
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| Prime Minister Kaifu became the first head of state to visit the People's Republic of China in the aftermath of the massacres at Tiananmen Square in June 1989. | 2 |
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| Nov. 6 |
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| Miyazawa Kiichi (b. 1919), an old LDP faithful, became prime minister, despite the fact that he had had to resign from the cabinet earlier because of the Recruit Company scandal. His cabinet was full of politicians long suspected of corruption and influence peddling. | 3 |
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