In December 2016, immediately after Abe and Inada met U.S. President Barack Obama in Hawaii and Abe expressed 'everlasting condolences' for the casualties of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Inada made her first visit to the Yasukuni Shrine since becoming defense minister. Inada's visit followed by a day a visit to the shrine by Minister for reconstruction Masahiro Imamura. Both visits prompted protests from China and South Korea and created calls for Japan to express similarly prominent condolences to its Asian neighbors.