Timeline (Real-World)

A timeline of real world events involving or relating to the Kamen Rider Series.
==Before Kamen Rider==
*1882
**April 18: is born.
* 1901
** April 29: is born.
*1926
**December 25: The ends after the emperor’s 14 years of reign, because of his death at age 47. The begins, and Emperor Hirohito ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne.
* 1931
**Ogon Bat, Japan’s first superhero, debuts
* 1933
** December 23: is born.
**King Kong premieres, inspiring a young Eiji Tsuburaya to become a special effects filmmaker in the hopes of making a monster movie of his own.
*1938
**January 25: Shotaro Ishinomori is born.
**June 8: Toyoko Eiga is founded by Keita Goto.
**Superman debuts in Action Comics #1, the character’s pop culture influence would eventually reach Japan. Such characters as Super Giant would emulate Superman’s aesthetics in Post-War Japan some 20 years later, eventually resulting in the dawn of original modern superheroes in the nation on film and television.
**Adolf Hitler and the Nazi forces invade Poland, which would be one of the catalytic events that started World War II a year later.
* 1940
** September 27: starts for Japan.
* 1941
**December 7: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, the US enters World War II in retaliation.
* 1945
** January 25: Takehisa Yamaguchi is born.
** August 15: Emperor Hirohito issues his surrender to the United States, ending World War II. 
*1946
**February 19: Hiroshi Fujioka is born.
*1947
**May 7: Takeshi Sasaki is born.
**June 14: Hiroshi Miyauchi is born.
* 1948
** December 3: Toru Okazaki is born.
*1949
**February 9: Shigeru Araki is born.
**July 22: Shunsuke Takasugi is born.
**October 1: Toyoko Film Distribution is founded as Toyoko Eiga's and 's subsidiary company.
**November 14: Ryo Hayami is born.
*1950
**July 5: Bandai is founded.
* 1951
** April 1: Toyoko Film Distribution is renamed as Toei Company.
* 1954
**Godzilla, tokusatsu’s first big star, debuts. Eiji Tsuburaya slowly develops the “suitmation” techniques that would eventually define the toku genre, using actor/stuntman Haruo Nakajima in a rubber suit to personify the legendary kaiju’s character.
*1955
**February 17: Shun Sugata is born.
*1956
**December 22: Hiroaki Murakami is born.
**Shotaro Ishinomori is hired by Osamu Tezuka to work as his assistant after he sees the young Shotaro’s artwork in magazine publications.
*1957
**November 1: NET is founded and begins broadcasting.
* 1958
**April 4: Yoshie Onodera, Shotaro Ishinomori’s older sister, dies from an asthma attack at the age of 23. This tragic event devastated Shotaro as she was the only member of his family that supported his dreams of being a manga artist.
**Gekko Kamen, a motorcycle riding vigilante superhero, makes his debut on television. This is Toei’s first foray into the live action superhero genre on TV, something that would define part of its entertainment business in the coming years.
**The construction of Tokyo Tower is completed, which would become an iconic landmark of Tokyo commonly seen in movies and television. It also serves as a television and radio broadcasting antenna for major and independent networks in the city.
* 1959
** August 14: Keita Goto dies at age 77.
* 1960
** February 23: is born.
* 1961
** August 3: Shin Ishikawa is born.
*1964
**July 19: Ishinomori publishes Cyborg 009, a super hero team manga that would serve as one of the prototypes of his recurring themes in manga and in Kamen Rider 7 years later.
*1965
**August 3: Shin-ichiro Shirakura is born.
**Go Nagai is hired by Shotaro Ishinomori as an art assistant.
**British sci-fi series Thunderbirds debuts, Gerry Anderson’s skillful use of miniatures in the show inspires tokusatsu special effects artists such as Eiji Tsuburaya who take Anderson’s sci-fi approach to create fantastic and futuristic miniature vehicles for films and television.
* 1966
**July 10: Ultraman debuts, further pushing the envelope of special effects and costume suit development as well as being the first live action superhero on Japanese TV to be featured in color.
* 1967
** February 7: Kou Domon is born.
** March 14: Yuta Mochizuki is born.
**Go Nagai leaves Ishinomori’s employ to produce his own manga, which would prove successful in the following years culminating in the 1970s with creations such as Mazinger Z, Devilman and Cutie Honey.
**Ishimori Productions is founded.
**Kamen no Ninja Akakage premieres, this ninja series is Toei’s first leap into televised programming in color, which would become standard as more households adopted color television sets.
*1968
**September 11: Tetsuo Kurata is born.
* 1969
**Toei Studios called upon Tohru Hirayama to produce a proposal for a new television project. It goes under the conceptual title of “Maskman K”.
**Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong lands and walks on the moon, an event observed by the entire world.
**Hobby Japan Magazine begins publication 
*1970
**Mr. Hirayama approached Shotaro Ishinomori to come up with a concept for the Maskman K project. Ishinomori conceptualized a masked wrestler on a motorcycle named Cross Fire, which the network loved, but Ishinomori later rejected it because it was “too safe” and he wanted something better, constantly reworking and designing various ideas.
**Ishinomori publishes Skull Man in January. He later tries to pitch his creation to the network executives, but they rejected Skull Man as being too scary for children.
==1971==
*After several concept reworks of the Skull Man template to gain the approval of the network executives, Ishinomori showed his son Jo his drawings. The young boy picked his father’s drawing of a grasshopper man as the candidate for the hero’s appearance. This was approved and the Toei studio staff commenced production of the new TV show.
*April 3: Episode 1 of Kamen Rider premieres, kickstarting the Kamen Rider Series.
*December 16: Shigeki Hosokawa is born, 2 days before Kamen Rider episode 38 airs.
*Hiroshi Fujioka shatters his leg in a motorcycle stunt gone wrong and is eventually written out of the show so he could recover in the hospital. Takeshi Sasaki replaces him as Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider 2 starting with episode 14. Because of the accident, the showrunners mandate new safety standards, including having trained stuntmen and women wear the costumes and do the more dangerous feats so the actors would not get hurt.
*The DX Henshin Belt toy line is launched by Popy, with a toy version of Kamen Rider 1’s Typhoon.
== 1972 ==
*January 1: Hiroshi Fujioka returns to the show as Takeshi Hongo, having made a full recovery. He and Takeshi Sasaki become the Double Riders. Their first team up aired on this day in episode 40.
*March 18: Kamen Rider vs. Shocker, the first original feature film in the franchise, premiered in Japanese cinemas.
==1973==
*February 10: Kamen Rider last episode aired.
*February 17: Kamen Rider V3 first broadcast.
*The global oil crisis begins.
==1974==
*February 9: V3 last episode aired.
*February 16: Kamen Rider X first broadcast.
*October 12: X last episode aired.
*October 19: Kamen Rider Amazon first broadcast.
*The Kamen Rider Series is licensed in Hong Kong and Thailand.
*The oil crisis hits Japan. This proved to be disastrous as unlike other countries, Japan had few natural resources to produce oil and must have it imported. One major effect of the crisis was the steadily declining number of competing tokusatsu shows on TV (due to the costumes using petroleum byproducts as material). What also affected Kamen Rider’s staying power this year and the remainder of the 1970s was the rise of Super Robot anime shows in popularity dominating the ratings and in competitive time slots on other networks.
==1975==
*March 29: Amazon last episode aired.
*April 5: Kamen Rider Stronger first broadcast. The Kamen Rider Series is moved to a new time slot on TBS as the slot that Kamen Rider Amazon originally occupied had been taken by .
** of , Shotaro Ishinomori's new tokusatsu series, is first broadcast, having taken the time slot (Saturday evenings at 7:30pm on NET (TV Asahi)) from Kamen Rider Amazon. Gorenger would eventually result in the Super Sentai franchise which is now regarded as the sister franchise of the Kamen Rider Series, currently airing together in the Super Hero Time block.
* December 27: Stronger last episode aired.
==1976==
*January 3: The TV special, All Together! Seven Kamen Riders, is first broadcast. Marking an end to the original run of the Showa Phase 1 Kamen Rider Series, the five shows of the Seven Legendary Riders, which started in 1971.
*February 16: Joe Odagiri is born.
*April 3: 5th Anniversary of the franchise.
*May: Televi-Kun begins publication 
==1977==
* April 1: NET is renamed TV Asahi.
* October 19: Takamasa Suga is born.
==1978==
*March 18: , uniting Shotaro Ishinomori's original two Sentai series, is released in theaters. The movie contains references to Kamen Riders V3 and Amazon, as well as Kikaider.
*Star Wars: A New Hope debuts in Japanese theaters during the summer to massive success. This groundbreaking American sci-fi film had a ripple effect on Japanese science fiction, with many creators trying to apply elements of its atmosphere, themes, and style. Ishinomori himself even used some of its elements in his works such as the expensive to produce film Message From Space which released the same year and Kamen Rider Black RX 10 years later.
==1979==
*January 16: Toshiki Kashu is born.
*September 8: The Immortal Kamen Rider Special is broadcast on TV, introducing a new Kamen Rider.
*October 5: Kamen Rider (Skyrider) first broadcast. The start of the first revival of the Kamen Rider Series, this show is known simply as Kamen Rider as it was originally intended to be a reboot, but is now known as The New Kamen Rider or Skyrider.
==1980==
*January: Uchusen begins publication 
*January 19: Takahito Omori is born, the day after Skyrider episode 16.
*March 15: Kamen Rider The Movie: 8 Riders vs. Galaxy King premieres in Japanese theaters.
*October 10: Skyrider last episode aired.
*October 17: Kamen Rider Super-1 first broadcast.
*The DX Henshin Belt toy line for Popy ends with the Cyclode belt.
==1981==
*March 14: Kamen Rider Super-1: The Movie premiered in Japanese cinemas.
*February 1: Costume and prop company Rainbow Zoukei is founded.
*April 3: 10th anniversary of the franchise, 1 week following episode 23 airing, there is no episode this week.
*October 3: Super-1 last episode aired.
==1982==
*June 1982: Takayuki Tsubaki is born.
*The tenth Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider ZX, debuts in an eponymous manga series which begins serialization in the July 1982 issue of the Japanese publication TV Magazine.
*August 14: ZX is featured in a short radio drama broadcast during a special episode of All Night Nippon hosted by Shotaro Ishinomori, commemorating the character's official debut.
*Space Sheriff Gavan debuts, marking the beginning of the Metal Heroes franchise and a replacement for the then absent Kamen Rider series.
==1983==
==1984==
*January 3: The TV special Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!! is broadcast. Featuring the live-action debut and origin story of Kamen Rider ZX. ZX does not get his own TV show, but this episode is considered as a single-episode series by Toei. This is marked an end to the Phase 2 run of the Showa Era Kamen Rider Series which started with "The New Kamen Rider".
*April 3: Hiro Mizushima is born, on the 13th anniversary of the franchise.
*June 4: Kento Handa is born.
*The first Kamen Rider video game is published for Fujitsu FM-7 personal computer system.
==1985==
* February 2: Renn Kiriyama is born.
==1986==
*April 3: 15th anniversary of the franchise.
*April 6: Takehisa Yamaguchi dies, 3 days after the 15th anniversary of Kamen Rider. He was 41.
*August 12: Actress Kyoko Okada dies from a severe asthma attack. She was 27 years old.
==1987==
*September 27: The TV special This is Kamen Rider Black is broadcast, introducing Kamen Rider Black and starts the Phase 3 Showa Series.
*October 4: Kamen Rider Black first broadcast.
*The DX Henshin Belt toy line is revived after a six year hiatus as a Bandai brand with the Kamen Rider Black DX TV Power Henshin Belt.
==1988==
*February: Kamen Rider Club debuts on the Famicom. The first home console game.
*March 12: Kamen Rider Black: Hurry to Onigashima premieres at the Toei Manga Matsuri film festival.
*April 15: Kamen Rider Black: Taiketsu Shadow Moon for the Nintendo Famicom Disk System arrived in stores. This is the first video game based on a Rider TV series to be on a home gaming console.
*April 29: Kamen Rider: Run All Over the World, Kamen Riders' first 3D film, featurng Kotaro Minami's four rider forms, starts screening in the Coal History Village in Yubari.
*May 18: Koji Seto is born, 3 days after Black episode 31 airing.
*October 9: Black last episode aired.
*October 23: Kamen Rider Black RX first broadcast.
==1989==
*January 7: Showa era ends because of Emperor Hirohito's death at age 88. After 63 years of reign, the begins, therefore, episode 11 of Black RX that had to air January 8, is postponed to January 15. Emperor Hirohito's son, Akihito, ascends to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the Heisei Emperor.
*February 9: Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy and Shotaro Ishinomori’s former boss and friend, dies of heart failure at age 60
*March 20: Masahiro Inoue is born, the day after Black RX episode 20 airing.
*March 21: Takeru Satoh is born, 2 days after Black RX episode 20 airing.
*September 24: The final episode of Black RX was aired. The Showa Kamen Rider TV series comes to an end. Kamen Rider would be dormant for a decade, with only minor broadcasts, the 90s film trilogy and derived products keeping the franchise alive.
==1990==
*The manga series Kamen Rider SD is first released, featuring super deformed versions of various Kamen Riders featured from Kamen Rider through Black RX placed in a cartoonish world, where each enemy of the Riders has banded together under the command of the "Great Leader" under the name "Grand Shocker." Bandai would later produce merchandise featuring SD Rider characters as a follow-up to the popular SD Gundam toys.
*3 August: Shunya Shiraishi is born.
==1991==
*April 3: 20th anniversary of the franchise.
*October 26: Shu Watanabe is born.
*Japan’s economy collapses in a bubble burst after a decade of prosperity, resulting in the “Lost Decades” as the nation struggles with various factors causing the economy to lag behind the rest of the world over the next 30 years.
==1992==
*April 3: Gaku Sano is born on the 21st anniversary of the franchise.
*February 20: The V-Cinema film Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue is released.
==1993==
*January 23: An OVA based on Kamen Rider SD is broadcast on TV.
*February 21: Masaki Suda is born.
*April 17: Kamen Rider ZO is released in theaters, as the 20th Anniversary Rider.
*April 26: Ryoma Takeuchi is born.
*May 30: Sota Fukushi is born.
*July 21: A TV special called Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider, featuring clips from the various shows in the Kamen Rider Series and Ultra Series from over the years, interviews with two of the stars, and finally a team-up between Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman and Toei Company's Kamen Rider, was released.
*Kamen Rider is released for the Super Famicom.
==1994==
*April 16: Kamen Rider J is released in theaters as part of the Toei Super Hero Fair event.
*June 13: Atsuhiro Inukai is born.
*August 6: Kamen Rider World, the first ever crossover film featuring a crossover between Kamen Rider ZO and Kamen Rider J, is released in amusement parks and special events nationwide in Japan alongside and .
==1995==
*September 2: Part I of A Friend in Need, the three-part opener of of , is first broadcast on Fox Kids. It features the introduction of Dex Stewart, the titular hero of the then upcoming Saban's Masked Rider, which was adapted from Kamen Rider Black RX in the same vein that Power Rangers is adapted from Super Sentai.
*September 9: Parts II and III of A Friend in Need are broadcast on Fox Kids.
*September 16: Escape from Edenoi, the two-part premiere of Saban's Masked Rider, is first broadcast on Fox Kids.
*November 16: 12796 Kamenrider is find and name by astronomers, in tribute to Shotaro Ishinomori.
*A massive earthquake of magnitude 7 hits Kobe causing the largest toll of damage and deaths in Japan since the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. A series of deadly terrorist attacks involving sarin gas occurs on the subways.
*The city of Ishinomaki proposes a museum be built in honor of their most famous resident, Shotaro Ishinomori.
==1996==
*Kamen Rider Series firstly licensed in Taiwan.
*May 14: Syuichiro Naito is born.
*August 16: Hiroki Iijima is born.
*Shotaro Ishinomori meets Batman writer Jerry Robinson at an art exhibition with the latter teasing a “Batman vs. Kamen Rider” crossover idea.
==1997==
*Susumu Yoshikawa retires from Toei.
*Hyper Hobby begins publication.
==1998==
*January 28: Shotaro Ishinomori dies from congestive heart failure, ending his involvement with the Kamen Rider Series. He was 60. At the time of his death, he already had worked on the concepts of what would become Kamen Rider Kuuga, the first series of the Heisei era revival in 2000.
*February 20: Shun Nishime is born.
==1999==
*Pre-production begins on Kamen Rider Kuuga
*January 24: The Metal Heroes series is canceled after dismal ratings, with the final show Robotack ending its run. Kamen Rider would replace it the following year, creating what will become the Super Hero Time block of kids programming on Sunday. This block would pair it with its sister show Super Sentai.
==2000==
*January 30: Kamen Rider Kuuga first broadcast on TV Asahi as the first Heisei Kamen Rider Series. It revives the franchise from the dormant state it was in during the 1990s. It marks the first series to be made without the late Shotaro Ishinomori’s supervision.
*August 21: So Okuno is born, the day after episode 29 of Kuuga.
*August 27: The first ever Hyper Battle Video is released
==2001==
*January 21: Kuuga last episode aired.
*January 28: Kamen Rider Agito first broadcast.
*March 12: Fumiya Takahashi is born, the day after episode 7 of Agito.
*April 3: The Kamen Rider franchise celebrates its 30th anniversary.
*September 22: Kamen Rider Agito: Project G4, the movie for Kamen Rider Agito, is released in theaters alongside the of . Project G4 starts the trend of Kamen Riders getting an annual summer movie.
*Kamen Rider Series is licensed in South Korea.
*The Kamen Rider Spirits manga begins publishing 
*The Ishinomori Manga Museum opened to the public in Ishinomaki.
==2002==
*February 3: Kamen Rider Ryuki first broadcast.
==2003==
*January 19: Final episode of Kamen Rider Ryuki aired.
*January 26: Kamen Rider 555 first broadcast.
*November 27: Kamen Rider: Seigi no Keifu is released in stores for the PlayStation 2.
==2004==
*January 25: Kamen Rider Blade first broadcast.
*February 1: Futari wa Precure debuts, launching the Pretty Cure magical girl series. This show would serve as the unofficial “third member” of the Super Hero Time block and some of Kamen Rider’s writers and producers would help make future installments of the franchise.
==2005==
*January 30: Kamen Rider Hibiki first broadcast.
*October 23: The early screenings of the first reboot genre film in Kamen Rider franchise, Kamen Rider The First, was held at the Tokyo Film Festival up until the premiere date.
*December 5: Kamen Rider The First is released in theaters.
==2006==
*January: The first Detail of Heroes book, for Hibiki, is published.
*January 29: Kamen Rider Kabuto first broadcast.
*April 3: Kamen Rider turns 35 years old and special files about the franchise would be made in the build up to the summer film Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love.
*Super Sentai reached its 30th season, Boukenger. To celebrate both anniversary events, Satoru Akashi and Souji Tendou would interact with each other during Super Hero Time bumpers. This is the first time a Rider and a Ranger would have conversations with each other out of costume in these promotions with their respective actors on screen.
*May: Shigenori Takatera resigns from Toei.
*March 31: Bandai and Namco complete a corporate merger, becoming Bandai Namco Entertainment.
==2007==
*January 28: Kamen Rider Den-O first broadcast.
*April 3: American anime distributor releases Kamen Rider The First subtitled-only on Region 1 DVD.
*August 3: Kamen Rider Den-O + Shin-O is broadcast as part of the Crayon Shin-chan special Crayon Shin-chan Midsummer Night: Here I Come! The Storm is Called Den-O vs. Shin-O 60 Minute Special!!. This is the first time Kamen Rider interacts with another franchise's character in a form of animation.
*Bandai acquires a stake in Ishimori Production’s holdings to form a new corporate incarnation of the latter, though Ishinomori’s sons, the Onodera brothers, still have control of the company.
==2008==
*January 27: Kamen Rider Kiva first broadcast.
*February: Bandai launches the S.H.Figuarts toy line for collectors and older fans of the Kamen Rider franchise. The first figure is the reboot film version of Kamen Rider 1 from Kamen Rider: The Next.
*April 12: Kamen Rider Den-O & Kiva: Climax Cop is released in theaters. The animated short Momotaros's Let's Go Kiva! was shown as double feature.
*June 2: Toei announces on its various official websites that there would be a series of short five-minute internet movies that are spin-offs of both Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World and to be accessed by a mobile phone service.
==2009==
*January 25: Kamen Rider Decade first broadcast.
*January 29: A press release from Toei Company announces that there will be a fourth film for Kamen Rider Den-O. This started the option of movies for Kamen Rider made by Toei to premiere during the spring season.
*January 31: The one-off special Kamen Rider G, featuring a cameo by Kamen Rider Decade and the Nine Heisei Riders, is aired on 's SmaSTATION talk show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of TV Asahi as well as the 10th anniversary of the Heisei Kamen Rider Series.
*July 12: The Arrival of the Samurai Sentai was aired on TV Asahi, marks the first on-screen crossover between Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Series.
*September 6: Kamen Rider W first broadcast. The Heisei Rider Series Phase 2 also begins today.
*Costume and prop designer company Blend Master is founded. They serve as a replacement for Rainbow Zoukei, who decided to reduce their workload by focusing on Super Sentai while Blend Master works on Kamen Rider.
*Ganbaride cards and the arcade cabinet game that utilizes them are introduced.
==2010==
*September 5: Kamen Rider OOO first broadcast.
==2011==
*March 11: .
*April 1: OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Kamen Rider Series as well as the 60th anniversary of Toei Company with cameos by Ishinomori heroes Kikaider, Kikaider 01, Inazuman and Zubat, is released in theaters.
*September 4: Kamen Rider Fourze first broadcast. The show celebrated 40 years of Kamen Rider and 50 years of manned space flight.
*The television show begins having a sponsorship from McDonald's, with Kamen Rider Happy Set toys being produced for each season. Bandai capitalized on this by printing limited edition Ganbaride cards to be given away at restaurant locations.
*Kamen Rider Gummi candies begin production with Fourze themed grape gummies.
==2012==
*February 29: The Skytree, a high definition broadcast tower in Tokyo, completes construction and transitions major networks away from standard definition broadcasting. Kamen Rider and its sister show Super Sentai make the transition to full HD broadcast on TV Asahi.
*April 14: Shigeru Araki passed away.
*August 2: All Kamen Rider: Rider Generation 2 is released for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP.
*September 2: Kamen Rider Wizard first broadcast.
==2013==
*March 23: The Ishinomori Manga Museum has a reopening ceremony after completing 2 years of repair work from the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami. The event is dedicated by Hiroshi Fujioka and featured the Kamen Riders appearing with Sea Jetter Kaito to lift the spirits of the children and citizens of Ishinomaki.
*April 27: was released in theaters, it is the first on-screen crossover between Kamen Rider and the Metal Heroes Series.
*May 23: Kamen Rider: Battride War is released for the PlayStation 3.
*July 31: Tohru Hirayama passed away.
*October 6: Kamen Rider Gaim first broadcast.
*The Ganbaride arcade cabinet system and cards are retired for the sequel and upgraded card system: Ganbarizing.
*The “Juicy Kid” mascot of the Kamen Rider Gummi candies makes his first televised appearance in an ad for Gaim Orange flavor gummies.
==2014==
*October 5: Kamen Rider Drive first broadcast.
==2015==
*June 26: Kamen Rider: Battride War II is released for the PlayStation 3 and Wii U.
*October 4: Kamen Rider Ghost first broadcast.
==2016==
*February 2: Character designer and artist Yasushi Nirasawa dies at age 52 from renal failure complications.
*February 25: Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis is released for the Sony family of game consoles: PS3, PS4 and the Vita.
*April 1: Kamen Rider Amazons starts streaming online on Amazon Prime video service.
*April 3: 45th Anniversary
*October 2: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid first broadcast.
*December 1: All Kamen Rider: Rider Revolution is released for the Nintendo 3DS.
==2017==
*August 7: Futo Tantei begins publication in Weekly Big Comic Spirits.
*August 26-27: The first Japan World Heroes convention is held in Pasadena, California. Kamen Rider W actor Renn Kiriyama is among the honored guests, doing a Q&A panel and signing autographs for US fans.
*September 3: Kamen Rider Build first broadcast.
*October 1: Kamen Rider Series' TV broadcasting schedule changes from 8:00 to 9:00 (JST).
*December 7: Kamen Rider: Climax Fighters arrives in stores for the PlayStation 4.
==2018==
*September 2: Kamen Rider Zi-O first broadcast.
*Kamen Rider Series is licensed in China's Mainland.
*Bandai acquires an 80% stake of the American toy retailer/distributor Bluefin Brands.
==2019==
*April 30: Emperor Akihito abdicates his position due to health issues, his son Prince Naruhito ascends to the throne as the new emperor. The Heisei era ends.
*May 1: begins.
*May 20: Yoshinori Watanabe passed away.
*August 16-19: Japan World Heroes II takes place. Actors Takayuki Tsubaki and Stephen Ford appear along with a special art demonstration and Q&A panel for Kamen Rider Spirits manga artist Kenichi Muraeda.
*August 25: The final episode of Kamen Rider Zi-O was aired on TV Asahi, which concludes the entire Heisei Rider Series, as well as the Phase 2.
*September 1: Kamen Rider Zero-One first broadcast.
*Team Kamen Rider, a marketing and social media group of Bluefin Brands made up of American fans of the franchise, is established. The team begins by doing online surveys to get an idea of what consumers in the USA wanted in terms of products.
*October: Bluefin begins the first Kamen Rider toy online pre-order directed to US markets, the S.H. Figuarts of Kamen Rider Zero-One Rising Hopper.
*November: Bluefin announced that Henshin Belts were now able to be ordered from their website. The CSM Double Driver 1.5 becomes the first one fans could order. To further advertise and have some fun, Team Rider appeared at Anime NYC and let fans show their passion with a meetup and photo op in Times Square.
*December 7-8: Bandai has a “Henshin Expo” in Akihabara, showcasing the history of CSM Heisei Era Henshin belts and showing off both concepts for unreleased belts and three advanced prototype models that tease possible future features of toy belts.
==2020==
*The global pandemic puts Kamen Rider Zero-One on hiatus for 5 weeks, derailing an intended story arc and forcing rewrites to the show to make up for lost time.
*February 22: Bandai attends the New York Toy Fair with Bluefin Brands and, for the first time ever, displays Kamen Rider toys to the press and trade show attendees. 
*February 28: Kamen Rider 913 begins publication.
*March 16: Shout! Factory announced it would stream both Kamen Rider and the Super Sentai shows it had already licensed on a new streaming service called TokuSHOUTsu along with the original 1971 Kamen Rider series on the following day on March 17, 2020 in United States.
*June: The 100th chapter of Futo Tantei is released.
*July 1: The Kamen Rider Store Tokyo had its grand opening to the public.
*July 11: Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Forever streams live for US audiences thanks to Shout! Factory and Team Kamen Rider, marking the first time a Kamen Rider film is shown officially in the USA.
*September 6: Kamen Rider Saber first broadcast.
*The COVID-19 pandemic postpones the Tokyo Olympics, which would have delayed Zero-One by one week.
== 2021 ==
*April 3: Kamen Rider reaches its golden anniversary. Special merchandise and projects are announced throughout the year to celebrate.
*April 4: Episode 29 of Saber airs one day after the premiere of the original Kamen Rider in 1971.
* premieres during the summer. This film celebrated both milestones of 50 years of Kamen Rider and 45 seasons of Super Sentai. Hiroshi Fujioka returned to portray Takeshi Hongo and Kamen Rider 1’s original costume from Episode 1 was remade exclusively for action scenes in the film.
*The Tokyo Olympics, having been postponed from 2020, occurs in 2021, delaying Saber by one weekend.
*Kamen Rider Revice premieres.
*The Ishinomori Manga Museum has a 20th anniversary celebration, with special exhibits throughout the year.
*Toei Tokusatsu World begins uploading the first 2 episodes of every Kamen Rider series and the 1990s movies to YouTube as part of the 50th anniversary celebration.
*Actor Sonny Chiba, one of the founders of Japan Action Enterprises and father of Mackenyu, dies at age 81 from complications caused by a Covid-19 infection.