Japan fired its navy chief yesterday and slapped dozens of defense officials with penalties over a series of scandals, while a report found the military negligent in a deadly crash between a destroyer and a fishing boat.
Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who faced pressure to resign following the collision, said he would take a two-month pay cut as part of disciplinary measures aimed at restoring public trust in his battered ministry.
Topping the list of ministry troubles has been a leak of sensitive missile data last year that led to a naval officer's indictment, and the collision last month between a destroyer and a tuna trawler that left two fishermen presumed dead.
"We promise to take preventive measures firmly and promptly," Ishiba told reporters, repeating his apologies for "impermissible" scandals and accidents.
Ishiba said he would set up an investigative panel to prevent future problems, but gave no details.
Maritime Self-Defense Forces chief Admiral Eiji Yoshikawa was dismissed over the destroyer collision. He is to be succeeded by Keiji Akahoshi, a former regional commander at Sasebo naval base in southern Japan.
Two vice defense ministers and 19 other navy executives are also taking pay cuts, returning part of their monthly salaries to government coffers for up to two months. Seventeen others were suspended from work for up to 40 days over the data leak. A total of 88 officials were punished.
The Defense Ministry also issued a report yesterday acknowledging negligence in the collision with the fishing boat, saying the destroyer failed to guard against smaller vessels and ignored its responsibility to give way.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS