Japan's navy held its annual fleet review yesterday, with destroyers lining the seas and missiles roaring through the air in a major display of this country's military power.
More than 8,100 troops and 48 ships -- including AEGIS-equipped destroyers and state-of-the-art submarines -- took part in the review, which was held in waters just south of Tokyo.
"Our country's Self-Defense Forces are being called upon to play a more crucial and varied role," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an address to the sailors aboard the Kurama, a destroyer that served as flagship during the maneuvers.
Abe singled out North Korea as a major threat to Japan, saying its recent ballistic missile test launches and its claim to have exploded a nuclear device on Oct. 9 are "grave and unforgivable."
Though planned well before North Korea's nuclear test, yesterday's review put the Japanese navy's best ships on display -- from vessels rigged with the advanced AEGIS radar system to brand new, conventionally powered submarines and high-speed hovercraft capable of quickly putting heavy vehicles or hundreds of troops ashore in difficult to reach locations.
"I believe this is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our readiness," Abe said in his address.
While limited by Japan's post-World War II Constitution to a strictly defensive role, Japan's military is one of the largest and best equipped in the world.
Largely in response to the North Korean threat, and concerns over the growth of China's military, it is getting stronger.
Last week, lawmakers began discussing a plan to boost the Defense Agency to a full-fledged ministry, giving it greater clout in budget and policy negotiations.
The transformation is expected to come over the New Year's holidays, though it still requires a final vote in parliament.
Concerns over North Korea have also led Japan to step up efforts to strengthen its missile defenses.
Japan launched its third spy satellite earlier this year and is rapidly moving ahead on plans to deploy missiles around the country in an ambitious, multibillion dollar missile shield project with the US.
Soon after Pyongyang's nuclear test, Japanese warships were dispatched to the Sea of Japan to monitor activity on the Korean Peninsula.
Japan also currently has warships in the Indian Ocean which are providing logistical support to coalition forces that are deployed in Afghanistan.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS