The Japanese government is planning to build air defense shelters on Miyako Island in Okinawa Prefecture due to concerns that war might break out in the Taiwan Strait, Japanese media reported.
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno on Saturday reportedly visited the prefecture to discuss evacuation plans in the event of such an emergency.
Japan would soon begin gathering opinions from experts to draw up guidelines for air defense shelters, so that they could withstand an attack by the end of the year, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday.
Photo: Reuters
About 10 experts would be selected to formulate the guidelines, the newspaper said, adding that standards for floor space and wall thickness are expected to be discussed with nuclear and missile attacks in mind.
Japan’s National Security Strategy, which was revised in December last year, states that Japan must strengthen its civil protection system and evacuation facilities, especially on the Nansei Islands, including Miyako Island, which is governed as part of the City of Miyakojima, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
The aim is to ensure the safety of local government employees and others who would likely be unable to evacuate in advance, it said.
The Miyakojima city government last month asked the Japanese Ministry of Defense to provide financial assistance to convert the basement of a planned gymnasium into an air defense shelter, the newspaper said.
Equipped with storage warehouses and power generation facilities, the shelter has been designed to accommodate about 4,500 people for three days, it said.
In addition to Miyako Island, Japan would expedite efforts to build air defense shelters on the islands of Yonaguni and Ishigaki, it said.
Yonaguni Island, also part of the Nansei Islands, is about 100km from Taiwan and is likely to be affected if China invades Taiwan, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.
Meanwhile, Matsuno on Saturday began a three-day visit to the Nansei Islands to learn about “the situation and opinions on the ground” while devising plans to protect Japanese nationals during a Taiwan emergency, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported on Saturday.
It could take up to 10 days to evacuate everyone on Ishigaki Island, including tourists, so shelters would be needed to ensure their safety, Matsuno was quoted as saying.
Ishigaki Mayor Yoshitaka Nakayama said he hoped the central government could help expand the isalnd’s quays and extend its airport runways to ensure quick evacuations during emergencies, NHK reported.
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS