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Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba listens to a reporter's question as he attends a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 2, 2024
South Korea's Yoon and Japan's Ishiba agree to continue 'shuttle diplomacy'
In his first phone call with the South Korean leader, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba stressed the importance of the two countries’ maintaining close communications,
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, 66, has experience as the onetime head of Japan’s former Defense Agency before it became a full-fledged ministry and is seen as a pair of steady hands.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Oct 2, 2024
Ishiba looks to 'defense tribe' to fill key Cabinet positions
The new prime minister has named four former defense ministers to key posts — most notably, the defense and foreign affairs portfolios.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba speaks during a news conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 2, 2024
Ishiba holds first phone call with Biden as prime minister
In their talks, Ishiba noted that the U.S.-Japan alliance “has been strengthened considerably” under his predecessor, and pledged “to continue along that path.”
Taiwanese soldiers exit an amphibious assault vehicle to another position during a landing drill as part of the Han Kuang military exercise in Pingtung, Taiwan, in July 2022. Under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, the U.S. is bound by law to sell arms to Taiwan for its self-defense.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 30, 2024
U.S. announces $567 million military aid package for Taiwan
The order means the U.S. will directly ship its own weapon stocks to Taiwan, a move it has employed often to support Ukraine’s war effort.
Shigeru Ishiba, newly elected leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, speaks at a news conference after winning the party's leadership election in Tokyo on Friday.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Sep 29, 2024
Ishiba's foreign policy vision to face immediate tests as he takes helm
The new Japanese leader will be greeted immediately with the challenge of reining in escalating regional tensions and building up the U.S. alliance.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Sazanami leaves Sasebo Naval Base in Saikai, Nagasaki Prefecture, in April 2012.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 28, 2024
Japan and U.S. partners hold dueling military drills with China in South China Sea
The first MSDF warship to transit the Taiwan Strait joined naval and air forces from Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines and the U.S. for the exercises.
A series of satellite images from Planet Labs appears to show cranes at the Wuchang shipyard in Wuhan, China, on June 15.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 27, 2024
China's newest nuclear-powered submarine sank this year, U.S. says
It was not clear if the sub was carrying nuclear fuel, but the accident has dealt a major blow to Beijing as it seeks to showcase its growing military prowess.
The Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer Sazanami arrives in Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean during a scheduled port visit in July. The Sazanami became the first Japanese warship to sail through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 26, 2024
Japan MSDF warship sails through Taiwan Strait for first time
The transit on Wednesday, which follows a spate of Chinese military moves near Japan, drew a strongly worded warning from Beijing.
Yonaguni Mayor Kenichi Itokazu speaks to a Ground Self-Defense Force soldier at the town hall on Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost inhabited island in Okinawa Prefecture last  November.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 26, 2024
Deterring Taiwan conflict is top priority for Japan's ‘front-line’ mayor
The mayor believes the U.S. and Japan must do away with "strategic ambiguity" over Taiwan if they intend to keep China in check.
Chinese military vehicles carrying DF-41 intercontinental ballistic missiles travel past Beijing's Tiananmen Square during a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, on Oct. 1, 2019.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 25, 2024
China fires long-range missile into Pacific Ocean in rare test
Tokyo said it had not received advance notification from the Chinese side of the launch, which Beijing said was part of annual military training.
A Maritime Self-Defense Force P-1 patrol plane fires off flares during a demonstration at an international fleet review ceremony in November 2022. The firing of flares is intended to confuse heat-seeking missiles but they are also commonly deployed to warn away other aircraft.
JAPAN / ANALYSIS
Sep 24, 2024
Moscow and Beijing unlikely to stop testing Tokyo's limits
Tokyo’s unprecedented decision to fire flares as a warning after a Russian military plane entered Japanese airspace may not be enough to prevent a recurrence.
Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa (left) holds talks with China's top diplomat, Wang Yi (right center), during their 55-minute meeting at United Nations headquarters in New York on Monday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 24, 2024
China urges Japan to deal with stabbing 'calmly' as details of motive elude
Beijing has been trying to prevent the stabbing of the 10-year-old Japanese boy from spiraling into a wider diplomatic row between the Asian powers.
A Russian IL-38 patrol aircraft is seen in this image taken by the Air Self-Defense Force on Monday.
JAPAN
Sep 23, 2024
Japan fighters fire flares after Russian military plane enters airspace
A Russian IL-38 patrol aircraft violated Japanese airspace off Hokkaido’s Rebun Island three times, with the ASDF firing flares for the first time in response.
A China Coast Guard ship (left) collides with the Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Teresa Magbanua near the Sabina Shoal, in disputed waters of the South China Sea, on Aug. 31.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics / ANALYSIS
Sep 22, 2024
'Quad' cements ties with coast guard patrols amid China concerns
China has long objected to the Quad, calling it part of a concerted effort to encircle and contain Beijing.
A stranded car is seen on a mud-covered road following heavy rain in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Sunday.
JAPAN
Sep 22, 2024
Six dead and six more missing after 'unprecedented' rains in quake-hit Ishikawa
Authorities called for continued vigilance due to the risk of landslides and flooding in rivers and low-lying areas.
A car is seen in a crevice that opened up in a road amid heavy rains in Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Saturday.
JAPAN
Sep 21, 2024
'Unprecedented' rains in quake-hit Ishikawa leave at least one dead
Rain across a swath of the Noto Peninsula — still recovering from the Jan. 1 earthquake — triggered floods and landslides that also left a handful of people missing.
China's Liaoning aircraft carrier sails in waters near Okinawa Prefecture on Wednesday.
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2024
Chinese carrier sails between Japanese islands near Taiwan for first time
China's Liaoning aircraft carrier passed through a narrow waterway between Yonaguni and Iriomote islands in Okinawa Prefecture.
North Korean leader Kim Jong inspects the training base of the special operation armed force of the Korean People's Army at an undisclosed location in the country on Sept. 11.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 18, 2024
North Korea fires off 'multiple' ballistic missiles in latest show of force
The Defense Ministry in Tokyo said the latest launches saw the missiles splash down into waters outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.
A screenshot from video taken on Aug. 31 shows a China Coast Guard ship colliding with the Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Teresa Magbanua near Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea.
ASIA PACIFIC
Sep 16, 2024
Philippines vows continued presence after South China Sea reef pullout
Manila denied it has given up on Sabina Shoal, a day after it withdrew a ship that had been stationed there amid a five-month standoff with China.
Candidates for Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party presidential election stand together onstage at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Saturday.
JAPAN / Politics
Sep 15, 2024
LDP presidential hopefuls outline approach to U.S. and China concerns
The nine candidates jostled over the best way to resolve Nippon Steel's contentious bid for U.S. Steel, while also grappling with the Chinese military challenge.

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Dul Saroth (left) and Soeum Samrach, deminers with the Cambodian Mine Action and Victim Assistance Authority, practice using the Advanced Landmine Imaging System in Cambodia’s Siem Reap province in August.
The Japanese tech that could one day make Southeast Asia landmine-free