The Ground Self-Defense Force has marked a historic milestone with the launch of its first dedicated amphibious brigade, a type of unit that was long deemed too offensive to possess under Japan's postwar defensive security policy. "Our goal is to become the world's top-class amphibious ...

While debate continues on whether to amend the nation’s pacifist Constitution, less attention has been given to the referendum system under which the public will give its final say.

As Japan seeks to beef up its defenses in response to North Korea's rapidly advancing nuclear and missile program, its long-held policy of sticking to a strictly self-defensive security posture will likely come under close scrutiny in 2018. In particular, a plan to acquire long-range ...

Outgoing defense chief Tomomi Inada never seemed to understand the job, and her mentor’s rush to expedite her career may have left her out of her league, critics say.

After losing World War II, Japan decided to pursue pacifism under a war-renouncing Constitution, and its scientists vowed to avoid military research in repentance for cooperating with the military. But this long-held position is being complicated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policy of luring universities ...

Fulfilling Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge to make Japan a “proactive contributor to peace” may not be so easy.

Every month, Harumi Sugiyama and Yumiko Hongo visit an apartment complex in Tokyo accommodating people who fled the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, listening to the evacuees as they talk about their daily lives, frustrations and sorrows. The two are mental care specialists who have taken ...

Late last year, the government steamrolled through the construction of helipads for the U.S. military in the northern main island of Okinawa amid a local outcry over what is viewed as a further increase in the burden of hosting U.S. bases in the prefecture. The ...

William Schull, a 94-year-old U.S. scholar who has spent decades studying the health effects of the U.S. atomic bombings, is a man conflicted who still longs to learn from the tragedies of World War II. On the one hand, he believes the atomic bombings were ...

A fisherman who suffered radiation sickness after a 1954 U.S. hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean is campaigning for a monument to the danger of fallout from nuclear tests. Matashichi Oishi wants the 2-ton stone, which has already been carved, to be placed on ...