Senior official says Japan ready to build all submarines for Canberra in Australia
Japan is ready to match European rivals and build a fleet of submarines for Canberra entirely in Australian shipyards, a senior Japanese official said Tuesday, after stumbling in its effort to win a contract worth 50 billion Australian dollars or $34.76 billion. Tokyo was willing ...
Private high school in Kochi to launch course to foster SDF personnel
A private high school in the city of Kochi will launch a course in the 2016 academic year to foster personnel for the Self-Defense Forces, school officials said. Kochi Chuo High School's "SDF course" will provide training in the martial art of jukendo and classroom ...
The Abe administration needs to provide sufficient explanations on the SDF's activities and operations related to the bills to the Diet to prevent the SDF from making decisions while keeping the Diet and the public in the dark.
Defense Ministry gives glimpse of wartime underground vault on premises
The Defense Ministry showed a wartime underground vault to the media Monday that was built by the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army under the ministry compound in Ichigaya, Tokyo. During the war, the vault was constructed under a building housing the Army Department of the Imperial ...
Japan Defense Ministry to seek record-high ¥5.2 trillion budget for next fiscal year
The Defense Ministry is considering seeking a record-high budget of up to ¥5.2 trillion for fiscal 2016 from next April, following spending hikes over the past three years under the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a senior ministry official said. The budget request will ...
Drone disappears during windy test flight at Defense Ministry
A commercial drone being test-flown at the Defense Ministry's premises in central Tokyo went missing amid strong winds Wednesday but was apparently found and recovered hours later, the ministry said. The drone disappeared when members of the Self-Defense Forces and others were testing it on ...
Fighter jet scrambles by the Air Self-Defense Force fell by half in the April-June period to 173 from a year earlier, the Defense Ministry said. Scrambles against Russian planes posted a one-off spike in the second quarter of 2014, and the quarterly decline this year ...
Defense personnel data feared leaked after cyberattack on hotel
Data about defense personnel may have been leaked after a cyberattack in May compromised computers at a Tokyo hotel mainly used by Defense Ministry officials and Self-Defense Forces personnel, sources said Tuesday. A computer at Hotel Grand Hill Ichigaya, run by the mutual aid society ...
Australia to get classified Japanese data on stealthy submarines ahead of bid, sources say
Japan will agree this month to give Australia classified submarine data, an unprecedented step signaling Tokyo's intent to join competitive bidding to sell Canberra a fleet of stealth subs, said two Japanese officials familiar with the plan. The "competitive assessment" will see Germany's ThyssenKrupp and ...
Lawmakers should confirm the importance of civilian control of the SDF and pursue ways to strengthen the system rather than to undermine it.
The central government has sued the Okinawa Prefectural Government to nullify its decision to disclose documents including an accord on joint use of a road in Okinawa without the consent of the Japanese and U.S. governments, the Defense Ministry said Thursday. The central government filed ...
The Defense Ministry was ordered Thursday by the Tokyo High Court to pay all of about ¥35 billion in damages sought by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. for canceling a helicopter order in 2008. The high court overturned a Tokyo District Court ruling last year that ...
