National / Politics Dec 2, 2019
Japan's next SDF mission to Mideast may include its biggest warships
The next Self-Defense Forces dispatch to the Middle East could get Cabinet approval by the end of the year.
National / Politics May 28, 2019
In symbolic first, Abe and Trump jointly address military personnel aboard Japan's Kaga carrier
by Sakura Murakami
Peppered with pomp and decorum, Trump’s four-day visit to Japan ended with a gesture highlighting the long-standing military ties between the two countries.
National Oct 19, 2018
MSDF ships on Indo-Pacific mission stop in Singapore during ASEAN plus defense summit
Two Maritime Self-Defense Force ships are in Singapore — where a major meeting of defense ministers is under way — as the last stop of a two-month deployment through the Indo-Pacific region. At a news conference Thursday aboard the helicopter carrier and destroyer Kaga, berthed ...
National Oct 11, 2018
Japanese helicopter carrier wages daily war on dirt and grime
by Tim Kelly
The Kaga helicopter carrier is not the biggest, fastest or most powerful warship to sail the seas, but its 500 crew wage a daily war on dirt and grime to keep it the cleanest. At sunset each evening on a nine-day goodwill voyage from Indonesia ...
National / Social Issues Oct 10, 2018
Japan's female sailors serve on front line of gender equality
Women serving on Japan's biggest warship, the Kaga, are a tight-knit group on the front line of a push to transform the Japanese navy into a mixed-gender fighting force, where men outnumber them more than 10 to one. The Maritime Self Defense Force needs more ...
National Sep 27, 2018
Japan's biggest warship, the Kaga helicopter carrier, joined naval drills with Britain's HMS Argyll in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday as the frigate headed toward the contested South China Sea and East Asia. Britain, Japan and their close ally the United States have found common ...
National / Politics | ANALYSIS Aug 22, 2018
by Jesse Johnson
The Maritime Self-Defense Force will link up with five Asian navies and the U.S. during a dispatch involving three vessels that is certain to stoke anger in Beijing.
Business / Corporate Feb 2, 2017
Ishikawa firm's styrofoam domes find favor with farmers seeking disaster-proof growing environment
by Nana Kunieda
For years, Katsuyuki Kitagawa dreamed of living in a comfortable home in the shape of a domed manju (dumpling), minus the bean paste. For over a decade his firm, Japan Dome House Co., based in Kaga, Ishikawa Prefecture, has come about as close to that ...