A month after Typhoon Hagibis, volunteers, local officials and SDF tackling mountains of waste
The SDF is working to coordinate disaster waste and rubble removal efforts through officers dispatched to municipalities affected by the 19th named storm of the season.
With hazy plan for SDF dispatch to Mideast, is Japan pursuing contradictory goals?
It was an unusual meeting starting at around 7:30 a.m. at the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's headquarters in Tokyo on Oct. 23, hastily organized so government officials could get lawmakers up to speed. In the week before, the government had abruptly announced plans to dispatch ...
U.S. B-52 bombers make rare training flight over Sea of Japan with ASDF
Two U.S. B-52 heavy bombers made a rare training flight with the Air Self-Defense Force over the Sea of Japan last week, in a mission that likely comes in response to a spate of North Korean short-range missile tests over the last several months. The ...
Defense chief Taro Kono briefs Australia on possible SDF mission in Middle East
Defense Minister Taro Kono on Friday explained via telephone to his Australian counterpart, Linda Reynolds, Japan's possible dispatch of Maritime Self-Defense Force ships to the Middle East for securing sea lane safety. Australia has pledged to send patrol planes and vessels to join a U.S.-led ...
Japan should do what it can to promote peace, but it should also not be deterred from protecting its national interests.
Japan's MSDF and Chinese Navy hold first joint military drills in eight years
The Maritime Self-Defense Force has conducted "goodwill exercises" with the Chinese Navy for the first time in eight years, the MSDF has said in a statement. The training, which saw the Japanese destroyer Samidare and the Chinese guided-missile destroyer Taiyuan practice communications such as radio ...
Constitution seen as highest hurdle for proposed SDF mission to Middle East
The government faces a series of challenges dispatching Self-Defense Forces to the Middle East, in particular whether such activities would be consistent with the Constitution in the event of their possible involvement in armed conflict. The government has begun a full appraisal of such details ...
Japan considers assigning two SDF vessels to new Middle East mission
A government source says Japan may assign two Self-Defense Force vessels to help protect Middle East waterways as part of a dispatch plan under consideration.
Japan's SDF to head for Mideast waters, but Tokyo steers clear of U.S.-led coalition
Self-Defense Forces ships and planes will patrol the Gulf of Oman and other areas but avoid the U.S.-led coalition protecting shipping interests in the strategic waters.
Taro Kono: A different kind of defense minister
For the first time ever, the Defense Ministery is headed by a prime minister-ready politician.
Two former pilots from the Air Self-Defense Force's Blue Impulse team, which drew Olympic rings in the sky with colored smoke at the opening ceremony of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, still remember their preflight nerves even after 55 years. "When I checked the aircraft ...
