With the Defense Ministry seeking a record budget, we need a cool-headed debate on an appropriate defense level for Japan during the extraordinary Diet session this month.   The ministry on Aug. 31 announced that it will request 5.255 trillion yen in the government budget for next fiscal year, which starts in April, up 2.5 percent from the amount in….Read more

Honolulu, Aug. 31 (Jiji Press)–The amphibious assault ship USS Wasp has left Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, for Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, southwestern Japan, according to the U.S. Navy. The ship will be deployed as the flagship of the amphibious force of the Navy’s 7th Fleet, which is based in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, and covers the area from the….Read more

The Japan Coast Guard (JCG) announced on Aug. 31 that it conducted its first crackdown on fishing boats believed to be from North Korea poaching in the fishing ground near the Yamato Bank, some 300 kilometers off the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, from early July to mid-August, chasing off a total of about 820 fishing boats in this operation.….Read more

The International Peace Bureau (IPB), a German international pacifist organization based in Berlin, told Kyodo on Aug. 31 that it will award the Sean MacBride Peace Prize 2017 to the All Okinawa Council, an association fighting against the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to Henoko.   The IPB itself was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910.….Read more

The Ministry of Defense (MOD) announced on Aug. 31 its FY18 budget requests. The centerpiece of this is the procurement of Aegis Ashore, the land-based version of the interceptor missiles aboard Aegis ships. Japan will procure this system from the U.S. riding on the “tailwind” resulting from North Korea’s launch of ballistic missiles. However, many questions have been raised about….Read more

All papers wrote that the Defense Ministry plans to seek some $47.5 billion in budget allocation for FY2018, up 2.5% from the current year, noting that the defense expenditure is bound to increase sharply as the nation is preoccupied with countering North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and China’s maritime push. The ministry is expected to seek an appropriation for….Read more

Tokyo Shimbun wrote that a U.S. military C-130 cargo plane landed at Saga Airport last night and unloaded two sets of engines and other equipment, noting that repair work will be performed starting today on the grounded MV-22 Osprey.

Asahi carried a prominent inside-page article saying that one of the three dugongs that were spotted by the Okinawa Defense Bureau several years ago has not been seen for two years along the shore of the main island of Okinawa, including off Camp Schwab. Environmentalists suspect that the endangered mammal may have “disappeared” as a result of the ongoing FRF….Read more