Yomiuri reported on surging opposition among residents and some officials in Saga to the proposed deployment of GSDF Ospreys at Saga Airport following Monday’s fatal crash of a GSDF helicopter into a home in Kanzaki, quoting an unnamed senior Defense Ministry official as acknowledging that it has now become even more difficult to move forward with the plan. While emphasizing….Read more

The recent crash of a Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter into a civilian residence in Saga Prefecture has sent shockwaves through the government. Concerns have erupted that the accident may undermine public trust in the Self-Defense Forces and affect the plan to deploy Ospreys to Saga Airport.   At the moment it remains to be seen how much the accident will….Read more

Tokyo — Japan’s Self-Defense Forces carried out two missions to protect U.S. military hardware such as weapons in 2017, the Defense Ministry has said. The SDF conducted a mission to protect a U.S. warship and another mission covering U.S. military aircraft during joint drills between the two countries, the ministry said Monday. Such missions became possible under the national security….Read more

Sankei led with a report on a Defense Ministry plan to draw up this year a “combined defense strategy,” a set of operational guidelines for the three branches of the SDF in the event of a regional contingency. The document will reportedly become one of three security strategy documents, along with the National Security Strategy and the National Defense Program….Read more

Nikkei wrote the MSDF is planning to carry out joint training with the French Navy in the Pacific off the Kanto region for two days in mid-February. The paper noted that the planned exercise, which will involve a Japanese destroyer and a French frigate, is in line with an agreement forged during the recent 2+2 foreign and defense ministerial meeting….Read more

Nippon Ishin [Japan Innovation Party] policy chief Mikio Shimoji pointed out during representative interpellations at the House of Representatives plenary session on Jan. 25 that, “Foreign nationals’ acquisition of land has given rise to issues that threaten the people’s safe living.”   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded: “We investigated a total of some 530 facilities as of the end of….Read more

At a “two-plus-two” meeting of foreign and defense ministers from the Japanese and French governments scheduled for Jan. 26 in Tokyo, the two governments are expected to agree to conduct a joint drill between the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the French military in which the “Vendémiaire,” a French naval frigate patrolling France’s overseas territories, will participate in the drill scheduled….Read more