National
Ida Torres on Jun 4 2013
Osaka Governor
Ichiro Matsui says he is considering allowing the
United States' military’s “Osprey” aircraft training exercises to be held in Yao airport in western Osaka. This is to ease the burden on the citizens of the prefecture caused by the noise and safety issues of the aircraft.
The Japanese government has announced that a F-15 fighter jet belonging to the
U.S. Air Force went down and crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Okinawa. Officials from both countries quickly confirmed that there were no casualties, with it being added that the aircraft was from the U.S.'s Kadena Air Base, located in
Okinawa, Japan's southwestern islands.
The plan for Japan to provide coast guard patrol ships to the
Philippines will be accelerated, according to Japanese officials. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario are expected to sign the final plan at their meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday.
A
Taiwanese fishing boat was detained by Japanese authorities as it was caught trespassing in Japanese waters near Ishagaki Island on Tuesday. The captain of the 48.25-ton "Cheng Chang Fa No. 2" was also placed under arrest, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA).
As concern over a possible terrorist attack on a nuclear plant in the future grows, government officials are preparing for that eventuality by conducting a joint training exercise at the
Fukushima No. 2 nuclear plant, just 12 kilometers south of the crippled No. 1 plant which experienced a meltdown in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters.
In the 43rd incident in the area since September 2012, 3
Chinese surveillance vessels entered Japanese territorial waters on Monday, according to the 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Naha. They were spotted near the Japanese-controlled Senkaku/Diayu Islands, which are part of a territorial dispute between the two countries.
A study report by the Cabinet Office says that Japan does not need to own a hospital ship and instead just use existing commercial or
Japan Coast Guard ships to provide emergency medical care in case of disasters and emergencies. It will cost the government 140 to 350 million dollars to build and 9 to 25 million dollars to maintain.
The bodies of two
North Korean sailors from the missing cargo ship Taegakbong turned up in separate locations in Japan, almost four months after the ship went missing in late December. The ship went adrift when engine failure caused its navigation systems and steering controls to be disabled.
A decommissioned
Japanese Coast Guard vessel was recently sold to a demolition company whose owner is a regional member of a Pyongyang-friendly organization, without confirmation that the information in its navigation systems have ben wiped clean. With tensions escalating in the region as
North Korea continues with its bellicose attitude, any military information left out in the open is a security breach, especially as the vessel has now been totally scrapped by the demolition company.
Despite a stern warning from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a few days ago, three
Chinese vessels were spotted by the Japanese Coast Guard entering territorial waters near the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The ships entered the 12-nautical-mile zone near the islands at 9AM on Friday.
