April 12, 2014
A government panel is considering allowing the Self-Defense Forces to not only provide support to multinational forces anywhere in the world, but also to the use of force if need be during such missions.
April 12, 2014
HIROSHIMA--Foreign ministers of 12 non-nuclear powers issued a joint declaration here April 12 with a call for greater efforts to slash nuclear arsenals and visits by world leaders to Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
April 12, 2014
Yoshitaka Shindo, the minister for internal affairs and communications, visited Yasukuni Shrine on April 12, apparently timing it so there would be no major backlash for Japan.
April 11, 2014
The central government is entirely entrusting Hakodate’s municipal government with assuring a safe evacuation in the event of an accident at a neighboring nuclear power plant, according to the city’s top official.
April 11, 2014
Eighteen hours of negotiations over two days has left Japan and the United States no closer to an agreement over the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade arrangement.
April 11, 2014
WASHINGTON--A U.S.-backed Pacific free trade pact could cause resentment in Southeast Asia as it would leave some nations in the region better positioned to access America's market than others, a top Philippine official said on April 10.
April 10, 2014
A spurious defense argument is being made by proponents of reinterpreting the Constitution as part of moves to allow Japan to engage in the right to collective self-defense.
April 10, 2014
Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force made 810 fighter jet scrambles against foreign aircraft that approached the country’s territory in fiscal 2013--the first time since fiscal 1989 the number has topped 800.
April 09, 2014
The son of the late Chinese leader Hu Yaobang is visiting Japan in what the Abe administration hopes will be a prelude to better relations with Beijing.
April 08, 2014
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott agreed April 7 to start negotiations on a defense equipment and technology tie-up with an eye on countering China’s maritime advances.
April 08, 2014
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is pressing world leaders to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki so they can get a better understanding of the devastation wrought by atomic bombs.
April 07, 2014
Japan and Australia have agreed in principle to an economic partnership agreement (EPA), with Tokyo compromising on tariffs on Australian beef imports and Canberra willing to lift the levy on Japanese automobiles.
April 07, 2014
Embattled Yoshimi Watanabe, head of minor opposition Your Party, on April 7 expressed his intention to resign as the party’s leader over the hundreds of millions of yen he borrowed from the chairman of a cosmetics company, although denying he did anything illegal.
April 07, 2014
More than 60 percent of voters oppose the Abe administration’s plan to lift the nation’s self-imposed ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey, reflecting growing concern about the Self-Defense Forces working closer with Washington.
April 07, 2014
Japan and the United States agreed April 6 to more closely cooperate in dealing with North Korea’s heightened provocations and to tighten ties with South Korea to form a three-way alliance against Pyongyang.
April 07, 2014
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expects to visit China's sole aircraft carrier when he arrives in the country on April 7, a U.S. official said, in an unprecedented opening by Beijing to a potent symbol of its military buildup.
April 06, 2014
In the four months since passage of the contentious state secrets protection law, 108 local assemblies have submitted written opinions to the central government and Diet calling for its abolition.
April 06, 2014
On a real-world level, the push by the Abe administration to allow for the exercise of the right of collective self-defense is based more on emotions than logic.
April 06, 2014
The United States moved on April 6 to reassure Tokyo over its mounting security concerns, saying it would send more missile defense ships to Japan following North Korean launches and use a high level trip to warn China against abusing its "great power."
April 05, 2014
Japan sent a Maritime Self-Defense Force Aegis destroyer to patrol the Sea of Japan on April 3 in response to North Korea’s launch of two Rodong medium-range ballistic missiles on March 26.