japão

[akivrx78]

August 29, 2016 3:51 am JST
Japan defense forces train to retake island

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtBZUC3Nr-U


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xquw0io43w0

The annual Japanese military exercise near Mount Fuji used tanks as part of an effort to retake an "island."

TOKYO -- The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's annual large-scale live fire drill Sunday near Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture imagined combined air, sea and land forces retaking a remote island captured by an enemy, an exercise that appeared to have recent Chinese activity around the disputed Senkaku Islands in mind.

About 27,000 people watched the maneuvers, including Defense Minister Tomomi Inada.

The location was regarded as a remote island. F-2 fighter jets from the Air Self-Defense Force made contact and fired anti-ship missiles upon supposed enemy vessels. To capture important positions, helicopter forces conducted reconnaissance and vehicles were dispatched. Ordnance such as mortars and anti-tank weapons were fired before a concentrated armored assault that included the force's latest tank, the Type 10.

Around 80 vehicles, 60 pieces of artillery and 20 aircraft participated in the exercise, as well as 2,400 personnel. About 36 tons of live ammunition was used.

The Mount Fuji exercise has been conducted annually since 1966. Since 2012 it has been premised on defending a remote island.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy ... ake-island

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2K5yxa1izI

[akivrx78]

Japan's military begins training for new overseas missions

By Andy Sharp
Bloomberg
Published: August 26, 2016

In a further shift in Japan's pacifist postwar security policy, the military has begun training to carry out new missions overseas.

Defense Minister Tomomi Inada announced the change for the Self-Defense Forces, saying units would start training Thursday.

"It's natural to make the proper preparations to respond under any circumstances," she said Wednesday in a briefing.

Under revised security legislation that took effect earlier this year, Self-Defense Force troops will train for a United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan starting in November. That will include troops potentially using weapons to rescue UN staff, and joining troops from other nations in defending the barracks of peacekeepers if they come under fire.

The laws to expand the role of the military were revised after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet reinterpreted the nation's pacifist constitution. Previously, Japanese peace keepers could only use their weapons to defend themselves if attacked, and that was "limited to the minimum necessary to protect the lives of personnel."

"It does eventually allow Japan for the first time to come to the rescue for other nations," said Michael Cucek, an adjunct fellow at Temple University's Japan campus. "Basically, until now Japan was a lead weight on peacekeeping operations."

The move could prove controversial in a nation so attached to its pacifist beliefs in the decades since World War II. Huge crowds gathered outside Abe's office last summer to protest the passage of security legislation.

Still, "it shouldn't become a political crisis because most Japanese actually agree with the expansion of peacekeeping operations," Cucek said.

The Self-Defense Forces, founded in the 1950s, were initially limited to fending off any attack on the country's islands. Japan began making changes after criticism from some analysts during the 1990-1991 Iraq war for contributing $13 billion but no troops.

It took part in later UN peacekeeping operations and sent non-combat troops to the second Iraq war for a reconstruction mission. Each step toward full militarization has been met with unease among ordinary Japanese.

http://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/jap ... s-1.425744

A autorização para utilizar armas no exterior se restringe a missões de paz da Onu, resgate de japoneses e apoio a aliados, curiosidade no mesmo dia que a nova lei entrou em vigor a Rússia...

Russia asks Japan to send SDF for humanitarian mission in conflict-hit Syrian city of Aleppo
Aug 27, 2016
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/0 ... 8Nrqq0yRYE

[akivrx78]

Japan’s military posturing raises alarm in Asia as Abe reconsiders pacifist constitution

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a reinterpretation of his constitution to allow Japanese forces to come to the aid of attacked allies. (Associated Press) more

By Guy Taylor - The Washington Times - Tuesday, August 30, 2016

A series of little-noticed moves has given new momentum to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to revise the nation’s pacifist constitution, potentially allowing Japan’s military to use offensive force against other nations for the first time since World War II.

The latest shift came last week when the prime minister’s hawkish new defense minister said the military had begun training for new missions overseas such as U.N. peacekeeping deployments, roughly a month after Mr. Abe himself had declared a reinterpretation of Japan’s existing constitution to allow Japanese forces for the first time in decades to come to the defensive aid of allies under attack.

While Tokyo already has a history of participating in joint military exercises with the United States, the recent round of posturing has drawn sharp reactions from other powers in North Asia, particularly China, where authorities remain leery of a fully remilitarized Japan and its impact on the balance of power in a region still marked by unsettled historical and territorial disputes.

Most U.S. analysts, however, say the recent moves, as well as the Abe administration’s overall push toward revising the constitution, have been a long time in coming — and that the likely result will be a much-needed expansion of U.S.-Japan military cohesion during the years ahead.

“I don’t think we should be worried that Japan is moving toward having a more operationally capable, deployable military that can work with partners in a common, collective self-defense,” said Michael Auslin, the director of Japan studies at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

“This has been coming about slowly over decades, and its something we’ve been encouraging the Japanese to do because we want them as a liberal, democratic state and ally of the United States, playing a larger role in maintaining security in Asia and beyond,” he said in an interview.

But rewriting the famous and unique Article 9 of Japan’s constitution, which explicitly prohibits the use of military force to resolve disputes with other nations, would require a nationwide referendum after a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Japan’s parliament.

While it has for decades been a far-off concept that Japanese lawmakers might one day redraft the document’s post-World War II pacifist underpinnings — the situation suddenly changed with the result of last month’s parliamentary elections in Japan.

A sweeping victory by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) gave Mr. Abe a parliamentary supermajority — a reality that triggered wary reactions across Asia.

With memories of Japan’s occupation for much of the first half of the 20th century, South Korea’s major daily newspapers carried front-page articles on the looming prospect of constitutional reform.

“Japan has now entered the path of a country that is able to wage war after discarding [the] pacifist Constitution it has retained for nearly 70 years after the war,” said South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper.

There was also widespread speculation that longtime Emperor Akihito’s hints that he would like to step down are a veiled warning to Mr. Abe and Japan’s nationalists to go slow in any drive to revise the pacifist clauses in the constitution.

Uncertain future

U.S. analysts say the path ahead is not certain.

“The LDP-led coalition emerged from the summer Upper House election with a supermajority in both houses, and Prime Minister Abe has as much power as he is likely to between now and 2019, when he would presumably have to step down,” said Patrick Cronin, who heads the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

“But there is nothing certain or likely when it comes to something such as revising the constitution,” he said. “Democratically elected leaders have numerous brakes on their power, and Abe is a successful politician who makes pragmatic choices and necessary compromises when faced with obstacles preventing him from achieving 100 percent of his goals.”

At the same time, Mr. Cronin said, what the Abe administration is doing is “not a play for war, but a defensive move to preserve Japan’s interests amid a rising China and a less dominant United States.”

He added that the U.S. “will have to remain actively engaged” to ensure that Japan’s “move toward greater defense normalization and a larger defense role for Japan remains consonant with U.S. interests.”

Bruce Klingner, the senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation, said Japan’s military reforms “are good, not scary, long overdue, and many were things that previous leaders had promised and not delivered.”

“The U.S. has been pushing Japan for decades to do more,” said Mr. Klingner.

The Tokyo-based Nikkei Asian Review reported this week that Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force staged a large-scale, live-fire drill near Mount Fuji simulating the recapture of an island — at a time when Beijing and Tokyo have sparred over island outcroppings in the seas of Japan’s coast. Some 27,000 people watched the maneuvers, including Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, the well-known defense hawk Mr. Abe appointed early this month.

Japan’s military strategic thinking also appears to be anticipating a more normal military future, and the possibility of conflict with China and other regional powers. An annual defense “white paper” approved by Mr. Abe’s cabinet in early August criticized at length Beijing’s increasingly assertive military actions in the South and East China Seas as “dangerous actions that could trigger unanticipated situations.”

The paper called on Beijing to accept a recent international arbitration ruling that found China breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights by endangering its ships and fishing and oil projects.

But it also accused China of stepping up activity around Japan-controlled islands that Beijing also claims in the East China Sea — islands that Tokyo calls the Senkaku chain, while the Chinese call them Diaoyu. The defense policy paper specifically said China’s escalating military activity in the area had caused Japan to scramble defensively against Chinese warplanes — something allowed under the existing Japanese constitution — more than 570 times during 2015.

Beijing angrily denounced the report, accusing Japan of seeking to sow discord between China and its neighbors.

Japan’s new defense blueprint was “full of lousy cliches, makes irresponsible remarks on China’s normal and legal national defense and military development [and] hypes up the East and South China Sea issues,” China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. “The ultimate objective of Japan is to cook [up] excuses for adjusting by leaps and bounds its military and security policies and accelerating its arms expansion, even rewriting the pacifist constitution.”

Analysts say Beijing’s reaction stems mainly from fear that any constitutional change will draw Japan closer to Washington militarily.

“I don’t think there’s any surprise that the Chinese are worried about a more active and, in fact, more capable Japanese military, and one that is able to be more of a partner with the United States,” said Mr. Auslin. “The Chinese would object to that because they object to what the U.S. is doing in Asia. They talk about it as destabilizing and provocative.”

China, he added, “does not recognize that so much of the opposition it’s facing in the region is actually based on its own actions — that by moderating its own behavior and belligerence in the South or East China Sea, it would most likely cause other nations in the region to be just as moderate.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... -asia-as-/

[akivrx78]

Japan’s defense diplomacy with ASEAN member-states
by Tomohiko Satake
Aug 30, 2016

In recent years, Japan has been stepping up its involvement with Association of Southeast Asian Nations member-countries in the realm of security. Since the Cold War, Japan has been steadily bolstering ties with these countries in the form of bilateral defense “exchanges” primarily centered on high-level consultations and working-level talks, and multilateral security dialogues with the goals of building mutual confidence and improving transparency.

More recently, however, Japan has moved to a higher degree of “cooperation” — including bilateral military exercises and agreements on defense equipment — with certain ASEAN member states. With developments such as the first-ever defense ministers’ meeting between Japan and ASEAN member countries in November 2014, the ASEAN bloc is now becoming one of Japan’s major regional partners on security issues, following the United States, Australia, South Korea and India.

The distinguishing characteristics of Japanese “defense diplomacy” as applied to ASEAN can be summarized by the following three points: expansion of presence, strengthening of partnerships, and sharing of norms and general rules via such partnerships.

The first point is the expansion of Japan’s presence through initiatives such as the Self-Defense Forces making port at and/or visiting ASEAN member countries, or participating in bilateral or multilateral joint military exercises.

In March 2016, a Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel made port in Malaysia for the first time in three years, and the following month the MSDF participated in friendly training drills with the Royal Malaysian Navy. In April 2016, the MSDF submarine Oyashio, along with MSDF destroyers Ariake and Setogiri, made port at Subic Bay in the Philippines, the first such visit in approximately 15 years.

After that, Ariake and Setogiri made port at Cam Ranh Bay in southern Vietnam for the first time. During that time, the large MSDF destroyer Ise crossed the South China Sea for the first time to participate in an international fleet review and multilateral exercises held in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the SDF participated in joint military exercises together with the U.S. and Australia in February 2016, in waters between Singapore and India; and again in April 2016, in the vicinity of Indonesia. Japan is also taking steps to bolster its presence in the region through other activities as part of multilateral frameworks, for instance by dispatching a sizable contingent of SDF troops (the third largest among participating countries) to participate in joint maritime security exercises held by the expanded ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting (ADMM-Plus) taking place in the waters and airspace between Brunei and Singapore.

The second point is Japan’s strengthening of partnerships through capacity building assistance and cooperation with defense equipment. Japan has already resolved to donate 10 multi-purpose vessels to the Philippines using Official Development Assistance grants, and it has also been agreed — based on the “Agreement Between the Government of Japan and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines Concerning the Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology” signed in February — that Japan will lease retired MSDF TC90 trainer aircraft to the Philippine Navy. In July, Japan also provided its first-ever capacity building assistance to the Philippines in relation to diesel engine maintenance for naval vessels.

With Vietnam too, in addition to the donation of six used vessels to the Vietnamese Navy, Japan is also advancing talks on the supply of newly built ships at some point in the near future. Similarly, in light of the inaugural Japan-Indonesia Foreign and Defense Ministerial Consultation (“2+2”) held in December 2015, the following March, Japan carried out a capacity building assistance program for the Indonesian Navy on the creation of nautical charts.

More recently, Japan has stretched its security partnership toward “continental” ASEAN member states such as Laos, Thailand and Myanmar.

In February, Japan’s Defense Ministry held its first seminar on disaster response for the Lao People’s Armed Forces; and in April and May 2016, capacity building support in relation to international aviation law and flight safety was carried out for Thai Ministry of Defense personnel.

In June, a meeting was held between Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and Aung San Suu Kyi, state counsellor and minister of foreign affairs for Myanmar. The two ministers agreed that the SDF would provide capacity improvement assistance in areas such as humanitarian aid and disaster relief, while bilateral educational exchange would be bolstered. According to the Defense Ministry, this was the first time Suu Kyi had held talks with the defense minister of another country.

There is no doubt that the situation in the South China Sea is behind these efforts by the Defense Ministry and the SDF to expand Japan’s presence and strengthen partnerships in the region. On June 12, 2016, an arbitral tribunal at The Hague rendered the award that there is no legal basis for China’s “nine-dashed line” claims in the South China Sea.

After the award was announced, the Foreign Ministry immediately announced its view that the judgment was final and legally binding on the parties to the dispute under the provisions of UNCLOS, and the parties to this case are required to comply with the award. At the Japan-United States-Australia Trilateral Strategic Dialogue held that same month, a joint statement was issued, calling on both China and the Philippines to observe and abide by the tribunal’s award.

Yet strengthening defense diplomacy toward ASEAN does not mean that Japan is “taking sides” with either one of the contesting states in disputes over the South China Sea. As we have seen, while Japan is strengthening ties with some of the contesting nations in the South China Sea, such as Vietnam and the Philippines, it is also seeking to offer capacity building assistance and strengthen its partnerships with non-contesting states.

Similarly, Japan’s supplying of equipment to countries in Southeast Asia is mainly for the purpose of bolstering their capacity to respond to “gray zone” situations before they escalate into (military) contingencies, such as in conducting marine surveillance and the prevention of accidental collisions; and is not designed to bolster the military capabilities of these countries per se.

Indeed, the initiative can be viewed as an attempt to prevent the escalation of such situations from the gray zone to actual military conflict between the armed forces of such countries by narrowing the gap between the Chinese Coast Guard and those of other littoral states.

At the same time, the expansion of Japan’s presence in the Southeast Asian region is providing greater opportunities for cooperation with China. In the ADMM-Plus joint maritime security exercises mentioned noted above, the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) agreement — signed by numerous Western Pacific nations including China — was used for the first time.

Japan has also used CUES in holding bilateral maritime exercises with countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, and in the future it is conceivable that Japan might also conduct similar kinds of exercises with the Chinese Navy. In addition to the formation of a maritime contact mechanism between the two countries, for which negotiations are currently underway, such exercises will surely prove to be instrumental in encouraging the establishment of Japan-China crisis management mechanisms.

In short, the activities that Japan is conducting in this region are intended neither to increase tension in the region by unilaterally taking sides in territorial disputes, nor to assist the military expansion of countries in the region to encourage their competition against a specific country.

In fact, the purpose is quite the opposite. Japan is seeking to share the norms and general rules that form the basis for order and stability in the region, such as the rule of law and ASEAN centrality, by strengthening security relationships with the whole of the ASEAN bloc. The promotion of defense diplomacy toward ASEAN member countries are an effective means of achieving higher-order political goals such as these.

Tomohiko Satake is a fellow in the Defense Policy Division, Policy Studies Department at the National Institute for Defense Studies. The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of the National Institute for Defense Studies or the Defense Ministry. © 2016, The Diplomat; distributed by Tribune Content Agency

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/201 ... 8Zkmq0yRYE

[akivrx78]

Sem terra fértil, o Japão procura metal no mar

Ichiro Suzuki e Masumi Suga

05/09/2016 - 18:20
Cientistas identificaram trilhos marítimos com pepitas herdadas da actividade vulcânica. Tecnologia está agora a facilitar a sua extracção.

Questões políticas, como as águas reclamadas por China e Japão, têm causado dificuldades REUTERS/Kyodo

A uma profundidade de 1600 metros e a 1500 quilómetros de Tóquio, começaram os trabalhos num novo solo para procurar metal no Japão, um país tão desprovido de recursos naturais que a maioria do que necessita tem de ser importado.

Como o país esgotou a maior parte dos minerais existentes em terra no boom económico que se seguiu à Segunda Guerra Mundial, os cientistas identificaram trilhos no solo marítimo, cheios de pepitas contendo desde cobre a ouro deixadas pela actividade vulcânica que criou o arquipélago há milhões de anos. A astúcia está em extraí-los com lucro, algo que um consórcio governamental vai começar a testar no próximo ano.

A mineração no oceano não é uma coisa nova – o Japão começou essa exploração nos anos 1970. Mas existem agora novas tecnologias que tornam mais fácil para empresas como a Nautilus Minerals Inc., do Canadá, recolherem do mar rochas ricas em minerais. Calcula-se existirem em águas japonesas mais de 50 milhões de toneladas métricas de minério e o Governo pretende ressuscitar o aprovisionamento interno e reduzir a dependência de importações. Quando Tóquio receber os Jogos Olímpicos de 2020, o precioso metal para as medalhas de ouro poderá vir já das profundezas do oceano.

"A ruptura no aprovisionamento de metais poderá ocorrer num futuro próximo", disse Tetsuro Urabe, geólogo director do programa governamental Tecnologia da Próxima Geração para Exploração de Recursos Oceânicos. "Não queremos entrar em pânico ao sermos confrontados com uma crise de cobre. A menos que desenvolvamos antes várias espécies de novas tecnologias, não vamos estar prontos para o arranque quando precisarmos."

Não é de admirar que os recursos minerais se encontrem intocáveis nas águas profundas que circundam o Japão. O país situa-se na Baía do Pacífico, ao longo de uma linha de vulcões e falhas conhecida como Anel de Fogo – uma região sujeita a tremores de terra e erupções vulcânicas. Quando ocorre actividade vulcânica no mar, o magma é impulsionado da crosta terrestre. Depois de arrefecer, os depósitos contêm minerais numa concentração muito maior do que a extraída da terra. Na escuridão das profundezas do oceano, os engenheiros usaram robôs controlados remotamente e sensores especiais para perscrutar o fundo do mar em busca dos depósitos mais promissores.

Sendo a terceira maior economia do mundo e um grande importador de tudo, desde minério de ferro até petróleo, o país pretende usar dos seus direitos para aceder aos minérios que se encontram no oceano e que um grupo industrial nacional calcula poderem valer 80 biliões de ienes (784 mil milhões de dólares). Ao abrigo da legislação marítima internacional, o Japão mantém uma área de 200 milhas náuticas (230 milhas) da sua costa, constituindo a sexta maior zona económica exclusiva do mundo.

Existem outras empresas a tentar também extrair minérios do leito do mar em águas perto da China, da Coreia do Sul e da América do Norte. Até ao momento, não existe nenhuma produção comercial, embora a Nautilus, com sede em Toronto, tenha em vista um projecto ao largo de Papua Nova Guiné, onde a companhia tenciona começar a mineração de ouro e cobre no primeiro trimestre de 2018.

Um consórcio japonês, liderado pela Mitsubishi Heavy Industries e pela unidade de engenharia da Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., vai levar a cabo a extracção e levantamento de minério nas profundezas de Izena, na área da ilha de Okinawa, no próximo exercício financeiro que começa em Abril. O Japão confirmou que o depósito tem cerca de 7,4 milhões de toneladas de minério, o dobro do que foi detectado há apenas três anos.

"Começaram a ser descobertos novos depósitos, uns a seguir aos outros", disse Mitsuya Hirokawa, director-geral adjunto do departamento tecnológico de extracção de metais da Japan Oil, Gas & Metals National Corp. (Jogmec), a empresa pública que ajuda a garantir o fornecimento de energia e metais e que está a apoiar este empreendimento no leito do mar. A área ao largo de Okinawa apresenta um dos "maiores potenciais", disse Hirokawa.

Extrair minério está a ficar mais barato. A Nautilus Minerals, num estudo efectuado em 2010, calculava que custaria cerca de 480 milhões de dólares construir um sistema de produção no solo marítimo no seu projecto Solwara 1 em 1600 metros de água ao largo da Papua Nova Guiné. Comparado com cerca de 1,5 a 2 mil milhões de dólares por um projecto semelhante em terra, declarou a empresa. Custaria cerca de 70 dólares por tonelada extrair o minério, que conteria uma média de 7% de cobre e seis gramas de ouro, revelou John Elias, um porta-voz da empresa numa mensagem de correio electrónico.

Mesmo com custos mais elevados associados ao facto de se trabalhar na água e ter de transportar o minério para terra para fusão, o gasto vale a pena devido a uma concentração de metal utilizável mais elevada do que a encontrada em terra, disse Yoshio Akiyama, investigador-chefe do departamento de tecnologia para extracção de metais na Jogmec. Recorrendo ao relatório da Nautilus, avalia os custos em 0,75 dólares por quilo para o cobre em comparação com 3,50 dólares numa mina em terra.

Estes empreendimentos comportam algum risco. O preço dos metais caiu abruptamente no ano passado, levando as empresas mineiras a cortar nos gastos e a fechar minas. Segundo Urabe, os projectos no fundo do mar levantam questões ambientais que têm de ser resolvidas. Existem também questões políticas. A zona ao largo de Okinawa fica junto de águas reclamadas, quer pelo Japão, quer pela China, que disputam as ilhas chamadas Senkaku em japonês e Diaoyu em chinês. A China está a pressionar o Japão com centenas de barcos de pesca e mais de uma dúzia de navios da guarda costeira espalhados pela área, enquanto o Japão responde com queixas formais de incursões na zona ao embaixador da China em Tóquio.

O Japão não se pode dar ao luxo de perder o acesso a minerais do solo marítimo, disse Takashi Sakamoto, director-geral do departamento comercial dos recursos submarinos na unidade de engenharia da Nippon Steel.

Bloomberg/PÚBLICO
Traduzido por Ana Isabel Palma da Silva

Tem um erro quando diz que o Japão não tem mais metais para extrair do solo, tem sim porem eles preferem importar do que extrair metais com pouco valor de mercado.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0DlBAiykg4
Descoberta de uma mina de ouro de 30 toneladas vai começar a ser extraído somente em 2018.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9iuBpHhvEQ
US$ 2 Trilhões de dólares em terras raras encontrados nas aguas em volta de Minamitorishima a 5000 metros de profundidade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F--lQgUwu38
Em Okinawa encontrado cobre e ouro a 1000 metros de profundidade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W016UADYYVQ
Cobre encontrado em Okinawa a 1400 metros de profundidade.

[akivrx78]

Critics fear new samurai sword logo for Japan’s armed forces will offend neighbours
PUBLISHED : Monday, 12 September, 2016, 2:44pm


Japan has defended the decision to incorporate an unsheathed katana sword in the new emblem for its Ground Self-Defence Forces after critics claimed it would stir anger in neighbouring countries.

The new logo - the samurai sword and its sheath crossed within a green-bordered circle and also incorporating a five-pointed star and the red sun from the hinomaru flag – will revive unpleasant memories of Imperial Japan’s invasion and occupation of large swathes of the Asia-Pacific in the early decades of the last century, the critics charge.

Yoko Shinohara, a 66-year-old antiwar activist, has been so angered by the design that she started a petition on the Change.org web site demanding that it be withdrawn. The petition, which began in June, has nearly 25,000 signatories. But the Ministry of Defence insists that the gracefully curved katana is merely a well-known symbol of Japan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3XyDLbaUmU
Watch: Katana swordsman versus industrial robot

“They chose to use a sword because it reflects Japanese history and culture,” a spokesman for the ministry said. “This sword is a symbol of Japanese samurai and of strength, which is why it was considered appropriate for the Ground Self-Defence Force.”

The new symbol will be incorporated into plaques, pennants and other gifts that will be given to the representatives of nations’ military forces when they take part in joint exercises or operations.

“We only want people in foreign countries to understand a little more about our history and culture,” the spokesman said.

Online commentators have broadly dismissed the detractors’ petition, with one contributor to the Japan Today web site writing: “This just goes to prove that someone will complain about everything.”

“What a ridiculous non-issue,” another poster added. “The job of a military is to destroy things and kill people when necessary. So what do these complainers want as an emblem? A flower pot?”

Others jokingly suggested that those opposed to the use of a sword would prefer to see Hello Kitty or Pikachu on the emblem.

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia ... orces-will

Atual a esquerda e novo a direita.

[akivrx78]

80% of Japanese fear military clash around Senkakus, poll finds
by Jesse Johnson
Sep 14, 2016

Will the waters around the disputed Senkaku Islands see a Sino-Japanese conflict? Eighty percent of Japanese think so.

A poll by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based think tank, found 35 percent of Japanese respondents are “very concerned” and 45 percent “somewhat concerned” that territorial disputes between China and its neighbors — namely the Senkakus row — could erupt in conflict.

The isles, located about 400 km west of Okinawa’s main island, are administered by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan, which call them Diaoyu and Tiaoyutai, respectively.

Last month saw China send a record number of government ships — as many as 15 — and about 300 fishing boats close to waters near the islands. Some of the vessels were armed, a scene that has grown more common as Beijing has become more assertive in the area.

But while the survey found 80 percent of Japanese were worried, only 59 percent of Chinese voiced similar concerns.

“Notably, intense concern among the Japanese about a potential conflict is about twice that found among the Chinese,” the survey report said.

According to Tessa Morris-Suzuki, an East Asian specialist at Australian National University in Canberra, an underlying issue of these views is “a major power shift in East Asia” — with Japan becoming economically less dominant and China becoming economically and politically more powerful.

“This creates uncertainty and provokes nationalist sentiments on both sides, as people in Japan feel anxiety at China’s rising power, and people in China feel that the rest of the world does not sufficiently respect their country’s newfound status,” Morris-Suzuki said.

Historical issues also remain an obstacle to improving Sino-Japanese relations, the survey noted.

More than 70 years after the end of World War II, the two nations have starkly differing perceptions of whether Japan has expressed adequate regret for its wartime behavior, it found.

It said 53 percent of Japanese respondents believe the country has sufficiently apologized for the country’s wartime acts during the 1930s and 1940s, when its military rampaged through much of Asia. That figure was up 13 percentage points from the 40 percent registered in a 2006 survey.

The Chinese, however, view the issue quite differently, with just 10 percent saying Japan has apologized enough.

Time also appears to heal old wounds — at least for Japanese.

Over the last decade, the proportion of the Japanese public that believes the country has not apologized sufficiently has dropped to 23 percent from 44 percent, the survey said.

This comes a little over a year after the 70th anniversary of World War II’s end last August, when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose policies are seen as hawkish, issued a powerful statement upholding Japan’s past apologies for its wartime actions.

While expressing “deep remorse” over the war, the Abe statement referred to a “heartfelt apology” to the people of Asia for suffering caused by Japan’s “aggression” and “colonial rule.” The statement retained four key phrases used in a 1995 landmark statement issued by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.

Alexis Dudden, an expert on Japanese history and a professor at the University of Connecticut, said that despite his reiteration of Japan’s position on the war, Abe has increasingly ramped up the China threat theory and the country’s Senkaku claims “as the imminent danger to Japanese national existence — even while Chinese tourists keep alive many sectors of the Japanese economy.”

“With so many Japanese feeding on a daily television diet of Chinese ships sailing around what announcers unquestioningly repeat as ‘Japanese inherent territory,’ while at the same time hearing over and over how Chinese and other Asians continue to demand that Japan apologize for its belligerent behavior long, long ago, it is not at all surprising that general Japanese perceptions would increasingly head south as far as their feelings about their neighbors,” Dudden said.

This year’s survey found that 77 percent of Chinese respondents believe Japan has yet to adequately express regret — a figure that has remained largely unchanged since 2006. Just 10 percent believe Japan has apologized enough, the poll showed.

The survey also found that just 11 percent of Japanese respondents expressed a favorable opinion of China, while a mere 14 percent of Chinese said they have a positive view of Japan. In both countries positive views of the other have decreased since 2006, it added.

The survey pointed to stereotypes as the reason for the low figures.

“In the case of China and Japan, publics tend to hold largely negative stereotypes of one another,” it said.

“The Chinese and the Japanese see each other as violent. Roughly eight-in-10 Japanese describe the Chinese as arrogant, while seven-in-10 Chinese see the Japanese in that light,” it said. “Neither public sees the other as honest.”

According to Jessica Chen Weiss, an associate professor of government at Cornell University who has studied grass-roots nationalism in China, at least some of the blame lies with Beijing.

“Chinese state-run media and patriotic education are partly to blame for encouraging negative views and stereotypes of Japan,” Weiss said. “But there is also a grass-roots strain of anti-Japanese sentiment in China that has sometimes spilled into street protests.”

Morris-Suzuki concurred, noting that governments and political interest groups in both countries stir up these nationalist sentiments to shore up their own positions, a process that is often inflamed by mass media and by online media.

“Particularly since 2012 there has been a vicious cycle of such nationalist rhetoric in both China and Japan,” she said. “This has involved, on the Chinese side, reviving and reinforcing memories of Japan’s wartime aggression and, on the Japanese side, efforts to obscure or deny aspects of wartime history — which in turn provokes reactions from Japan’s Asian neighbors.”

The survey also found that something of a generation gap exists among the Japanese in their views of the Chinese, with Japanese animosity toward China varying by generation. Older Japanese — those 50 years old and over — are particularly unfavorable toward China, with 48 percent of respondents reporting a “very unfavorable” view. Japanese between 18 and 34 years old are less intensely negative, with 32 percent voicing the same view.

“Governments and other public institutions in both countries do not do enough to promote mutual understanding at the person-to-person level,” Australian National University’s Morris-Suzuki said.

“There are huge wasted opportunities. For example, very large numbers of Chinese tourists now visit Japan, but these visits seldom include real opportunities for personal encounters and interaction between Japanese and Chinese. Much more could be done to promote this interactions, particularly between young people.”

The survey of 1,000 Japanese was conducted between April 26 and May 29 using landline telephones and cellphones. The survey in China was conducted face-to-face with 3,154 people.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/0 ... 9lXba0yTU0

[akivrx78]

‘Japan’s Sarah Palin’ and prime minister-in-waiting Tomomi Inada to make Washington debut

Her boss Shinzo Abe has repeatedly likened her to Joan of Arc for her ability to triumph over men in tough situations
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 14 September, 2016, 2:13pm


With her glasses and her updo, and her sharp conservative views, Tomomi Inada has sometimes been called “Japan’s Sarah Palin”.

This week, she will have a chance to present herself as a statesman in Washington D.C. And official Washington will have a chance, in turn, to get a good look at the woman who could become Japan’s next prime minister.

A hard-liner who has defended many of Japan’s actions during the second world war, she will make her first visit to the United States since being appointed defence minister last month, meeting Defence Secretary Ashton Carter at the Pentagon on Thursday.

The trip comes at what may be a crucial moment in her career.


“Like Marine Le Pen in France, she’s trying to update her image and become more acceptable to the general public while maintaining her right-wing lineage,” said Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo, referring to the far-right French politician.

Inada’s appointment was widely viewed here as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to groom her to become his successor - and Japan’s first female leader. Abe praised Inada as a “very strong candidate for prime minister” at a forum in February and appears to be trying to give her more experience in tough jobs.

Inada certainly will have a list of important problems to discuss while in Washington, chief among them how to deal with North Korea, which last week conducted its fifth nuclear test.

But American military bases on the Japanese island of Okinawa, as well as the potential for military confrontation in the East China Sea, where Japan and China are at odds over a group of small disputed islands, are additional issues.


Inada also will have to persuade American policymakers to pay more attention to Asia, said Yoji Koda, a retired Japanese vice admiral and former Harvard fellow. “She has to attract Washington’s attention and show that [President] Obama’s rebalance, both political and military, toward Asia has been unsuccessful in terms of stopping China’s assertiveness,” he said.

This new role will be a test for Inada, a 57-year-old former lawyer and mother of two who, unlike many Japanese politicians, does not come from a political dynasty. Instead she has made a name for herself by championing revisionist causes that are dear to the prime minister.

In 2003, she sued two newspapers for defamation on behalf of the families of two Japanese army officers who reportedly held a competition during the 1937 Nanjing massacre to be first to kill 100 Chinese people with a sword. She lost, but caught Abe’s eye.


Abe encouraged Inada to enter the lower house on a conservative Liberal Democratic Party ticket, and she won a seat in 2005, beginning an astonishingly fast rise through the political ranks.

But she has angered Japan’s neighbours along the way, playing down the Nanjing massacre and saying that the women the Japanese army used as sex slaves during the war were prostitutes. In 2011, South Korea banned her after she attempted to visit a disputed island.

After she was appointed last month, Inada said that Japan’s wartime actions “depend on one’s point of view” and that it was “not appropriate” for her to comment further.

China expressed “indignation” over the remarks, while South Korean newspapers said her new role might complicate relations between the two countries, which - to the relief of policymakers in Washington - have been on a smoother path this year.


But Inada also has raised eyebrows in the United States by suggesting that the Tokyo war crimes tribunal, which convicted Japan’s wartime leaders, was “unjust,” and that Japan should have nuclear weapons.

She’s now trying to put this behind her, analysts say, and present a more moderate, or at least a less hardline, face.

“In conversations I’ve had with her, and I’ve had a number, she has been not much of an ideologue but more of a policy wonk,” said Michael Green, Japan chair at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, where Inada will give a speech Thursday. He pointed to her support for LGBT rights and what, in any other country, might be called immigration reform.

This year, she skipped her usual visit to the Yasukuni shrine on August 15, the day Japan surrendered at the end of the second world war, and instead went on a trip to Africa. Among the 2.5 million Japanese war dead the shrine memorialises are the souls of 14 Class A war criminals, including Hideki Tojo, a prime minister who authorised the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour.


To increase her chances of becoming prime minister, analysts say, Abe needed to promote Inada to his cabinet during last month’s reshuffle. Putting her in charge of women’s affairs would have been too stereotypical, plus Inada needed a “hard” portfolio to balance out some of her previous softer roles.

When Abe returned for his second stint as prime minister at the end of 2012, he created an office for “cool Japan strategy” and made Inada the minister responsible for promoting Japanese food, fashion and culture. In this role, she would dress in a Gothic-Lolita style or wear sparkly, fluffy dresses usually associated with Japanese “cosplay” - the donning of costumes associated with a particular character.

She turned heads in the halls of the Diet by wearing fashionable spectacles - even though reportedly she doesn’t have vision problems - and fishnet stockings, both produced in her constituency.

Tackling defence policy might give her a chance to prove that, despite relatively little political experience by Japanese standards, she’s capable of leading the country. Or, it could backfire, given the controversial changes taking place in Japanese defence policy, said Nakano, an outspoken critic of the Abe government.


Indeed, Abe returned to office with the aim of lifting the post-war restrictions contained in Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Combined with increases in the defence budget -Inada’s ministry has asked for a record $51 billion for next year, partly to counter the Chinese in the East China Sea and also to respond to North Korea - this has raised hackles in Beijing.

“Putting Inada in charge of defence risks adding legitimacy to the Chinese claim that Japan is remilitarising and is trying to turn back the clock,” Nakano said.

That’s something Abe will no doubt keep in mind. He has repeatedly likened her to Joan of Arc for her ability to triumph over men in tough situations. But on one occasion at least, he noted that Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in the end.

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/diplomacy ... inada-make

Em uma sociedade extremamente machista algumas fotos parecem meio estranhas, em pouco mais de 1 mês que assumiu o cargo a velha já visitou um monte de lugar.

[akivrx78]

Japan fires blanks in campaign to sell arms

Dearth of orders prompts change of tack in Abe’s ambition to build export industry

A Japanese sailor aboard the Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel JS Hyuga © AFP

12 hours ago
by: Robin Harding and Leo Lewis in Tokyo

More than two years after ending its ban on arms exports, Japan has yet to win a single big order as Shinzo Abe’s dream crashes into the tortuous realities of the global defence industry.

After a humbling defeat to France in the contest to build 12 submarines for Australia, industry officials concede there are no significant export deals on the horizon, as their initial hopes of Japanese technical prowess sweeping all before it fall flat.

The result is a new mood of realism and a new approach: rather than selling weaponry and systems, Japan’s defence industry is resigning itself to a less glamorous future, selling components to the US while gradually building up joint development projects with allies.

At least for now, such a path is likely to frustrate the prime minister’s hopes of greater scale for Japan’s defence industry, or the use of exports as a tool of foreign policy. Under the export ban, the growth of Japanese contractors was limited by their sole customer: the country’s Self-Defence Forces and their $7bn procurement budget.

Heigo Sato, professor of international relations at Takushoku University in Tokyo, says: “The Australian case was an eye-opener for the Japanese defence industry as well as Japanese bureaucrats and policymakers.”

People involved in the bid say Japan was found wanting across a range of soft skills. Tokyo did not know who owned the intellectual property in its submarines. It had no system for sharing classified technical information with an ally. It lacked the project accounting systems a customer needs to keep track of costs.


A prototype of Japan's first stealth aircraft, the X-2 © AP

On top of that, says Mr Sato, Japan got the political and strategic context wrong. Japanese officials thought it was enough for Mr Abe to shake hands on a deal with Tony Abbott, then Australian prime minister, failing to see the transaction through Canberra’s eyes.

“There were Japanese bureaucrats acting as if Australia would be a junior partner of Japan in the South Pacific,” says Mr Sato. “All of those lessons will be reflected in future deals.”

With the Australian submarines gone, there is a dearth of potential orders Japan can now pitch for. One possibility is a sale of ShinMaywa’s US-2 seaplanes to India, but that deal has become bogged down.

That leaves component sales and joint development, but neither route to building up the defence industry is straightforward. Given Japan’s strengths in electronics and materials technology, a natural route is selling to US prime contractors on huge programmes such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

In every case, however, that means displacing a US supplier with a relationship with the Pentagon and a local congressman on whom to call.

Jack Midgley, Tokyo-based director of defence consulting at Deloitte, says: “The idea that Japan is waiting for its technology to be bestowed on the global defence supply chain misses the mark on how insulated the supply chains are from real competition.”

Joint development partnerships offer easier prospects but they will take time. Japan has agreed to work with France on unmanned vehicles and with the UK on a new air-to-air missile.

The real prize is participation in cutting-edge US defence programmes. Privately, Japanese defence officials admit it will be a struggle to turn their domestic X-2 stealth fighter prototype into a production aircraft. But they hope to develop technologies attractive to a partner.

Mr Sato says: “On specific programmes the US is far ahead and they don’t need us at the moment. After we have accumulated some of the skills then the US will be a future goal.”

https://www.ft.com/content/642f43f0-8ad ... 9f5696c731

[akivrx78]

Japan could go nuclear in 10 years: US study

Published : 2016-10-08 10:20

Japan could arm itself with nuclear weapons in 10 years to cope with threats from China and North Korea, a study commissioned by the US Defense Department showed, according to a news report.

The report produced for the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA) assesses that Japan can quickly build a strategic arsenal of land-based and submarine-launched missiles capable of killing up to 30 million Chinese in a nuclear war, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

"The report reveals Japan's government could arm itself with nuclear weapons within a 10-year period, based on Tokyo's advanced nuclear power infrastructure and its present day space launchers, cruise missiles, and submarines," the Washington Free Beacon said.

The ONA study was quoted as saying that the Pentagon's interest in Japan's nuclear options has taken on urgency because Japan fears that current U.S. nuclear security guarantees against Chinese or North Korean nuclear attacks are weakening and could be insufficient in the future to deter Beijing or Pyongyang.

The study also found that Japanese naval forces would likely choose a nuclear force built around off-shore based, nuclear-missile firing submarines, with a land-based component of road-mobile missiles, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

In a nuclear exchange with China, Beijing would likely strike the 20 to 30 largest Japanese cities with 3 megaton weapons, killing between 23 million and 33 million people, according to the study.

A nuclear-armed Japan could launch ballistic and cruise missiles in several retaliatory scenarios, including 150 kiloton bombings of 45 cities, killing 20 million Chinese, or the use of larger 1.2 megaton warheads on 60 cities, for an estimated toll of between 96 million and 128 million people, the study showed.

For North Korea, an attack on 10 Japanese cities with 10 kiloton warheads would kill around 1 million, and could invite a Japanese 1.2 megaton blast over the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, killing an estimated 1.1 million North Koreans, the study showed, according to the report. (Yonhap)

http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20161008000045

[akivrx78]

Pentagon Studied Future Japan Nuclear Arsenal and War With China
Net Assessment think tank under scrutiny for obscure research

BY: Bill Gertz
October 7, 2016 4:59 am

Japan can quickly build a strategic arsenal of land-based and submarine-launched missiles capable of killing up to 30 million Chinese in a nuclear war, according to a Pentagon sponsored study.

A report produced for the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment reveals Japan’s government could arm itself with nuclear weapons within a 10-year period, based on Tokyo’s advanced nuclear power infrastructure and its present day space launchers, cruise missiles, and submarines.

Casualty estimates in the report outlining a Chinese nuclear attack on Japan indicate Tokyo would be no match in a future nuclear exchange. Japan would suffer up to 34 million deaths—27 percent of the island nation’s population—from Chinese nuclear missile strikes.

Nuclear experts were unable to calculate accurately Japanese deaths from a nuclear war because of a disagreement among analysts on whether large blasts against cities would create firestorms and thus likely double the death rate. According to one briefing slide in the report, “Either way, Japan faces extinction” from a Chinese attack.

Disclosure of the report comes amid growing tensions between Tokyo and Beijing over maritime disputes involving Japan’s Senkaku Islands, which lie in the East China Sea. China claims the islands as its own territory. Japanese and Chinese military forces have been engaged in cat-and-mouse naval and air activities near the islands for the past several years.

The study is a clear sign of concerns within the U.S. government that the Obama administration’s anti-nuclear policies have increased the danger of nuclear arms proliferation, as American non-nuclear allies consider developing their own nuclear arsenals.

Japan has been building up its small military forces in recent years and has reinterpreted parts of the officially pacifist constitution to permit a wider range of military activities. In Havana Thursday, visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met with former Cuban leader Fidel Castro who agreed to seek a world free of nuclear arms. In April, Abe administration officials told the parliament that the Japanese constitution does not prohibit possessing nuclear arms.

The United States currently uses its nuclear missiles, submarines, and bombers for extended deterrence in providing security to states like Japan and South Korea. U.S. nuclear forces are aging and in need of modernization. By contrast, Russia and China are aggressively modernizing their nuclear forces and North Korea also is building up nuclear forces and delivery systems. Under the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran will be able to develop nuclear arms after 10 years.

According to the ONA report, the Pentagon’s interest in Japan’s nuclear options has taken on urgency because Japanese fears that current U.S. nuclear security guarantees against Chinese or North Korean nuclear attacks are weakening and could be insufficient in the future to deter Beijing or Pyongyang.

According to the report, factors that could drive Japan to nuclearize include a major shift in U.S. deterrence policy, South Korean building nuclear arms, an Iranian nuclear test, or the use of nuclear arms by Russia or China.

The findings were part of a workshop, “Nuclear operations and implications,” held in Washington on June 10, which included American defense and nuclear officials assessing how Japan would deploy and use nuclear missiles built from current space launchers and submarines.

The workshop and subsequent report were organized by the defense contractor Long Range Strategy Group, a consulting group. The group’s president is Jacqueline Newmyer Deal, a friend of Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation.

According to private emails made public recently, Hillary Clinton sought to assist Deal in gaining consulting contracts with the State Department policy planning office and the Pentagon undersecretary of defense for policy seven years ago while she was secretary of state.

The workshop was paid for by the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, a government think tank that has come under fire in recent months for controversial research that critics say appears to have little utility for military planning or defense policymaking.

A senior military official said ONA’s director, James Baker, who took over the office last year, is working to fix the perception within the Pentagon that the Office of Net Assessment is not producing relevant studies and is focused too much on contractor work.

A defense official who defended the office said ONA is charged with engaging in unconventional thinking and research on national security issues.

In addition to the Japan nuclear war study, other ONA contractors have produced studies that critics say lack relevance or have questionable value.

According to Pentagon documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, among some of the more controversial ONA studies are:

A report by the Long Term Strategy Group on Americans as a “warlike” people descended from a dominant and belligerent Scotch-Irish culture. The report cost more than $60,000 to produce.
A two-year study of Russian and Chinese leaders’ facial and body movements called “movement pattern analysis” that sought to develop a capability to decode foreign leaders’ decision-making from their movements. The study cost between $300,000 and $800,000.
A report by a global warming advocate on “Reconsidering Resources,” which examined how resources and population are declining and technology is increasing. The study cost more than $184,000.
A report on Chinese movies, “A Neo-Letesian, Psycho-Cultural Analysis of Chinese Movies,” sought to understand Chinese culture through propaganda films.
Two studies on anti-war intellectuals, “War and the Intellectuals: Trends in American Elite Attitudes Toward War,” and an accompanying workshop report, assert that the divide between cosmopolitan American elites and less-educated patriotic Americans could lead to civil violence in the future. The workshop and report cost around $100,000.

The focus on contractor studies and a shortage of formal strategic military assessments by the office prompted Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to re-establish a separate net assessment capability within the Joint Staff, according to military officials. Dunford is reviving the Joint Military Net Assessment group as part of the effort.

Dunford earlier this year produced a top-secret report known as the Chairman’s Risk Assessment that identified five “challenges” to the United States. The report discussed Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and the Islamic State terror group. Dunford, in congressional testimony in February, outlined the secret assessment, noting that military threats involve adversaries’ use of non-traditional military means, such as cyber attacks or covert information warfare operations. Examples cited include operations by Russia in taking over Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, and China’s ongoing covert efforts to seize control of the South China Sea.

Dunford’s report also identified major sources of U.S. military risk. Chief among the risks is the danger of U.S. forces having to fight more than one conflict at a time. Other key vulnerabilities for the military include shortages of intelligence resources, missile defenses, naval expeditionary forces, airborne command and control, air superiority forces, global precision strike weapons, and cyber warfare forces.

A military official said Dunford reestablished the Joint Staff net assessment to better help him provide military advice to the president and defense secretary.

The secretive Office of Net Assessment is tasked with producing strategic assessments of military balances between the United States and foreign states, as well as other threats like the Islamic State. But in its more than 40 years, ONA has become more of a defense consultancy, doling out between $10 million and $20 million a year to contractors, while producing few of the secret net assessments.

Under its long-time director Andrew Marshall, however, ONA played a key role over the past decade in highlighting the growing threat posed by China. ONA studies on China corrected the widespread misperception among both military and defense officials that the Asian country was a benign power. Marshall retired last year.

Formal net assessments are several hundred pages in length and differ from intelligence estimates by contrasting U.S. capabilities and weaknesses against other threats. The emphasis on U.S. vulnerabilities is one reason net assessments were not made public. Doing so would assist foreign powers in developing forces and capabilities for defeating the United States in a future war.

Net Assessment defended the Japan nuclear study as well as other contracting work in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.

“ONA is also charged with considering ‘uncomfortable questions’ that sometimes challenge U.S. policy preferences,” the statement said. “Recent research work includes everything from the implications of an expanded nuclear club of nations to the future of the international order to the impact of demographic shifts on Chinese military capacity.”

The office’s research agenda is “robust and innovative,” and supports senior defense leaders with comparative analyses on military, technological, and other topics “affecting the future capability of the U.S. and other nations, with the goal of identifying emerging problems and opportunities that deserve the attention of senior defense officials,” the statement added.

Other missions include war gaming, net assessments, studying the future security landscape, and pursuing emerging research topics, methods, and sources.

Regarding contracts, ONA follows federal acquisition regulations that involve both internal ONA review as well as the Pentagon’s acquisition directorate.

ONA staff and military officers also evaluate contracts based on whether they contribute to the office’s mission and whether the contractor can do the work. The office has used 90 contractors over the past decade.

The Japan nuclear report, while unclassified, appears to provide an expert assessment for how Japan could best develop nuclear forces, taking into account the Pacific nation’s World War Two experience of conventional firebombing and two nuclear attacks.

As a result of that experience, the report found that Japanese naval forces would likely choose a nuclear force built around off-shore based, nuclear-missile firing submarines, with a land-based component of road-mobile missiles.

Japan’s current space launcher, the Epsilon, is similar to the ten-warhead capable U.S. MX missile, systems which were dismantled in 2005.

A Japanese nuclear missile may not need multiple warheads, but Tokyo could develop the capability as China continues to pursue missile defense developments.

Regarding warheads, Japan could build a warhead similar to the U.S. 1.2 megaton W-47 warhead.

The attendees at the Japan nuclear forces conference were told that Japan likely would adopt a “deterrence by punishment” policy—threatening proportionate nuclear strikes if attacked—rather than deterrence by denial—dissuading nuclear strikes by hardening or hiding targets.

The report discussed a briefing at the June conference that provided detailed casualty estimates for a nuclear war between China and Japan.

In a nuclear exchange with the Chinese, Beijing would likely strike the 20 to 30 largest Japanese cities with 3 megaton weapons—the equivalent of 3 million tons of TNT—killing between 23 million and 33 million people.

A nuclear-armed Japan could launch ballistic and cruise missiles in several retaliatory scenarios, including 150 kiloton bombings of 45 cities, killing 20 million Chinese, or the use of larger 1.2 megaton warheads on 60 cities, for an estimated toll of between 96 million and 128 million people.

For North Korea, an attack on 10 Japanese cities with 10 kiloton warheads would kill around 1 million, and could invite a Japanese 1.2 megaton blast over the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, killing an estimated 1.1 million North Koreans.

The officials assessed Japan could easily developed torpedo-tube launched land attack cruise missiles with a range of 1,500 miles. Japan plans to have 22 submarines in its naval forces and could keep 100 nuclear cruise missiles on station.

A second option would be for Japan to develop intermediate range missiles with 2,000-mile ranges that could be capable of hitting all major Chinese cities from Japanese territory.

Japanese space officials have indicated that current space launchers can be fired from mobile launchers—an indication that the systems could be converted from launching satellites to carrying warheads.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security ... war-china/

[akivrx78]

Japan to allocate up to $3B for new missile defense system

The proposal is a response to North Korea’s continued missile provocations.
By Elizabeth Shim Contact the Author | Oct. 17, 2016 at 3:06 PM

TOKYO, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Japan is planning to allocate about $2 billion to $3 billion toward missile defense systems in response to North Korea's continued nuclear and missile provocations.

The defense-spending proposal is expected to be part of Japan's third revised supplementary budget, Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported Monday.

North Korea has launched a total of 22 ballistic missiles in 2016, and more provocations are expected. The deployment of new missile defense equipment is to act as a key deterrent, according to the report.

Highlights of the proposal include the planned deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability Missile Segment Enhancement, a powerful missile interceptor.

The PAC-3 MSE reportedly has a wider range and altitude than the PAC-3, which is the system currently in deployment in Japan.

The purchase cost of the PAC-3 MSE, $150.2 million, is reflected in Japan's fiscal year 2017 budget, according to the report.

Japan's defense ministry is also planning to allocate a portion of the third supplementary budget to the construction of either a THAAD or Aegis ballistic missile defense system, as well as improved radars for Japan's F-15 fighter jets that can be deployed in response to Chinese maneuvers in the East China Sea.

In August, Japan planned a record $50 billion defense budget for 2017.

Japan's defense budget has increased annually since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe assumed office in December 2012.

About $735.3 million of the budget is to also go toward building powerful new submarines with improved sonar systems that could monitor the Sea of Japan.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/ ... 476730102/

[akivrx78]

SDF to use helmet cams on missions

8:27 pm, October 22, 2016


The Yomiuri ShimbunFollowing the enactment of the security-related laws that authorize Self-Defense Force members to carry out new duties such as rescue missions in South Sudan, the Defense Ministry plans to record images of the members’ activities as they conduct the new missions, according to sources.

The security-related laws have expanded the scope of SDF activities. However, in the event that a weapon is used by an SDF member as part of a mission, there is a possibility that their actions will be subject to later scrutiny, in particular as to whether they have followed protocol. The ministry hopes to verify SDF activities by maintaining objective images.

The government will decide by mid-November on the assignment of new missions to Ground Self-Defense Force members, due to be dispatched to South Sudan as early as November to take part in U.N. peacekeeping operations, after conducting careful analyses of the security situation in the country. The ministry plans to provide small wearable cameras to these GSDF members.

Members will be able to record their activities from their own point of view after attaching the cameras, mainly to their helmets.

The ministry previously used such cameras to record the activities of a helicopter crew sent to areas affected by Typhoon No. 10 this year. A senior ministry official said that it would be the ministry’s first deployment of such cameras outside Japan.

The enactment of the security-related laws in March authorized SDF members to conduct new duties such as rescue missions and joint protection of billeting areas.

The GSDF’s 9th Division in Aomori is scheduled to be dispatched to South Sudan in November or later. The division has been trained for new missions.

If the division is officially tasked with these new missions, it is believed that its members will be able to use weapons against mobs and other persons deemed to be interfering with their missions.

The ministry decided that there is a need to verify division member activity due to the potential for scenarios in which those on the front line are forced to exercise their own judgment as to whether they should fire weapons, according to sources.

The ministry has also been examining the use of the cameras to transmit live images of on-the-ground activities to the ministry in Tokyo or to other facilities so that the SDF’s top executives can issue direct commands to troops.

Wearable cameras spreading

The use of small wearable cameras has been spreading. They have already been adopted by the Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. military among others. MPD officers wore such cameras on guard duty at large events such as a grand parade for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic and Paralympic medalists as a preparatory measure against terrorist attacks.

It appears that live images of the operation in which U.S. special forces killed Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 were sent to the White House and monitored by President Barack Obama and other officials.

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0003300950

[akivrx78]

Abe pitches SDF's new overseas duties at review ceremony

Politics Oct. 23, 2016

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-hNWq1zKGI
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center standing, reviews members of Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) during the Self-Defense Forces Day at Asaka Base in Saitama Prefecture, on Sunday.
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

TOKYO —

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday pitched new overseas duties to be given to members of the Self-Defense Forces under his administration’s security legislation as he spoke at a troop review at an SDF base in Tokyo.

“You will be assigned with new duties under the legislation. They are duties to protect the precious peace,” he said in an address as the SDF’s commander-in-chief during the ceremony at the Asaka garrison of the Ground Self-Defense Force.

Under the legislation that took effect in March, the expanded duties include going to the aid of U.N. personnel under attack by armed groups during U.N. peacekeeping operations.

The government is in the process of deciding whether to give such expanded assignments to the next GSDF unit to be sent to South Sudan under a U.N. peacekeeping mission.

Approximately 4,000 SDF members, about 280 vehicles including tanks, and some 50 airplanes took part in the review.

https://www.japantoday.com/category/pol ... w-ceremony

[akivrx78]

Abe vai a Pearl Harbor em sinal de reconciliação e não para pedir perdão

Primeiro-ministro japonês e o Presidente Barack Obama vão visitar memorial do ataque que fez os Estados Unidos entrarem na II Guerra Mundial.
Clara BarataClara Barata
27 de Dezembro de 2016, 7:12

O memorial USS Arizona HUGH GENTRY/REUTERS

Shinzo Abe visita hojePearl Harbor com Barack Obama, no Hawai, a base norte-americana bombardeada por 353 japoneses há 75 anos. O ataque, sem aviso prévio, matou mais de dois mil soldados americanos e causou um profundo choque nos Estados Unidos, que declarou guerra ao Japão no dia seguinte, 8 de Dezembro de 1941. Foi o início de uma cadeia de acções que conduziram, quatro anos mais tarde, à utilização pelos EUA de duas bombas atómicas no Japão — em Hiroxima e Nagasáqui, quando a guerra estava praticamente terminada.

A decisão americana de usar a bomba atómica — uma arma nova, nunca testada num cenário real, e com efeitos devastadores — ligou os dois países por laços estreitos. Os EUA tornaram-se a potência ocupante (1945-52), no fim da guerra. Depois de saírem, comprometeram-se a garantir a segurança da nação nipónica que, por seu lado, renunciou ao direito de ter um exército e à possibilidade de voltar a fazer a guerra — um princípio que foi inscrito na Constituição.


Navios da Marinha americana durante o bombardeio a Pearl Harbor Marinha dos EUA/REUTERS

Esse acordo firmado no pós-II Guerra dura há sete décadas. E como uma corda que se estica cada vez mais, começa a ceder e a perder força: Abe é um nacionalista que quer mudar a Constituição, para dar novo fôlego às forças armadas no seu país. E quer que as futuras gerações japonesas deixem de ter de pedir desculpa pelo que fizeram os seus avós. O primeiro-ministro japonês quer acabar com a “era do Pós-Guerra”.

Na visita ao memorial USS Arizona, o navio de guerra em que mais americanos morreram no ataque a Pearl Harbor, não se espera que Abe peça desculpa pelo ataque — tal como Obama não pediu perdão pelo bombardeamento de Hiroxima, quando visitou a cidade, em Maio passado. “A visita vai expressar o valor da reconciliação entre o Japão e os EUA”, explicou o ministro japonês da Presidência, Yoshihide Suga.

É um sinal de normalização que o primeiro-ministro japonês quer dar. “Desde 2004 que franceses, americanos e alemães lembram a Guerra juntos na Normandia. É um sinal de reconciliação e compromisso que as relações entre os EUA e o Japão também tenham chegado a este ponto”, disse à Reuters Jennifer Lind, professora de Diplomacia Asiática na Universidade de Dartmouth (EUA). “Estas visitas, no entanto, não provocam a reconciliação. É o oposto: a reconciliação é que está na origem destas visitas”, sublinhou a investigadora.

No Japão, o ataque a Pearl Harbor não é um acontecimento histórico muito conhecido. A maior parte dos estudantes japoneses visitam Hiroshima ou Nagasaki, mas o bombardeamento que levou os EUA a declarar guerra ao Japão merece apenas uma ou duas linhas nos manuais escolares, relata o New York Times.

Se a normalização da memória em relação aos EUA avança a passos largos, em relação à China ou a outras nações asiáticas, onde o Japão foi um agressor, ainda não acontece — embora o acordo de Dezembro de 2015, que prevê o pagamento, por parte do Japão, de nove milhões de dólares à Coreia do Sul para a criação de uma fundação que apoie as chamadas “mulheres de conforto”, forçadas a prostituírem-se para os soldados japoneses durante a II Guerra Mundial, tenha sido um princípio.

Urgência diplomática

Mas há também traços de urgência nesta visita de Abe. “Toda a comunidade de relações internacionais japonesa está ansiosa por enviar uma mensagem, a todo o mundo mas em especial ao Presidente eleito norte-americano, de que a aliança EUA-Japão está forte e só pode ser ainda mais forte”, disse à Reuters o professor da Universidade Sophia de Tóquio, Koichi Nakano.

Enquanto candidato à presidência, Donald Trump, um político isolacionista, criticou a visita de Obama a Hiroshima: “Alguma vez o Presidente Obama discutiu o ataque furtivo a Pearl Harbor quando esteve no Japão? Perderam-se milhares de vidas americanas”. Também lançou o pânico ao dizer que as nações asiáticas deviam pensar em fazer as suas próprias armas nucleares, em vez de contarem com as forças dos EUA — comentários que depois negou.

https://www.publico.pt/2016/12/27/mundo ... ua-1756174