Category: Japan

I agree with this retired admiral that Japan should be the country that takes the lead in defending their own homeland from China’s gray zone tactics:

“The fact that Japan and the U.S. — the U.S. military and the Japan Self-Defense Force are frequently holding joint exercises, joint drills — is something that China will be watching,” Yamamoto said. “This is something that is a strong deterrence, especially on the level of the military practitioners.” However, Japan should take the lead responding to Chinese gray zone activities, Yamamoto said. “It needs to be a Japanese response,” he told reporters. “You can have the U.S. as supporting the Japanese response, but … I don’t think we need something where the U.S. is on the front line.”

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link about the gray zone tactics being used by China around Japan’s southwest islands, including Okinawa. Another interesting recommendation the admiral makes is that Japan should mobilize not only its military to counter these tactics, but also its government and civilian sectors. He discusses how the Chinese use fishing boats as part of a maritime militia, and it appears the Japanese admiral thinks Japan should do the same thing in response.

The yearly Yasukuni Shrine issue has reared its head again:

A wooden plaque, left, bearing the name of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is seen beside a tree that she sent as an offering to Yasukuni Shrine on the first day of the Autumn Festival in Tokyo, Saturday. AFP-Yonhap

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made an offering at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on Saturday, bringing to the fore a decades-old sore point with neighboring Korea and China, both of which suffered heavily from Japanese imperial aggression in the first half of the 20th century.

The offering came as the shrine’s three-day autumn festival began. Japanese media reported that Takaichi plans to hold off on visiting the shrine personally, a move interpreted as an effort to avoid further diplomatic friction.

The shrine honors about 2.46 million people who died in domestic conflicts associated with the 1868 Meiji Restoration and in the subsequent military campaigns launched by imperial Japan. Nearly 90 percent are linked to the Pacific War, Japan’s 1941-45 conflict with the United States and its allies as part of World War II. The religious site also enshrines several Class A war criminals, including wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who was executed in 1948.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but you have to visit to see how stupid this issue is. First of all the media never points out this shrine is privately owned and not government funded. The private religious corporation who runs it decided that everyone who died in service to Japan would be enshrined, not the government.

Secondly the shrine is not that big or impressive. With all the controversy the first time I went there I expected to see statues of war criminals and instead there is nothing. There is no names or anything else to see except a small temple. The soldiers enshrined at Yasukuni are simply names written in a ledger kept in a different building. I found visiting Yasukuni is be totally anticlimactic.

With that said next to the shrine is a military history museum that is far more interesting. The museum has various displays about the history of Japanese wars. The history of World War II section did have some controversial takes. The descriptions in the museum 20 years ago was far more controversial with translations today a little better balanced, but still has a few eye raisers.

You would think the shrine’s critics would criticize the museum instead of the shrine. However, this shows the loudest critics have never even been there before or even know much of what it is about.

We know this is all political theater, but the Japanese politicians are all showing who is more outraged after the murder of a Japanese woman on Okinawa:

In this screenshot from security footage, a woman who appears to be Anna Yagi walks in front of the Tesio sausage shop in Okinawa city, Okinawa, Oct. 2, 2026. (Tesio)

Japan’s prime minister criticized the U.S. military response to a Marine’s arrest in an Okinawa homicide investigation Tuesday, calling a monthlong overnight curfew for American troops inadequate. Sanae Takaichi questioned whether the midnight-to-5 a.m. restriction would prevent further incidents after Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, was arrested Oct. 4 on suspicion of killing and robbing a Japanese woman at a Naha hotel.

She made the remarks during a House of Representatives budget committee meeting in reply to Okinawa lawmaker Masahisa Miyazaki, who challenged the effectiveness of the U.S. response. “I question how banning outings during the time people are asleep actually fosters reflection or leads to realistic measures to prevent a recurrence,” Miyazaki said, according to a livestream of the meeting on the assembly’s website. Takaichi said she considered the measure “insufficient” after reviewing it in her office.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but on top of the curfew the Okinawa politicians want action taken against the Marine’s supervisors:

The Okinawa Prefectural Assembly passed a resolution and statement Friday calling on the U.S. military and Japanese governments to apologize to Yagi’s family, provide compensation and revise the status of forces agreement governing U.S. military personnel in Japan. The documents also seek “disciplinary action against those with supervisory responsibility.”

This is a ridiculous request because I have seen plenty of great NCOs and officers have Soldiers screw up and do something criminal. Personnel sometimes do criminal things and they should be held accountable for it, not people that had nothing to do with it. Now if a unit shows a consistent trend of indiscipline then that unit’s leadership is held accountable by being relieved of duty which most times ends their careers. This is something I have seen happen before. Does this Marine’s unit have a long indiscipline problem? I don’t know, but I am sure the leadership in USFJ is closely looking at it and will take action if warranted.

With that all said, if the Okinawa politicians want to play this game, then who should be held accountable for all the murders on Okinawa not committed by U.S. military personnel? The last murder on Okinawa committed on Okinawa by a U.S. servicemember was a 2019 murder suicide. That means there two murders committed by a U.S. servicemember in 7 years.

According to ChatGPT there was 13 total murders on Okinawa in 2025 and the island typically averages about 15 a year. Presumably, the vast majority of these murders are committed by Japanese. The facts show that someone on Okinawa is far more likely to be murdered by a Japanese person than a U.S. servicemember. Because of this fact, is the Okinawa legislator going to demand that all these Japanese who are parents of a criminal be brought up on charges as well? Better yet maybe they should also go after the mangers of whatever business the criminal worked at?

The U.S. Marine Corps leadership on Okinawa is practicing the typical playbook in response to criminal acts happening on the island by implementing a curfew:

U.S. service members on Okinawa will not be prohibited from drinking alcohol during a monthlong overnight curfew that begins Friday, according to the Marine Corps. “Standard off-duty regulations and responsible-use policies will remain in effect outside of curfew hours,” III Marine Expeditionary Force spokesman 1st Lt. Tyler Thomas told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday. The update follows a Tuesday order by III MEF’s commander, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, imposing a 48-hour “Period of Training” that prohibited alcohol consumption, even in private residences, and barred troops from off-base liberty. The subsequent 30-day “Period of Reflection” requires all U.S. service members on Okinawa to remain in their assigned quarters on base or at their off-base homes between midnight and 5 a.m.

Stars and Stripes

You can read more at the link.