Category: Japan

This was likely quite a site for the personnel at Yokota Airbase outside of Tokyo to see:

The world’s largest production transport airplane, painted in Ukrainian blue and yellow, touched down at the home of U.S. Forces Japan in western Tokyo early Wednesday.

The chartered AN-124 Antonov, also called a Ruslan, carried oversized equipment for a new heat and power plant at Yokota from Dallas, according to an email April 7 from 374th Airlift Wing spokesman 1st Lt. Danny Rangel. The statement was embargoed until the plane touched down.

The Antonov dwarfed Air Force C-130J Super Hercules cargo planes and CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft as it taxied onto a ramp beside Yokota’s cargo terminal. It was the same spot where airmen on March 16 loaded a 38-ton shipment of Ukraine-bound nonlethal military supplies onto a C-17 Globemaster III.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I have always felt countries in the Pacific need to arm themselves with a robust ballistic missile capability to counter the ballistic missile threats posed by China and North Korea:

A capability to strike enemy bases would let potential adversaries know they’d “pay a price” for attacking Japan, according to the country’s defense minister.

The Japanese government, in closed-door hearings the past few months, has heard from security experts about possibly acquiring the means to conduct counterstrikes, Kyodo News reported Monday.

The Defense Ministry plans discussions over acquiring this capability, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said in another Kyodo report Tuesday.

Chinese Communist Party channels screened a video last summer that threatened a nuclear strike if Japan intervenes in war over Taiwan, Australia’s Sky News reported July 19.

North Korea test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile March 24 for the first time since November 2017. The missile splashed down in waters within Japan’s exclusive economic zone, prompting Vice Defense Minister Makoto Oniki to call it “a serious threat to our country’s security.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Adulthood may start at age 18 now in Japan, but they can’t smoke or drink until age 20:

Starting April 1, some teenagers in Japan may sign contracts and rent apartments on their own, but they still can’t legally smoke, drink or gamble, according to a change in Japanese law.

Japan is lowering the age of majority, or adulthood, to 18, to stay in step with other countries, including the United States, France and Turkey, according to a Ministry of Justice pamphlet explaining the move.

The change in Japan’s Civil Code lowers the age of adulthood from 20, with one exception: the age at which women may marry is raised to 18 from age 16. Men were already permitted to marry at 18.

The change means that 18- and 19-year-olds may sign contracts, such as those for cellphones, credit cards and apartments, without their parents’ consent. It also ends the legal responsibility of parents to keep custody of their children, care for and educate them, according to the ministry pamphlet. 

In Japan, students graduate from high school at age 17 or 18, and many start working.

The age at which young Japanese may drink, smoke and wager at government-controlled activities such as horse racing, remains 20.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This would be an interesting legal opinion to get on whether the Japanese pacifist constitution would allow them to conduct an offensive operation to reclaim land that was originally Japanese which is the case of the Kuril Islands. I doubt the Japanese would ever do such a thing though considering Russia’s nuclear arsenal:

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Thursday during a House of Councillors committee session that the northern territories are being “occupied illegally by Russia.”

The government had avoided using such an expression to promote negotiations for a peace treaty that would address the northern territories issue, but has now changed its stance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

According to the Foreign Ministry, this is the first time a Japanese prime minister in the Diet has referred to an “illegal occupation” regarding the northern territories since 2009, when then Prime Minister Taro Aso used the expression. At that time, Russia criticized its use, saying it was an attempt to challenge Russia’s sovereignty.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The Japanese government is stepping up and providing defense aid to Ukraine:

 Japan dispatched an Air Self-Defense Force KC-767 transport aircraft to Poland on Tuesday night, to provide bulletproof vests and other SDF equipment to Ukraine.

To support the embattled country, which has been fighting invading Russian forces, the provision of defense equipment was officially approved at National Security Council ministerial meetings earlier in the day.

The equipment included bulletproof vests, helmets and cold-weather clothing.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Here is an update on the COVID situation in Japan which continues to show signs of improvement each week:

The number of new COVID-19 infections in Japan’s capital city on Monday was 4,000 less than a week prior, according to public broadcaster NHK and city data.

Tokyo confirmed another 5,374 people were infected with the coronavirus respiratory disease, 4,258 fewer than Feb. 28. 

Also Monday, the Japanese government lifted emergency measures in 13 prefectures across the country, from Niigata in central Honshu, the largest of Japan’s four main islands, to Kagoshima at the tip of Kyushu, the southernmost of the four, according to a Japan Times report. 

The government also extended to March 21 the emergency in Tokyo and 17 other prefectures, including its neighbors Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama, thanks to a slow decline in case numbers, according to the Asahi Shimbun on Thursday. The emergency was scheduled to end Sunday.

It means that, among other measures, bars and restaurants are still encouraged to close early and to curtail their alcohol sales.

Japan reported 63,591 new cases Saturday and 184 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. In March, so far, Japan has averaged nearly 67,100 new COVID-19 cases per day.

Stars & Stripes

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Daily COVID cases in South Korea continue to rise, but over in Japan they have now fallen to less than 70,000 from their peak of over 100,000:

The coronavirus continued to infect tens of thousands of people across Japan on Wednesday, even though new case numbers overall are falling week after week. 

Tokyo confirmed another 14,567 people had contracted COVID-19 on Wednesday, public broadcaster NHK reported. That’s about 3,100 more people than Tuesday and the highest one-day count since 16,129 on Friday.

However, Wednesday’s tally is 2,764 less than the count on Feb. 16, according to metropolitan government data online.

Japan on Tuesday reported a pandemic one-day record number of COVID-19-related deaths, 322, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Another 69,447 people across the country tested positive.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Much like USFK, U.S. Forces Japan is seeing a continued drop in cases despite the relatively high case counts in the surrounding population:

 Another 17,113 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Japan’s capital city, public broadcaster NHK reported Tuesday, a number slightly below the running seven-day average but still comparatively high in the history of Japan’s coronavirus pandemic. 

Tokyo and other prefectures, including neighboring Kanagawa, home of the U.S. 7th Fleet, asked the central government to extend a quasi-emergency scheduled to end Sunday, according to Kyodo News on Tuesday.

Thirty-four of Japan’s 47 prefectures are under public health restrictions. Quasi-emergency measures encourage bars and restaurants to close early and refrain from alcohol sales, and residents to avoid unnecessary travel. 

In Tokyo, the number of severely ill COVID-19 patients surpassed 50 for the first time since October, NHK reported. Still, less than 10% of hospital beds reserved for those patients are filled. But 55% of those set aside for routine coronavirus patients were filled on Monday, according to metro government data.

Japan’s new case numbers fell from 103,038 on Thursday to 92,865 on Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization.

U.S. Forces Japan on Tuesday reported 103 new cases at 15 installations,34 fewer than the previous day, according to its daily update. Yokosuka Naval Base again held the top spot with 61 new cases. Tied for No. 2 were Yokota Air Base and Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni with nine each.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

If the Okinawa governor had his way he would have the U.S. military lockdown on base forever:

Also Monday, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki on Twitter said he wrote the commander of III Marine Expeditionary Force, Lt. Gen. James Bierman Jr., asking that U.S. troops on Okinawa remain on their installations, despite the end of a three-week COVID-19 confinement order that lapsed that day. U.S. service members, civilian employees and family members were restricted to their homes and military installations across Japan to help stem the virus’ spread.

Tamaki sent the same message to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking that the U.S. military “extend the period of off-base activity restrictions on all military members stationed in US bases in Okinawa until the surge is over.”

A III MEF spokesman said the Marines were guided by their higher headquarters, consistent with the prefecture’s own messaging.

“We remain in line with [Okinawa prefectural government’s] request of its own citizens, per higher headquarters’ guidance,” Capt. Gabe Adibe told Stars and Stripes by email Tuesday. 

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but if the governor is not locking down his own citizens than why should the U.S. military lock down their personnel especially after voluntarily doing so for three weeks.

Japan’s daily COVID case rate continues to surge:

The sixth wave of COVID-19 pushed past its own record in Japan’s capital city on Saturday with 11,227 new cases reported by the metropolitan government.

The new record in Tokyo is nearly double the previous pandemic high of 5,908 in August, according to metropolitan government data online. On Monday, the city reported a modest decline to 8,503 new infections, according to public broadcaster NHK.

Japan reported more than 100,000 new cases on Saturday and Sunday, both record-setting days, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.