Tag - defense

 
 

DEFENSE

The flight deck of the French Navy's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier during a stop at Changi Naval Base in Singapore in May 2019
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 17, 2024
With rare Asia carrier deployment, France seeks greater interoperability
“The Indo-Pacific is the world’s new center of gravity," Rear Adm. Guillaume Pinget told The Japan Times during a visit to Tokyo.
A Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force Mogami-class frigate, featuring stealth capability, is anchored at the Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture in September 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 17, 2024
Japan's security assistance does not match its ambitions
ODA remains central to Japan’s contribution to regional security, with a focus primarily on nonmilitary means, including providing nonlethal equipment to law enforcement.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov attend an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board at the National Defense Control Center in Moscow on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 17, 2024
Russia must be ready to fight NATO in Europe in next decade, minister says
Russian defense chief cited a NATO summit in July and military doctrines in NATO members as evidence that Moscow had to prepare.
A Ground Self-Defense Force's soldier takes part in a marine landing drill on Tokunoshima island, Kagoshima Prefecture, in November 2023. The Philippines has ratified a defense pact with Japan that allows them to deploy troops on each other's soil.
JAPAN
Dec 16, 2024
Philippines ratifies key defense pact with Japan
Lawmakers in Tokyo need to vote through the treaty before it takes effect.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping meet at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, in October. India and China reached a border deal for Chinese forces to retreat from disputed territory and for India to resume border patrols.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 15, 2024
How India’s soft power led to a border deal with China
New Delhi played its cards right, adopting a multipronged strategy that led to Beijing withdrawing from disputed territory that could be model for other countries, too.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers an address to the nation at his official residence in Seoul on Saturday after the National Assembly voted to impeach him earlier in the day.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 15, 2024
South Korean president impeached over martial law decree
The 204-85 vote means Yoon Suk Yeol's ultimate fate now rests with the Constitutional Court, which can either decide to formally oust him or return him to office.
Attendees view a concept model of the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) fighter plane at the BAE Systems pavilion at the Farnborough International Airshow, in Farnborough, England, in July.
JAPAN
Dec 13, 2024
Trilateral fighter project takes big step with joint venture deal
The U.K.-headquartered entity, to be set up by mid-2025, will be responsible for the industrial side of Japan, Britain and Italy's Global Combat Air Program.
Yoichi Miyazawa (right), chair of the Liberal Democratic Party's tax panel, said Friday that both the LDP and Komeito have agreed to decide on the start date for higher income taxes at a later date.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024
LDP-Komeito bloc defers decision on income tax hike to boost defense budget
The bloc originally aimed to raise income tax rates in January 2027, but reconsidered following discussions with the opposition Democratic Party for the People.
Akihisa Nagashima, national security adviser to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, speaks during an interview in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 13, 2024
Japan must brace and prepare for Trump tariffs, top adviser says
"Japan must be prepared for Trump following through on his plans,” says Prime Minister Ishiba's national security adviser Akihisa Nagashima.
An SM-3 interceptor is launched by the Aegis Guam System during a test at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on Tuesday.
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 12, 2024
Can a U.S. missile defense system shield Guam from Chinese threat?
Building the island's missile defenses as envisioned will cost about $10 billion over the next decade.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visit a defense exhibition in July last year.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 11, 2024
Russia tie-up sparks fears of modernized North Korean defense industry
Experts say the real issue is how deepened North Korean-Russian ties could help revitalize and modernize Pyongyang’s defense industrial base.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks in Pyongyang on Nov. 21. North Korea is believed to have been engaging in nuclear development since the era of the late Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and the current leader's grandfather.
WORLD
Dec 11, 2024
Unstable global environment reduces NPT to mere shell
Some countries are moving to acquire nuclear weapons in an attempt to either maintain their dictatorial regimes or to strengthen deterrence.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba shakes hands with his Finnish counterpart, Petteri Orpo, at the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Politics
Dec 11, 2024
Japan and Finland agree to boost security cooperation
The two leaders welcomed the start of Japan-Finland negotiations to conclude a treaty on the transfer of defense equipment and technology.
One of the representatives of 2024 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo, Terumi Tanaka, speaks during the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremony in Oslo City Hall on Tuesday.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024
Nobel Peace Prize winner Nihon Hidankyo calls for a world without nukes
The atomic bomb survivors urged countries to abolish the weapons resurging as a threat 80 years after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
The U.S. decision to suspend the use of a firing range in the Senkakus has had lasting consequences, undermining Japan's claims to the islets and sending mixed signals about U.S. support for Japanese sovereignty over the area.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 10, 2024
A restart of Senkaku firing ranges is long overdue
The suspension also had strategic consequences, depriving both U.S. and Japanese forces of vital military training ranges.
Palantir CEO Alex Karp speaks on a panel at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, on Saturday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 10, 2024
Trump's Musk-led efficiency drive may spur defense-tech partnerships
Smaller tech firms to play a bigger role given that Musk, one of their own, is entering a position of enormous influence.
The French headquarters of Huawei Technologies in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris in 2020. Companies that maintain business ties with Huawei could lose access to work for the Pentagon, which committed nearly $460 billion on contracts in fiscal 2023.
BUSINESS / Tech
Dec 10, 2024
Huawei suppliers to face further U.S. limits under defense bill
The bill's language effectively bars Pentagon contractors from selling chips and the equipment for making or designing them to Huawei or its affiliates.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Nihon Hidankyo's representative Terumi Tanaka attends a news conference ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo on Monday.
JAPAN
Dec 10, 2024
Nuclear weapons must never be used, hibakusha tells Putin before Nobel ceremony
Terumi Tanaka was referring to threats made by Putin and others to use nuclear bombs if necessary to counter what they see as a hostile West in the Ukraine war.
Japan's envisaged active cyber defense system is to acquire and analyze communications information even in normal times
JAPAN
Dec 7, 2024
Japan eyes monitoring international communications for cyber defense
The move is part of a plan to develop active cyber defense, or preemptive action to prevent cyberattacks, according to sources.
A navy serviceman is reflected on a radar screen aboard the BRP Tarlac landing ship off the shore of Calayan Island, the Philippines, on June 30, 2023. Japan is providing another tranche of military aid to the Philippines that will include a grant for additional coastal surveillance radar systems, boats and other equipment.
JAPAN
Dec 5, 2024
Manila to get more radars and boats from Tokyo under new military aid tranche
The grant is intended to help strengthen the capabilities of the Philippines' navy and air force, the Foreign Ministry says.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan