Japan plans to formulate a new defense policy outline to underline the need to meet China’s rapid military buildup, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on yesterday.
The outline, which spells out basic guidelines for Japan’s defense policies, is reviewed by the government once every five years and was revised in 1995 and 2004, the paper said.
The government initially planned to make only minor changes to the 2004 defense policy outline in the next fiscal year beginning next April.
But it decided to set up a new policy outline to signal more clearly the need for Japan to develop its defense capability amid China’s military buildup, the Yomiuri said, without citing sources.
The government will launch a panel of experts to discuss the changes and hopes to have the new outline approved at a Cabinet meeting by the end of next year, the paper said.
The Yomiuri also said the Japanese, Chinese and South Korean governments could launch an annual trilateral summit later this year to help solve regional problems such as North Korea’s nuclear development programs.
On the second leg of his first overseas trip since taking office in February, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak was to arrive in Tokyo yesterday on a mission to build ties with Japan.
Lee and Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda were scheduled to hold talks today focusing on their earlier promises to build closer ties, Japanese officials said.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS