Japan’s military on Tuesday test-fired a missile on Japanese territory for the first time, as the country accelerates its military buildup to deter China.
The Type 88 surface-to-ship, short-range missile was tested at the Shizunai Anti-Air Firing Range on Japan’s northernmost main island of Hokkaido.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s 1st Artillery Brigade used a training missile to target a boat with no crew about 40km off the island’s southern coast.
Photo: AFP / Japan Ground Self-Defense Force
Due to space limitations and safety concerns, Japan conducted past missile tests in the US, a treaty ally, and Australia, a top Japanese defense partner, where vast training grounds are available.
The military said that the test was successful.
It plans another through Sunday.
Dozens of protesters stood outside a neighboring army camp, saying missile tests only escalate tensions in Asia and risks involving Japan in possible conflicts.
Tuesday’s first domestic missile test underscores Japan’s push toward a more self-sufficient military and its acquisition of strike-back capabilities as a deterrence to China’s increasingly assertive naval activity in regional seas.
Japan is also concerned about growing joint military exercises around Japanese coasts between China and Russia.
Japan and Russia, a northern neighbor to Hokkaido, have territorial disputes.
Japan, under its post-World War II pacifist constitution, used to limit the use of force for self-defense only, but made a major break from that policy in 2022 when it adopted a five-year security strategy that names China as its biggest strategic challenge and calls for a closer Japan-US alliance.
Japan is working to deploy long-range cruise missiles, including Tomahawks purchased from the US, beginning later this year.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS