The Japanese Cabinet Secretariat has requested a budget of ￥120 million (US$825,102) next year in preparation for a potential Taiwan contingency, the Sankei Shimbun reported on Wednesday.
Local governments of several islands in the Sakishima Islands, which lie between Taiwan proper and Okinawa’s main island, believe that it is necessary to build shelters against blasts and shelling due to concerns that they might be involved in an emergency in Taiwan, the newspaper reported.
The Sakishima Islands are on the front line of Japan’s national defense, but only Ishigaki Island has an underground shelter with high defensive capabilities, it said.
Photo: AP
Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno therefore requested the budget for studying and drawing up the plan for the construction of shelters, it added.
During visits to Miyako Island and Yonaguni Island, both part of the Sakishima Islands, on Wednesday, Matsuno received requests from local leaders for the central government to provide financial support for them to construct shelters, the report said.
The Miyako government plans to rebuild the basement of a gymnasium as a shelter, while the Yonaguni government plans to add shelters into its plans to renovate government buildings, it said.
The budget request includes the cost of researching suitable sites for shelters and drawing up guidelines for shelter specifications according to the needs of various locations, it added.
The Japanese government is deliberating plans to equip the shelters with doors that can withstand an impact force and wind pressure during bombardment, as well as emergency power supplies, the report said.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
RSS