Japanese authorities are to deploy missiles with a range of up to 1,000km on the island of Kyushu before the end of this year, Japanese media reported yesterday.
The medium-range missile systems would be capable of striking enemy vessels in the Taiwan Strait, and bases in China and North Korea, enhancing Japan’s defense capabilities and serving to protect Taiwan from a potential Chinese military attack, Kyodo News reported.
Deployment of the land-based anti-ship missile systems would begin by the end of this year, Kyodo News said, citing anonymous sources.
Photo: AP
Multiple government sources said that the missiles would be an upgraded version of Mitsubishi’s Type 12 surface-to-ship missile, Kyodo News reported.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force already has land-based anti-ship missile units on Kyushu, and potential deployment sites for the new missiles include Yufu in the island’s Oita Prefecture, and a garrison in Kumamoto City, it said.
However, as the missile sites could become potential targets for attacks, opposition from residents are expected, it said.
To address such concerns, the government would hold briefing sessions to gain local support, it added.
Although Okinawa is geographically closer to China, the Japanese government is wary of deploying new missiles there, as doing so could further escalate regional tensions, the report said.
As a result, Okinawa would not be included in the initial phase of the missiles’ deployment, it said.
The decision to deploy the new missiles is being seen by some military analysts as a shift in Japan’s defense strategy toward a more offensive-oriented “counterstrike capability,” it said.
Japanese authorities hope the deployment could serve as a deterrent to threats from North Korea, as well as a “check on China’s military actions in the Taiwan Strait,” the report said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS