Japan

A Risky Game Over Japan’s Disputed Islands

TOKYO – Whether it’s a genuine attempt to steer Japan’s foreign policy or a clever ploy to annoy political leaders in both Japan and China, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara’s plan to buy three disputed islands in the East …

Marines on Okinawa: Time to Leave?

TOKYO – More than six decades after U.S. Marines stormed ashore on Okinawa, it may finally be time for them to go home. Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Friday fired his defense minister, in part for missteps and verbal …

North Korea: The View From Japan

TOKYO – Troops are not on high alert. Cities are not being evacuated. Leaders are not sprinting for fortified bunkers.

As odd and erratic as the North Koreans might be, they are not about to inaugurate new leadership by …

Pyongyang’s Proliferation

Kim Jong Il’s death leaves the Korean peninsula and the rest of East Asia in a period of great uncertainty. But one of Kim Jong Il’s most dangerous legacies has security implications well beyond the region: he leaves behind a thriving nuclear weapons export business that must now be stopped.

There has been mounting evidence in …

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Retired Navy master chief yeoman Jim Taylor talks about sending off survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor to spend eternity with their shipmates, who perished 70 years ago Wednesday. “I think the reason that they want their ashes scattered in the harbor, in Pearl Harbor in particular, is because their shipmates, their …

Gaffes Over Old Crime Inflame Base Debate in Japan

TOKYO – Sixteen years after America’s top military commander in the Pacific was forced to resign over comments about a brutal rape in Okinawa, the incident is about to claim another top official and could complicate the …

Once More Into the Breach

TOKYO – Japanese troops are being sent once again into the heart of the Fukushima radiation zone to battle contamination from the stricken nuclear power plant.

Specially trained troops will enter the 20-kilometer (12.4 miles) exclusion zone around the plant next month to decontaminate abandoned government buildings and …

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