SDF mortar round lands outside training area, nearly hitting civilian car

I did not even see this story on the news but could you imagine if it was a US shell? Holy cow

Where are all the mass protests over this dangerous situation?

Dang bong: it was in the news yesterday night.

Mortars drop short all the time. exactly how is he going to "make sure" this never happens again?

And perhaps more to the point, what was a civilian car doing so close to a range?

The 81-millimeter mortar round, about 40 centimeters in length and 4 kilograms in weight, landed about [...] around a kilometer off target.

I see they're ready in case of an invasion ! I feel safer already...

Blame the brand new 2nd lieutenant.

Glad this wasn't within 500 km of Okinawa and the U.S. military wasn't involved or else there would have been mass protests and demanding of apologies for everyone in the prefecture Probably got the one-minute treatment on the news.

maybeperhaps said -

"...And perhaps more to the point, what was a civilian car doing so close to a range?.."

I was actually thinking, " why are they doing live shell practice so close to a local, but busy road?" The area, while rural is certainly not isolated.

I know Japan is a "senmai kuni", but surely there would be a more appropriate place farther away from residents for mortar shell drills. A rifle target range is one thing, but a "bombs range" so-as-to-speak, is definitely another.

Maybe the parties involved with this story were transferred down to Shiga

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/25/japanese-troops-accidentally-fire-dozens-of-live-rounds-at-each/amp/

Mortar and weapon used to fire probably US made... crap quality , I blame SDF purchase department

I'm sure there are more incidents like this, but we only get to hear about the ones that can't be suppressed.

In 1961 a B-52 broke up over the US and dropped two live nukes, one of which came close to detonating. Compared to that, a single mortar shell is small beans. The SDF were also on the news yesterday for letting Takanohana drive a jeep at a fair without the required licence. He was only supposed to sit at the driver's seat for a photo, but started the engine and drove off before they could stop him. The animated version they showed on the news was very comical.

This is not a criticism of the armed forces, btw, simply a comment on the ability of things to go wrong for any person or organization due to human and other factors. The "human condition", or whatever you want to call it.

The road runs through the training area, is within 1 km of the impact zone and is as a rule closed during live fire.

Why the man was on the road during range time should be the question.

If the round was exactly 1 km off target, there’s a good probability that the crew leader input a single digit wrong into the FDC or the collimater sight operator made an error.

30 meter killing radius on that weapon

It fell about 40 meters away from the car. These 81mm mortar rounds are designed for killing rather than destroying vehicles or buildings.

The press has been full of this incident, and many locals have been extremely vocal and surprisingly harsh in their condemnation of the Self Defense Forces. Use of this type of mortar has been suspended throughout Japan, and representatives of the armed forces have been apologizing and bowing here and there.

Photos and illustrations in this J article.

http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/national/list/201811/CK2018111502000144.html?ref=daily