Camera-equipped drone found on roof of Abe's office

whats up with blue tarp always, nobody was hurt there.. does police have some secret pact with blue tarp producers?

Ouch! The surrounding area was swarming with (presumably news) helicopters for a few hours. I couldn't even hear the hordes of electioneering politicians.

Alex: The Blue tarp has two uses. One for the police to hide a crime scene. The other is for housing.

Aerial footage showed dozens of police officers swarming over the roof and helipad of the modern, glass-facade building, with the drone covered by a blue tarpaulin.

Was the footage taken by a drone?

[A]pparently having been flown there, local media said.

A shocking assertion.

.... The wrong kind of drone :(

It's time to require licenses to fly these drones. They have become really cheap and the people who are interested in buying them are usually anti-social loners.

The licensed operators should require background checks and insurance, the flights should be logged and they should be required to carry a transmitter and probably emit a really high pitched noise to alert people to their presence. Yes, they can gather some nice pictures but they can be harmful if they crash or fall into the hands of a stalker (and very costly if they cause a security breach).

Big Brother watching Big Brother? Who's to watch the watchers watching the watchers?

My question was why is that need to be hidden... specially when its a tiny drone... by housing you mean its provided to retired policemen as housing material?

They covered it in blue tarp so it couldn't fly away. qeez

I am amazed at the number of people who came out off the hatch of the roof to investigate the drone. From the helicopter view, it looked like someone disturbed a fire ant mound.

He should apologise for not being around to have his pictures taken

According to TV reports, the roof had not been checked in about a month ... so it is not known exactly when the small drone landed there. Anyway, drones are changing security systems everywhere ... surely even here in Japan now that this incident happened. And surely the terrorists are getting more & more ideas about how to carry out their activities with the aid of drones. Just more things to worry about ...

Awfully BIG tarp for a SMALL drone!!! It is probably from CHINA or North Korea!

The drone tested positive for a "minuscule" amount of radiation, media reported.

At first I thought it was a bit strange to mention this, but it seems like the flare had a 'radioactive' symbol on it. It might be some type of protest.

There are currently no legal restrictions on the use of drones.

Got a feeling there soon will be.

There are currently no legal restrictions on the use of drones.

Chances are fairly good that some of the government officials who were presumably surprised at the gravity of the situation have already started kicking it around.

When I read the headline I thought a cabinet member was taking snaps on the roof.

It's amazing that there is no legal restrictions on the use of these things. They could EASILY be rigged to do some damage somehow, and already could be used for spying. I think it's funny this landed on the PM's building and there is ZERO they can do about it based on the law until they change it.

The drone tested positive for a “minuscule” amount of radiation, media reported.

Did it say "With greetings from Fukushima"? Even if so, we will never know, because now it's a (legalized) secret.

"There are currently no legal restrictions on the use of drones."

They better make some. Enforcement might prove to be difficult...

Someone put his Drone there and the question is why? Could be work of some "crazy" it can't be ISIS as they would this security flaw to do something more serious.

Could all just be a stunt, to allow our illustrious leader to take more freedoms away.

Maybe it could be an anti-nuclear protest.

Aerial footage showed dozens of police officers swarming over the roof and helipad of the modern, glass-facade building, with the drone covered by a blue tarpaulin

So, how many japanese police does it take to retrieve a 50cm drone? Dozens, apparently!

I'm very surprised that it made it up there without detection. It's a nice little wake up call for japanese security forces, isn't it?

whats up with blue tarp always, nobody was hurt there.. does police have some secret pact with blue tarp producers?

If I were to guess, I'd say that the tarps were bought in-bulk and are used anytime they want something to not be photographed by citizens. There's no sinister plot behind this. The next bulk purchase may be yellow tarps.

I'm no Columbo but I'm guessing one of the reasons for the tarp is that they are trying to dust it for fingerprints before moving it? It might be a bit windy up there with the possibility of rain.

North Korea?

Wouldn't be surprised if this was done by someone in the government to give them reason to put restrictions on drone usage by the public.

M3M3M3 its first i hear about fingerprints flying away in the wind....gotta make sure to bring compressed air can for my next heist... ;-)

Abe often tells us the radiation in our food is perfectly safe to eat so there should be no need for hysterics about a small amount on his roof.

Surely there should be someone with a big gun on the roof?

Agree with alistair. Could of been a stunt. Until there's physical evidence that points a criminal I only see the beneficiary being the government clamping down more.

whats up with blue tarp always, nobody was hurt there.. does police have some secret pact with blue tarp producers?

Conceal and cover-up are always the words you're looking for