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Japan missile defense drill aims to ease concern over North Korean threat

30 Comments
By Teppei Kasai and Tim Kelly

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30 Comments
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Shouldn't the headline read;

Japan missile defense drill aimed at distracting public from PM's failures and scandals.

11 ( +16 / -5 )

Japan will follow these up with a series of 30-second public information broadcasts and newspaper ads beginning Friday advising people what to do in the event of a North Korean missile attack, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

Brought to you by the Ministry Of Fear.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Sounds like we could do with an update. They are the last line of defense, but they are dated and only have a range of 15 kilometers.

Is THAAD currently the best defensive system around?

Ultimately Japan should develop its own anti missile systems.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

"Japan missile defense drill aims to ease concern...."

Q: to ease or raise concern? A: later one.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Japan has much more to fear from corrupted militarist pro-fascist PM than from NK.

5 ( +11 / -6 )

Every time there is a local scandal here in Japan involving the PM, you see those PAC-3 picture, seriously...

5 ( +8 / -3 )

What compounds the problem is that there is no shortage of possible targets for missiles, and the whole stretch from Tokyo to Kobe alone is one long megalopolis. You could pretty much fire a missile and even if the angle is wrong, if the distance is right, be pretty much assured of landing in a populated area. Of course that missile would signal the beginning of the end of North Korea which would cease to exist as a country within about a week. All hell would rain down on North Korea from the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. Unfortunately, many administrations have allowed North Korea to build up to this point out of fear of antagonizing them, and that has only resulted in the North becoming more belligerent and dangerous. I worry for my friends in South Korea and Japan. May God protect them.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Maybe Japan should install the THAAD that SK doesn't want on the Senkaku Islands. Maybe China will get the message that their mad Un dog has to be put in the pound.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Ugh. Let's hope all the chest beating calms down and a bit of "normality" ensues. The hawks in Washington push their agenda against the DPRK and Japan acquiesces.

Making this public is a way to reassure people about their safety and bring peace of mind," Akinori Hanada, an Air Self Defense Force major, told reporters.

Nope; I am not reassured. At all.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Are you trying to be funny?

This is Abe trying to divert attention away from his scandal and reshuffle.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Yes kiyoshi.  Let's bomb them back to the stone age.  that has worked so well in Afghanistan and Syria and Iraq and........

3 ( +5 / -2 )

"destroying everything that moves in North Korea"

When you talk about killing 25 million people let's call it for what it is: Genocide

3 ( +4 / -1 )

How is this reassuring -- for some it's a reminder of the threat, and for the more practical it's as meaningful a 'drill' as a guy dressing up in a zebra and simulating an escape and capture... only less so. It may as well be a statue without being tested.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Brought to you by the Ministry Of Fear.

Great book!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Abe's on the ropes at the moment. Prepare for the north korean boogeyman to take on a life akin to the invisible wmds in Iraq!!

1 ( +6 / -5 )

When you hear the 4min warning...it's too late.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

@Goodluck

4, 6 depends on timing, ie during office hours or after hours. Lunch time, If your in bed might as well stay there. Can always duck and cover, saw a poster extolling the value of placing a floor cushion on your head!

1 ( +3 / -2 )

@Toshiko: What is your point? Apple iPhones are made in China and the United States, and most Japanese TVs are outsourced to other countries. Stay on point.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Except nobody that I know is really concerned.  This is just dishonest Abe talking up a threat to bolster his "leadership" (haha) credentials.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

The hawks in Washington push their agenda against the DPRK

yes let's blame the world's problems on the US? why not?

The problem is NK, not the US

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Japan missile defense drill aims to ease concern...

Ah, yes. Nothing eases and reassures like a public missile defense drill. I was getting all tense and wound up for a while over the absence of military displays. Now I can relax. Thanks, Abe!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Silly.  And very reassuring.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

That is not " to ease concern ",

Defense drill to instigate Concern or Fear among Japanese general Public.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Only way to stop this nosense is sending 4000 tomahawk missiles together with twin caircraft carriers and F22 destroying everything that moves in North Korea

Yes; obliterating millions of people is a profound and noble way halt any "nonsense". Very Kim sounding.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I though the test failed to shoot down the target missile... again.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

defensive weapons are not really weapons, they are money wasted. What would happen if NK sends 400 missiles at once? What if they send all their boats and some of them with nuclear warheads? Or even submarines. Only way to stop this nosense is sending 4000 tomahawk missiles together with twin caircraft carriers and F22 destroying everything that moves in North Korea

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

How about offense drill to shoot N Korea first?  We can't say Japan only know making better TV and smaller I phone.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@cricky i thought we have about 6 minutes?

NK has already fired 4 missiles at once in a successful test. they know both Aergis and PAC-3 can only intercept 3 at a time, and they know that NK will be wasted within a week, why not just fire every single missile in their stockpile at once? impossible to stop, especially sub based missiles.

i'm most concerned about US aggression. as usual, when america has wars, it is in other peoples countries, so japan will just be collateral damage.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

All weapons and soldiers of Japan look like toy soldiers and toy weapons. Japan Self Defense Forces is a so called military without fighting power restrained by the peace constitution as follows.

Article 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.

In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

-14 ( +1 / -15 )

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