Japan to tap civilian technology for military use

more scary stuff from Abe. Revising history, compulsory patriotism education, heating up regional disputes and expansion of military powers and investment. Third Reich?

Spudman, the territorial disputes have been going on since well prior to this administration. So have the patriotism, and history issues. That leaves you with expanding the military.

Considering China's continuing military expansion and aggressive land-grabbing nature in various territorial disputes with many of its neighbors, coupled with the ongoing nuclear drum-beating of N Korea, it's hard to look at the issue and say that military expansion is entirely unwarranted.

I don't find any of your points, whether taken in combination or individually, to warrant mention of the "third reich." On the contrary, it only makes your post seem all the more riduculous.

spudmanNov. 18, 2013 - 07:35AM JST more scary stuff from Abe. Revising history, compulsory patriotism education, heating up regional disputes and >expansion of military powers and investment. Third Reich?

The nearest thing to the Third Reich right now is the one-party dictatorship with 1.3 billion people and the largest military in Asia currently considered to be the greatest threat to regional peace by nearly all Asian nations. And it isn't Japan.

Maybe spudman needs to read the article carefully, University folks are not interested, Sharp Kyocera and other industries shy away, No need to be paranoia yet. Japan Inc. more likely stick to their profitable business than will be doing something new right now Tech people? Good luck schemer of Govt.

by American’s enemies

This should read "by American enemies". At present if Japan creates anything new it'll be snooped on and copied by the U.S. Government's corporate allies before the ink even has time to dry on the design sketches. This is what nobody seems to understand about the U.S.'s state-sanctioned espionage program... information gathering is largely done by corporations (e.g. Google), and I've never met a company yet that would look at a design for a next-gen fighter jet that they could see to the arms industry for a few trillion $ and say, "Oh no, we couldn't use the carte blanche given to us by the U.S. government to make money! That would be bad!!".

This is Abe using neo-nationalism to feed more tax money to his friends in private industry, and as elsewhere, this maldistribution of limited state resources into the military industry is a last gasp ploy by a waning economic power.

Here's to hoping that they might snap up the HAL exoskeleton suits first and foremost. Fantasies about power armor soldiers aside (I'm of the belief that Japan will be the first) those HAL suits would be very useful for everything from carrying extra body armor against IEDs, to assisting in disaster relief - gods know how useful all that extra strength would be in the Philippines right now. Plus it might help jump start Japan Inc. at long last. I mean DARPA help make the Internet and look what did to America Inc.

It may only be camouflaged kevlar kimonos, or Hello Kitty emblems on main battle tanks to scare enemies to death with cuteness!

More worrying is that it is yet another programme that is run by the cabinet office, and not the Ministry of Defence. They already have the secrecy proposal, the NRA, and billions of yen in discretionary funds that they refuse to disclose the use of...

History is repeating itself. Vico was right.

That's a switch. Usually I hear about military technology tapped for civilian use...

I can't wait until they build their first Gundams. :)

Why waste money on new ways to kill more people?

How about spending time and money on peaceful research?

Find a new source of energy to replace oil and nuclear power and the Earth is yours.

Without firing a single shot.

"Find a new source of energy to replace oil and nuclear power and the Earth is yours."

Bertie - Unfortunately there is no source of energy to replace oil and nuclear, this is about as far as mankind's technology can go. It's the same everywhere else in the universe - that's why we have had no visits from aliens.

Serrano: Did you forget California (yes a huge American State) has 1/3 of its utility is in Solar Energy? Smaller States, such as Nevada and Arizona, All solar energy. It is in technologically backwarded huge country. Isn;t nuclear energy is out of dated system? Maybe check size of Calif +Nevada against size of Japan? Maybe Japan is too big to use solar energy plants?

Serrano,

Unfortunately there is no source of energy to replace oil and nuclear

Oh isn't there?

I suppose we all had better give up then.

Ho hum.

Oil is actually a form of stored solar energy. Solar energy will continue to develop and its use will expand, but it's not going to replace oil and nuclear.

@Serrano: Solar Energy used in USA is from sunshine from sky. Using Sanyo manufactired Solar Cells . In USA. oil are from under earth bubbling up. We call Texas Tea, Black Gold. They pump up and there is no chance to go up in sky. Too heavy, Back to topic, I doubt very much Technoology experts will quit their comfortably paid job to work for this known inefficient DARPA copycatted JARPA with way less paycheck

SerranoNov. 18, 2013 - 09:41PM JST Unfortunately there is no source of energy to replace oil and nuclear, this is about as far as mankind's technology can go. It's the same everywhere else in the universe - that's why we have had no visits from aliens.

Hydroelectric power is already used widely and accounts for 15% of China's power. It is safe, infinitely renewable and completely clean. There's no need to consult aliens, we've had a big part of the energy puzzle for centuries, water. Tidal power and wave power is producing great results and again the technologies are clean, safe and renewable.

There's also tons of methane produced from garbage and waste, which has been harnessed in some places to power whole towns and in process has been broken down into elements that are less harmful to the environment, a technology that is not only safe and renewable (as that brilliant children's book points out, "Everybody poops!"), but also has a positive effect on the environment.

In addition there's geothermal energy, which mankind has exploited in hot baths and saunas for millenia across the globe. Again, safe, renewable and clean.

Or how about wind power, used since BC when the first person raised a sail. Safe, renewable, clean.

There are literally dozens of safe, renewable and clean technologies available. The only problem is that people think it is going to be difficult or expensive to change across. It really isn't. The research is done, and has actually been done for decades. Yes, the early models will be replaced by later and better models, that's just progress. People don't say, "Oh my goodness, the iPhone 6 will be out in a year or two, I'd better wait rather than buying a new phone now.". If everyone did that there never would be an iPhone 6. This is essentially the argument that power companies are making, "We don't want to invest in technology today because something cheaper and more efficient will come along later".

It is pure and utter nonsense. Any 5 year old could point out the nonsense in that argument. Power companies are simply in a comfortable position now and don't want anything to change... and that's also idiotic, since they could charge the same prices and get HUGE profits by using renewable power sources since they wouldn't have to pay a dime for fuel, just maintenance costs (which would probably MUCH lower than those on high-maintenance projects like nuclear power plants).

The power companies simply need an ultimatum from the public via the politicians. Give them 5 years then shut down every non-green power source, and arrest the board of directors of any company running illegal and polluting power companies. No coal, no uranium, no oil, no LPG. Just nice clean power. We could do it... if it wasn't for the ill-informed and vocal portion of the public who think it is still space-age technology. Wake up, we've been in the space-age for decades now, and 100% clean and renewable power has been possible for about the same time.

Just think if it was not for China's so called peaceful rise with its use of aggression, we would probably not be hearing of this. Oh well those that China is threatening and using aggression against can not sit idol. There was peace in east Asia for many years until China decided it wanted to expand its control from over its people and try to control everyone else in the region. I want to see Japan with a nuclear ability instead of only the rogue totalitarian governments in the region having such abilities to use as threats to the peacefully nations

wanderlustNov. 18, 2013 - 12:17PM JST More worrying is that it is yet another programme that is run by the cabinet office, and not the Ministry of Defence. >They already have the secrecy proposal, the NRA, and billions of yen in discretionary funds that they refuse to >disclose the use of...

Why is that "more worrying"? I would be more worried if such a program as well as state secrecy programs were all run by the Dfense Ministry.