Japan signs ¥36.6 bil deal with Vietnam for 6 patrol ships

Bad move. Vietnam also has overly ambition claims in the South China sea and if it gets to warring again this helps Japan get drawn in or targeted.

This might be only a small step but going right way for

contribute to "the realization of a free and open Indo-Pacific,"

Things are getting weird with the SCS.

@Vanessa Carlisle, it's fine. Japan need allies in the South China Sea. Most of the countries there are already against China for trying to annex the whole sea. Without Japan support, small countries don't stand a chance. Vietnam army is pretty bad if you look it up. Especially their navy is in horrible shape. Without proper ships, they wouldn't able to protect their own coastline. Japan has one of the best shipbuilding yards, so extending a loan is not a big deal. Both side wins.

Especially currently many nations are planning to move their factories to Vietnam after finding out they can't only rely on China as the main supply chain. Japan doing business with Vietnam is gonna happen eventually. A large amount of our factories are being moved there.

" Vietnam army is pretty bad if you look it up."

Really? The Vietnamese Army humiliated the PLA in the 1979 Sino-Vietnam war. Their navy is untested but I would not underestimate their army. Vietnam is also buying surplus US Coast Guard cutters, P-3C Orion patrol aircraft and F-16 fighters. That last purchase is a surprise considering the Vietnam Air Force operates SU-30 Flankers. As pointed out above every nation border China has to stand together against Chinese territorial aggression. No one country can go it alone.

By pretty bad i means when it comes to number and equipment. Their army is not that big anymore. Most of their gear are outdated and their yearly military spending is pretty low. They might have won decades ago but you know what they say. Times change. Unless you adapt you will be submerge by time. China had greatly increase military spending in recent years. Which is why Vietnam actually had to ask for patrol ships from another country instead of having build it themselves. That already tells you just how bad it is.

I think it is time for Japan to start building aircraft carriers and more warships.

The Vietnamese Army humiliated the PLA in the 1979 Sino-Vietnam war.

Nonsense. You really think the Vietnamese trounced the huge China in just one month? China had the specific goal of just punishing Vietnam and that is what they did. They hit Vietnam hard then withdrew on their own terms. Stop reading B.S. Vietnamese propaganda. They didn't wrestle with the U.S. for over a decade to just to pound China in one month. Full props to the Vietnamese for holding out against the U.S. but get serious. The Chinese had no intent to hold territory in Vietnam nor effect regime change or the war would have lasted for years even if the Chinese suffered defeat after defeat. That's not what happened.

You really think the Vietnamese trounced the huge China in just one month?

Vietnam got what it wanted. China did not. Vietnam won the war. China's invasion was to punish VN for occupying Cambodia. Yet VN troops remained in Cambodia for the following decade, during which time it defeated and kicked out the China-backed Khmer Rouge. Vietnam definitely won that war.

You really think the Vietnamese trounced the huge China in just one month? 

Yes it did. The bulk of the Vietnamese army was in Cambodia at the time. Vietnam had to fight with reserves and won. China lost to Vietnams B team.

There have been a surge of netto uyoku acting pro-Abe and pro-China at the same time. Did the LDP cronies get so desperate to hire Wumaos for their international PR department?

Without proper ships, they wouldn't able to protect their own coastline. Japan has one of the best shipbuilding yards, so extending a loan is not a big deal. Both side wins.

Vietnam can build its own coast guard ships with imported materials. The VCP gave out a favorable contract to the Japanese out of political reasons. Abe's core campaign is to help the private businesses salvaging good deals in the times of hardship, and the Vietnamese leaders simply filled the hole. Vietnam, with a lot of money already, can acquire the American coast guard ships better than buying Japan. However, the VCP ought to help Abe out with his elections, so they brought his ships. Vietnam is also doing with Trump's America, which they are the second biggest buyer of American agricultural products and natural resources. President Trump recently praises Vietnam openly during his rally at the Whirlpool factory.

On the military wise, South Korea and China built the best navies in Asia but Vietnam had the best of the best on their side: Russia. If Vietnam wants to build warships, it will go to Russia instead. If Vietnam wants to build military aircrafts, it will go to Russia instead. Turkey even went with Russia recently after finding out that American equipments are overpriced at best. The only things that Vietnam will buy from the USA are the UAVs probably, while Vietnamese military corporations are secretly developing their own UAVs as well.

Russia and the US are the best military manufacturers in the world. Vietnam does not need Japan if it ever went on military shopping.

Vietnam army is pretty bad if you look it up.

They are solidly around top 20 in the Global Firepower Index for many years. In the Southeast Asia, many American experts and Indian military personnel considered Vietnam is currently the top dog of Southeast Asia to deter China. Vietnam army is far from bad but merely weaker than China due to years of Nixon's misguided policies on China. Henry Kissinger recently saw Vietnam as the next potential threat against China and the great ally for the West in the coming future.

Please don't squeeze Japan in between, you only humiliate the LDP cronies with such ultranationalist assessment. Vietnam and Japan are best pals right now, so please don't ruin the relations with such outlandish statements. Daddy Abe would not approve of your action either.

So now we know what that ANA 'Vietnam travel bubble' was really about. They weren't honest with us.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency inked the agreement with the Vietnamese government in Hanoi on July 28

vietnam is still very communist. lesser of the 2 evils ?

It is bad and dangerous policy to incite conflicts between two neighbors. if ever there is a fight between Vietnam and China using the things that Japan made, naturally Japan will become common enemy of both nations. If Japan believes that both nations forget what Japan did historically to South east China as a colonizer, then Japan was terribly wrong. Vietnam and China are one people, one nation, one culture, and eventually will reunify. Abe govt is really a stupid govt, proven.

why doesn't Japan build a base inside the Sentaku Island they were great at in world war 2 tunnels

"Nonsense. You really think the Vietnamese trounced the huge China in just one month? China had the specific goal of just punishing Vietnam and that is what they did. They hit Vietnam hard then withdrew on their own terms. Stop reading B.S. Vietnamese propaganda. They didn't wrestle with the U.S. for over a decade to just to pound China in one month. Full props to the Vietnamese for holding out against the U.S. but get serious. The Chinese had no intent to hold territory in Vietnam nor effect regime change or the war would have lasted for years even if the Chinese suffered defeat after defeat. That's not what happened."

The Chinese sought to force the Vietnamese to abandon Cambodia. They failed to achieve their objective. Vietnamese forces remained in Cambodia another ten years. To this day Vietnam and not China ha primary influence in Cambodia. Hun Sen was installed by the Vietnamese after he turned on the Khmer Rouge and led the Vietnamese sponsored rebel army that deposed the Khmer regime (in response to Pol Pot's slaughter of ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia after Vietnam's refusal to give Cambodia territory they claimed). The war 1979 Sino-Vietnam War exposed many serious limitations in the PLA while offering the Soviets an opportunity to test developmental equipment in what was for them a live fire exercise. The Vietnamese stopped the Chinese advance less than 20 km from the border despite being outnumbered. Vietnamese irregular militia forces bedeviled them at every turn with Chinese survivors speaking of fighting ghosts. Five of Vietnam's best divisions lay ahead of the Chinese when they stopped their advance and retreated. The Chinese do not even allow the veterans of that war to speak about it. A lot of them went home to China blind thanks to laser dazzlers supplied by the Soviets. The Chinese were not able to hold most the territory they initially took and were forced to withdraw. I don't know of a single military historian who considers that war anything but a humiliation for the Chinese.

"why doesn't Japan build a base inside the Sentaku Island they were great at in world war 2 tunnels"

The elaborate tunnel systems on Iwo Jima didn't stop the US Marines from taking it. Extensive systems of caves and tunnels didn't keep the US Army out of Tora Bora.

"Good point Shoganai. But I wonder if communism can last much longer in a socially networked world with a rising standard of living."

For too may capitalism as it is practiced in the west fails to deliver the goods for large proportions of many nation's populations. To the extent that great poverty exists alongside great wealth there will be calls for something other than capitalism. What amazes me is that the wealthiest corporations and individuals seem so oblivious to how their most extreme rent seeking behaviors alienate huge swaths of the world and lead to calls for something else. Even Adam Smith and David Ricardo would likely be appalled by what they see going on in their name today.

For those not conversant in the language of the economist, "rent seeking behaviors" refers to tactics designed to allow firms to eliminate competitors and achieve monopoly profits or something very close to this.