Offstream
news

Two soldiers are killed and another is injured during a live fire exercise at a training area in Gifu, Japan, as a recruit opens fire at them. The suspect is apprehended and charged with the attempted murder of a soldier.
2023-06-14

Japan opens two mass vaccination centres in Tokyo and Osaka staffed by Japan Self-Defense Forces two months before the delayed Summer Olympics as the country aims to vaccinate up to 10,000 people per day in Tokyo and another 5,000 per day in Osaka for the next three months.
2021-05-24

Japan records a new single-day record of 3,041 cases. The Japan Self-Defense Forces are deployed to Asahikawa, Hokkaido, where hospitals are facing shortages of medical staff to treat COVID-19 patients.
2020-12-12

Japan announces it will raise military spending (1.1%) for an eighth consecutive year to a record high as it invests in ballistic missile and air defence to counter a perceived threat from North Korea and China.
2019-12-20

Two explosions in a park in the Japanese city of Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, kill at least one person and injure three others. Local media report that a 72-year-old ex-military officer is responsible for the blasts. A fire the same day destroyed the suspect's house.
2016-10-23

Japan places its military on high alert to be ready to shoot down any missile heading for its territory amid reports of a possible North Korean launch of an intermediate-range missile from its east coast.
2016-06-21

Japan places its military on alert over a possible North Korean ballistic-missile launch after detecting "increased activity" at a North Korean missile site. Japan's Minister of Defense, Gen Nakatani, has ordered Kongō-class destroyers stationed in the Sea of Japan, equipped with Aegis combat systems, to target any North Korean projectiles heading for Japan.
2016-01-29

Japan and South Korea agree to 'irreversibly' resolve a long-running dispute over Korean women the Japanese military used as sex slaves during World War II. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe will issue a formal apology to the so-called "comfort women." Tokyo will set up an aid fund of about 1 billion yen ($8.3 million).
2015-12-28

Japan's lower house of parliament passes a pair of bills changing the country's security laws, allowing Japanese soldiers to fight overseas for the first time since the end of World War II under certain conditions, over strong protests from opposition lawmakers, who walked out of the vote.
2015-07-16

Japan Self-Defense Forces airlift supplies to thousands of people isolated by flooding in southwest Japan, as the death toll rises to 24.
2012-07-16