Now Why Would Japan Want to Re-Militarise?

This:

Dozens of tanks and soldiers fired explosives and machine guns in drills Monday on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, a main stronghold for a nation that is perhaps the world's least-known military powerhouse.

Just across the sea from rival Russia, Japan opened up its humbly named Self Defense Force's firing exercises to the media in a display of public firepower that coincides with a recent escalation of Chinese and Russian military moves around Japanese territory.

The drills, which foreign journalists rarely have a chance to witness, will continue for nine days and include about 1,300 Ground Self Defense Force troops. On Monday, as hundreds of soldiers cheered from the sidelines and waved unit flags, lines of tanks shot at targets meant to represent enemy missiles or armored vehicles.

The exercises illuminate a fascinating, easy-to-miss point. Japan, despite an officially pacifist constitution written when memories of its World War II rampage were still fresh — and painful — boasts a military that puts all but a few nations to shame.

And, with a host of threats lurking in Northeast Asia, its hawkish leaders are eager for more.

 

Oh, I think I know why: 

Russia has deployed its Bastion coastal missile defence system to a remote part of the Kuril island chain in the Pacific near Japan, the Ministry of Defence's Zvezda TV channel said on Thursday.

Japan lays claim to the Russian-held southern Kuril islands that Tokyo calls the Northern Territories, a territorial row that dates back to the end of World War Two when Soviet troops seized them from Japan.

The dispute has prevented them signing a formal peace treaty.

Russia used large landing ships to deliver equipment and personnel to the remote Matua island in the central part of the island chain, Zvezda said.

Russia is trying to beef up its military infrastructure on the island chain, the Ministry of Defence announced in August.

 

Also:

South Korea’s ambassador to Canada is expecting the federal government to make some “ambitious” promises when his country hosts a major peacekeeping summit next week.

Ambassador Keung Ryong Chang says that expectation is based on Canada’s historic support for the United Nations and peacekeeping, and not any specific knowledge about Ottawa’s plans.

“I expect that Canada will present ambitious pledges,” Chang said in an interview Friday. “Canada and Korea share the same values of peace, stability and security on the global level.”

 

 

If it makes you feel any better, South Korea, Canada doesn't care about Ukraine, either.