The US House of Representatives passed a mammoth US$858 billion military spending bill, putting the US budget for weapons and war-making higher than the next nine countries combined. Also attached to the bill was unprecedented US taxpayer funding for Taiwan’s military.
Pentagon contractors operating inside Afghanistan over the past two decades raked in nearly US$108 billion—funds that “were distributed and spent with a significant lack of transparency,” according to a new report. However, even this figure is just a fraction of the over US$14 trillion which the Pentagon spent in order to lose the war in Afghanistan.
The Shingetsu News Agency has been keeping a running log of the major developments in Japanese politics since January 2012. The following is our contemporary account of the entire year 2012.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on March 31, 2019.
A roundup of the most significant news stories from Japan reported on December 24, 2018.
Last week, the Japan International Aerospace Exhibition was held in Tokyo. Several companies from around the world came to display their latest innovations, including new technologies for aircraft and space flight. Most prominent were the military weapons and aircraft displays, including a real Lockheed-Martin F-35 Lightning II.
While the Abe administration presents Aegis Ashore as an essential and relatively uncontroversial contribution to the defense of Japan from the North Korean threat, in reality the deployment of this missile defense system risks further destabilizing the security situation in Northeast Asia, especially with regard to Russia.
