Kubo y odegaard

By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) – In dozens of conversations, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has counselled President Donald Trump to avoid making concessions to North Korea that could upset East Asia’s balance of power, including a military retreat from South Korea that would leave Tokyo alone on the front lines against China’s growing power. “The big picture is that any withdrawal of U.S. forces from the peninsula would benefit China,” said a source from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s policy circle. “In 10 years, the U.S. could be out of Korea and Taiwan could be like Hong Kong,” he added, asking not to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Any outcome from Trump’s meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore on Tuesday that makes that scenario more likely may force Japan to accelerate preparations to survive without U.S. military power, sources familiar with the … [Read more...] about Abe tries to keep Japan on Trump’s radar ahead of Singapore summit

By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan will next week pick a U.S.-made advanced radar for its multibillion-dollar missile defence system, an upgrade that could help ease trade friction with Washington and provide cutting-edge protection against the arsenals of North Korea and China, sources said. “Aegis will be a big-ticket purchase; it will be a nice gift for President Trump,” said a Japanese government official, referring to the ground-based Aegis Ashore system. Japanese officials could make their radar choice as early as Monday for two Aegis Ashore batteries it wants to deploy in 2023. That means the purchase can be added to a defence budget proposal slated for release in August, three sources with knowledge of the plan told Reuters, declining to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media. The candidates are Raytheon Co’s SPY-6 and a version of Lockheed Martin Corp’s Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), the … [Read more...] about Exclusive: Japan to buy advanced U.S. radar for missile defence system

TOKYO (Reuters) - A man believed to be a Japanese freelance journalist captured three years ago in Syria has been released, a Japanese government spokesman said on Tuesday. "We received information from Qatar that Mr. Jumpei Yasuda had been released," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. Suga said the government was making checks to confirm the released man really was Yasuda. But it was highly likely that that was the case, and his wife had been notified. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka, Nobuhiro Kubo; editing by John Stonestreet) … [Read more...] about Japanese journalist captured in Syria three years ago freed