Japan to Join Fight Against Piracy

By Mike Schuler On January 28, 2009

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Japan’s defense minister Yasukazu Hamada has announced that its Maritime Self Defense Force will join other nations in the fight against piracy off of Somalia. The decision was made after months of debate that it does not go against Japan’s strict post-WWII constitution, limiting Japan’s military to only defensive operations.

While it is not yet known how many ships or when they will begin operations, some reports are saying that it could be in a months time. A Japanese ship has not fallen victim to a hijacking since October of 2007, but there have been attempts made.

Links

BBC: Japan To Deploy Ships Off Somalia

Daily Nation: Japan to fight Somalia pirates

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Tagged with: Japan • piracy

About The Author

Mike Schuler

After graduating the Catholic University of America in 2005 with a B.S.B.A. in Finance, Mike went on to Tahoe to help with the launch of gCaptain's sister site, UnofficialNetworks.com. In June of 2008 Mike joined gCaptain.com as the first full-time employee in charge of the day-to-day operations of gCaptain.com and Unofficial Networks, LLC.