Japan has moved away from their stance of post-World War II pacifism by voting to end the ban on troops fighting on foreign soil.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing for the easing of the rules on the military, allowing the nation to now provide support to an ally who is coming under attack. The move has been criticized by Chinese officials and is not popular with many Japanese voters.
“There is no change in the general principle that we cannot send troops overseas,” Abe told a televised news conference.
The decision has caused the largest protests in Toyko in decades.
Japanese officials say the move allows the nation to be more of an influence in the Asia/Pacific region. The move was hailed by U.S. officials who want to see Japan become more of a player in the region’s politics. The U.S. maintains a treaty to defend Japan if attacked.
“This decision is an important step for Japan as it seeks to make a greater contribution to regional and global peace and security,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a statement. “The United States has an enduring interest in the Asia-Pacific’s peace and prosperity, and our alliance with Japan is critical to our strategy in the region.”
Analysts say that the move shows the growth of the nation since World War II.
“Japan is like the 42-year-old kid still living in the basement of the United States,” longtime Asia strategist Keith Henry told CNN.
“Conservative governments have pushed the envelope hard and often to get the public to agree to a more elastic interpretation of article 9 (which renounces war). Abe is taking a bigger leap and getting away with it, thanks to the Chinese,” Columbia University political science professor Gerry Curtis told Reuters.
One of the world’s largest volcanos erupted without warning Monday morning.
Mount Aso, on the Japanese island of Kyushu, exploded without any warning tremors and is sending a plume of ash and smoke over a mile into the sky.
A group of 30 tourists who were near the crater at the time of the blast were safely recovered by police.
The Japanese Meteorological Agency raised the alert level for one of the mountain’s peaks to level 3 on a 5 level scale, meaning that the public should avoid the mountain out of fear of hot rocks shooting from the plume.
The volcano, located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, has produced more explosive eruptions than any other volcano in the world. The caldera of the mountain is 12 miles in diameter and has smaller active peaks in the middle.
A 2.5 mile exclusion zone is now in effect around the mountain. The area includes restaurants and museums but no residential homes. All flights from nearby Kumanoto Airport have been cancelled or re-routed.
Japanese officials reported that three people have been confirmed dead in massive flooding that drove over 170,000 people from their homes.
Officials say that one woman was found dead in her floating car in Miyagi Prefecture. Two deaths took place in Tochigi Prefecture, one from a landslide and the other from drowning.
The flooding caused by remnants of Tropical Storm Etau has caused nearly 30 injuries and 22 people are still listed as missing. At least 180 people were still waiting for rescue from the stricken city of Joso, inundated with flood waters after the Kinugawa River jumped its banks.
The storm dumped more than 2 feet of rain in some areas. Residents have reported over 6,500 homes have been flooded.
The Japan Meteorological Agency has raised the flood warning level for both the Yoshida river in Miyagi Prefecture and the Mogamiogumi River in Yamagata Prefecture to “level 5”, the highest possible. Residents have been told to flee the area.
The city of Sendai, with more than 400,000 residents, has been told to prepare for evacuation.
The areas hit by the flood waters are in the path of another storm that could bring another four inches of rain over the next 36 hours.
Typhoon Etau has dumped more than 2 feet of rain in areas of Eastern Japan since Monday causing unprecedented flooding. Raging waters have torn houses from their foundations, uprooted trees and forced more than 170,000 people from their homes. Those who didn’t leave found their houses submerged within minutes.
Helicopters hovering over swirling, muddy waters rescued 101 people from the roofs of their homes as of Thursday. Seven people are missing and at least 17 were injured, one seriously.
“Tochigi Prefecture is facing a grave danger and is in an emergency situation,” Japan Meteorological Agency Spokesman Takuya Deshimaru said. “It is experiencing unprecedented downpour.”
The disaster is far from over. Parts of eastern Japan will get another 2-4 inches of rain over the next 36 hours, according to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
The mountains will help induce more rain and will funnel the precipitation, intensifying flooding and causing an even greater risk of mudslides.
Typhoon Goni has slammed into Japan with wind gusts topping 112 m.p.h. and has left as many as 26 people dead and over 100 injured.
Officials in Japan urged more than 600,000 people to flee their homes and to seek shelter.
The storm made landfall around 6 a.m. in Kumamoto prefecture. The storm then crossed over one of the country’s four main islands before heading into the sea of Japan and striking North and South Korea.
The storm essentially paralyzed the country, with air and rail service suspended during the course of the storm. Over 470,000 homes were without power at one point during the storm’s crossing of the nation.
Officials say at least one man is confirmed missing and presumed dead in a landslide caused by the torrential rain. The city of Hiroshima ordered the evacuation of 70,000 because of potential landslides.
The storm had previously left 26 dead in the Philippines with 15 still reported as missing. Thousands of homes were destroyed and hundreds of thousands have been left with no shelter because of storm damage.
The typhoon is beginning to break up as the eye has collapsed but heavy rain is still pouring into North and South Korea. North Korean officials say that at least 40 people have died because of storm related flooding and over 1,000 homes have been damaged.
The stock markets fell more than one percent under pressures from low oil prices and the uncertainly from the Federal Reserve over the raising of interest rates.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) was over 300 points lower Thursday after a 163 point drop on Wednesday. The pace means the DJIA will have its worst day since losing 350 points on June 29th.
Markets around the world were impacted as well.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 falling 0.9%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Hong off 1.8%, the Shanghai composite in mainland China down 3.4%, Germany’s DAX off 2.3% and the CAC 40 in Paris off 2.1%.
“I think the oil and the geopolitical problems are the real problems for the market because we’re looking at lower global economic growth, and lower global growth is going to weigh on the U.S. as well,” Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital, told CNBC.
Some analysts, however, say that the movement by China last week to devalue the Yuan over two consecutive days is also impacting the market.
“There is heightened uncertainty that began with yuan devaluation last week, while overall China’s growth is slowing faster than thought. This is weighing on confidence,” Randy Frederick, managing director of trading & derivatives at Schwab Center for Financial Research, told CNBC.
(Update 8/20/1015 at 4:48PM CT: Since this story was originally reported the dow has dropped 2% and is currently at 358.04.)
Japanese seismologists are warning citizens to prepare for “Big One” after a 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the country’s coast Saturday night.
The quake, more than 540 miles from the nation’s capital, was strong enough to make buildings in the capital shake for more than a minute. No serious damage was reported and no tsunami was issued for the country.
However, a dozen people were injured, mostly from falls.
“This was a very big quake… the shaking was felt over a broad area… fortunately, because it was deep, there is little danger of a tsunami,” Naoki Hirata, of the University of Tokyo’s earthquake research center, told the BBC.
The Saturday quake was followed Sunday morning by a 6.2 magnitude quake.
Experts are saying that the recent seismic activity around the country, which includes the eruption of Mt. Shindake, could mean that active crustal changes are taking place.
“I can say Japan is in an active stage now,” said Toshiyasu Nagao, head of Earthquake Prediction Research Centre at Tokai University.
“Considering the geographic location of Japan, we can say the current activities are rather normal and it was too quiet [before the 2011 earthquake],” Nagao told AFP. “We should be vigilant by knowing that an earthquake sizeable enough to affect our society can occur any time in the future.”
A major earthquake struck off the coast of Japan early Tuesday causing a small tsunami.
The 6.9 magnitude quake struck around 6 a.m. local time, 6.2 miles deep and 52 miles east-northeast of Miyako, Japan.
The quake did not initially cause a tsunami warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and an advisory from the Japan Meteorological Agency was quickly cancelled. However, residents of Iwate Prefecture reported a tsunami of about three feet in height.
No significant damage was reported as a result of the small tsunami.
Iwate Prefecture is a rural area with a total population around 1.3 million. A nuclear power plant in the region reportedly had no damage. Local train lines have suspended operations until the tracks can be examined for damage.
The location of the quake was on the Pacific Ring of Fire.
A magnitude 6.7 earthquake rattled Japan late Saturday night leaving crumpled homes and dozens injured.
Aftershocks continued to shake the area and villagers fled their homes to shelters after at least 50 homes collapsed after the initial quake. Officials say that because the homes are built to withstand feet of heavy snow in the winter, it kept more homes from collapsing.
However, the homes that fell resulted in broken bones after heavy furniture fell on residents as they slept on their tatami floors.
The quake, which struck just west of Nagano at a depth of 3 miles, struck along a very active fault according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
Officials say most of the residents of the area are elderly and that younger residents are working to care for those who were injured and who lost their homes.
Witnesses across the eastern part of the U.S. and in western Japan both reported seeing fireballs in the sky on Monday night.
NASA says reports of the meteor have been registered from South Carolina to Chicago.
Most of the reports describe the meteor as “greenish to white” colored as it crossed the sky. The reports covered over an hour between the initial reports on the east coast and the times the fireball was spotted in the Chicago area sky.
The American Meteor Society said they are investigating over 200 reports connected to the meteor and that no one has reported any impact from the sight.
Meanwhile, in western Japan, witnesses say a “fireball” roared across the sky Monday night. Various security cameras were able to capture what appears to be a strong green light or a faint orange light tracking across the sky.
Scientists say any fragments from that meteor would have ended up in the sea.
