Japan Press Weekly

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2012 May 23 - 29 [SDF]

JCP calls on SDF to cancel ranger training on residential street

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Tamura Tomoko on May 21 demanded that the Ministry of Defense cancel the plan of the Self-Defense Force ranger training scheduled to be held in a residential area of Tokyo’s Itabashi and Nerima wards.

The training is scheduled for the morning of June 12. In the exercises, a helicopter will unload 30 armed troops wearing camouflage fatigues and with faces camouflaged on the Arakawa riverside, and they will then march 7 km to the SDF Camp Nerima in double file.

“As the street the SDF troops plan to march on leads to stations and shopping districts, there is a lot of traffic. Such an abnormal training held on a weekday morning is definitely impermissible,” Tamura stated.

The JCP local committee protests against the training exercise together with the Japan Peace Committee and other civic organizations.

The JPC Secretary General Chisaka Jun pointed out that the increasing number of urban warfare exercises conducted by the SDF is for its troops to be ready to cooperate with U.S. Forces in anti-terrorism counter insurgency operations in urban areas.