Japan Press Weekly

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2016 August 3 - 9 [POLITICS]

Peace activists petition Defense Minister to halt planned Japan-US joint military exercise

A liaison council of peace movements in Shiga Prefecture on August 8 visited the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force Camp Imazu in the prefecture and submitted a petition urging the Defense Minister to cancel the planned Japan-U.S. joint military exercise.

The joint military drill is scheduled to be held between August 29 and September 21at the GSDF Aibano training field located in Shiga’s Takashima City.

Handing the petition to a GSDF officer in front of the main gate of the camp, liaison council co-chair Hayafuji Yoshio said that joint military drills amount to SDF preparations for joining in U.S.-wars abroad. “As the war legislation came into effect, SDF members face the possibility of killing or being killed in overseas missions,” he added.

Hayafuji also noted that many residents living near the training field have strong anxieties as the SDF and the U.S. forces are routinely holding joint training exercises. He demanded that the SDF provide the Takashima City mayor and residents with concrete information about the planned joint drill in accordance with a memorandum exchanged between the SDF and the city government in 2015 in the wake of an accident in which a bullet from the training field pierced through the roof of a private house.

Japanese Communist Party members of the Takashima City Assembly joined the petitioning delegation.