Japan is to acquire medium-range, air-launched cruise missiles, capable of striking North Korea, a controversial purchase of what will become the longest-range munitions of a country that has renounced the right to wage war, reports Agencies.
Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera did not refer to North Korea when announcing the planned acquisition and said the new missiles would be for defence, with Japan still relying on the United States to strike any enemy bases.
"We are planning to introduce the JSM (Joint Strike Missile) that will be mounted on the F-35A (stealth fighter) as 'stand-off' missiles that can be fired beyond the range of enemy threats," Onodera told a news conference.
Japan is also looking to mount Lockheed Martin Corp's extended-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM-ER) on its F-15 fighters, he said.
The JSM, designed by Norway's Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, has a range of 500 km (310 miles). The JASSM-ER can hit targets 1,000 km away.
The purchase plan is likely to face criticism from opposition parties in parliament, especially from politicians wary of the watering down of Japan's renunciation of the right to wage war enshrined in its post-World War Two constitution.
Meanwhile, a former priest wielding a samurai sword killed his Shinto priestess sister and another woman in an apparent family vendetta at a historic Tokyo shrine, before turning the blade on himself, police told AFP Friday.
Shigenaga Tomioka, 56, set upon his older sister Nagako, chief priestess at Tomioka Hachimangu shrine, with a samurai sword late Thursday in a rare violent assault in the Japanese capital.
