Japan questions military after top destroyer's crash
TOKYO (AFP) — Military experts sounded alarm Wednesday over the Japanese military's ability to defend the country after one of its most advanced naval destroyers crashed into a fishing boat, leaving two missing.
Tuesday's collision came as Japan steps up security to ensure safety during July's summit of the Group of Eight major industrial countries, to be held in the northern resort town of Toyako.
The 165-metre (545-foot) -long Atago destroyer, returning from a visit to Hawaii, crashed into the tuna-fishing boat off the Pacific coast south of Tokyo.
Planes, boats and divers searched for a second day Wednesday for a father and son who were onboard when the small boat was smashed in half.
The accident sparked bewilderment in Japan as the Atago is the latest and largest of Japan's destroyers, equipped with the US-developed Aegis radar system, seen as a frontline defence against a North Korean missile attack.
"I may not come off as an expert, but I wonder whether the fishing boat was not detected by the radar," said Yoshimi Watanabe, Japan's state minister in charge of administrative and regulatory reforms.
"What if it had been a terrorist boat on a suicide bombing?" he said.
The Aegis system can track incoming missiles by radar, a concern since communist rival North Korea fired a missile over Japan's main island in 1998.
The destroyer reportedly hit the brakes only one minute before the collision -- suggesting it only spotted the small boat very late.
"If they cannot act in an actual case like this, it is a problem no matter how high quality their equipment and training," said Hisao Iwashima, a military analyst and professor at Seigakuin University Graduate School.
But another military expert, Tadasu Kumagai, said it was a common misunderstanding that ships with the Aegis system were looking at threats in the immediate vicinity.
"It has an advanced radar for air defence, but its navigational radar is about the same quality as that of a fishing boat," he said.
Kumagai said however worries over suicide attacks from small boats going undetected were very real.
"A small boat is difficult to find on a navigational radar," he said. "That would be a problem."
