Interesting move, but as the last sentence in the article specifies, the pirates are completely going off the hunting reservation. Now if the Japanese built a prison on their base to keep all of these pirates, now that would be something. Then we can end this catch and release program once and for all. I kind of doubt they would do that, but you never know? –Matt
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Piracy rattles Japan to open first foreign military base
By Emmanuel Goujon
April 24, 2010
DJIBOUTI — Japan is opening its first overseas army base in Djibouti, a small African state strategically located at the southern end of the Red Sea on the Gulf of Aden, to counter rising piracy in the region.
The 40-million-dollar base expected to be completed by early next year will strengthen international efforts to curb hijackings and vessel attacks by hordes of gunmen from the lawless Somalia.
The Djibouti base breaks new ground for Japan, which has had no standing army since World War II and cannot wage war. It however has armed forces — the Japan Self-Defence Forces — which were formed at the end of US occupation in 1952.