TOKYO, June 25 (NNN-NHK) – Japanese Defence Minister, Taro Kono, said today that, the government has decided to scrap a plan to deploy land-based missile defence systems, at two sites in Japan.
The decision was made at a National Security Council meeting, convened yesterday, at which Kono officially told a meeting of Japan’s main governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), about the retracting of the plan to deploy the Aegis Ashore missile systems.
Kono indicated last week, the deployment of the Aegis Ashore missile system in Yamaguchi and Akita prefectures would be halted, owing to major technical issues and mounting costs.
Japan first decided to deploy the two missile defence systems, made by the United States, in 2017.
The plan has, since its conception, been met with a myriad of problems, including, but not limited to, a staunch public backlash, from residents in sites for the Aegis Ashore system.
The defence ministry, in addition, has also come under fire, for initially using flawed data to select sites for hosting the controversial land-based missile launcher system.– NNN-NHK