TOKYO: Japan’s military said Sunday (Oct 7) one of its members was killed in a car crash in the Philippines during joint exercises with…
TOKYO: Japan’s military said Sunday (Oct 7) one of its members was killed in a car crash in the Philippines during joint exercises with United States and Filipino troops.
Suguru Maehara, a 38-year-old sergeant of the Ground Self-Defense Forces, was involved in the accident on Tuesday last week, according to a GSDF spokesman who confirmed his death.
“It is the first time a GSDF member has died during an overseas drill,” the spokesman told AFP.
Maehara was delivering food supplies to members participating in the drill when the accident happened.
The exercise, codenamed Kamandag (meaning ‘Venom’), marked the first time Japanese armoured military vehicles were used on foreign soil since the country adopted a pacifist constitution after its 1945 defeat.
But Japan is not involved in the combat component of the military exercises.
