Paratroopers!

This is coolbert:

Thanks to the tip from Japan NHK we have the story of the Japanese paratrooper unit conducting a demonstration of capability and prowess designed to impress.

"GSDF shows parachute drill to public"

"Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force's 1st Airborne Brigade has opened its drills to the public. The brigade is the only paratroop team in the Self-Defense Forces."

"The drills . . . are shown to the public once a year in January. This year, they included for the first time the scenario of defending a remote island."

"P3C patrol aircraft also took part. These planes are used to patrol the airspace around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture."

"Defending a remote island". And that island is? Of course the Senkaku group of ISLANDS the sovereignty of which is contested. China and Japan jockeying for position and making ready for what ever contingency must be addressed.

Read about the Senkaku Islands, uninhabited and uninhabitable but thought to  have vast reserves of natural gas underneath the sea floor in those contiguous waters.

The age old conflict of the Asians and others for resources scarce but badly needed.

coolbert.