Kim Jong Nam died in February last year, shortly after two women sprayed his face with a liquid as he walked through Kuala Lumpur airport.

The brazen daylight assassination unleashed diplomatic shockwaves and widespread condemnation of North Korea.

The two women, an Indonesian and a Vietnamese national, are currently on trial in Malaysia where they are accused of using a nerve agent to murder Kim Jong Nam, who lived in exile in China and was seen as a potential rival to his younger half-brother.

Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam (L) and Siti Ashyah of Indonesia (R), were charged with the murder of Kim Jong-Nam, the half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. // AFP PHOTO

The two women say they were recruited to take part in what they thought were prank TV shows but were instead tricked into becoming inadvertent assassins, in an elaborate plot by a group of North Korean agents who then fled country.

On Tuesday, Washington announced it had formally concluded that VX — an extremely powerful nerve agent — was used to conduct the slaying and that North Korea was to blame.

“The Government of North Korea used the chemical warfare agent VX to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, in the Kuala Lumpur airport,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

“This public display of contempt for universal norms against chemical weapons use further demonstrates the reckless nature of North Korea and underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate a North Korean WMD program of any kind,” she added.

The statement gave no details or evidence on how the US had come to their conclusion.

– New sanctions –

The finding triggered another layer of US economic sanctions against Pyongyang, just as South Korea reported that the regime is ready for talks to end a nuclear standoff.

Under US law, when a country or leader violates its ban on chemical and biological weapons, an import ban is imposed on its products, but North Korea is already under severe US and UN sanctions, and Tuesday’s decision will have little impact.

Kim Jong Un’s older half-brother had once been seen as their father Kim Jong Il’s natural heir, and some reports had suggested that China might be grooming him to replace the younger man in the event of a crisis.

The ongoing trial in Malaysia heard testimony that Kim Jong Nam expressed fears for his life months before his death.

He spent much of his time in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau and it is not clear why he may have left the relative safety of China’s protection to travel to Malaysia if he thought his life was at risk.

The State Department’s conclusions on the use of VX nerve agent come as anti-terror police in Britain investigate a potential poisoning of a former Russian spy in the sleepy town of Salisbury.

Sergei Skripal, a former military intelligence colonel who was convicted in Russia of spying for Britain and later released in a spy swap, was found unconscious on a bench in the English town alongside his daughter. Both are in critical condition.

The case immediately drew comparisons to Alexander Litvinenko, an ex-spy who died of radioactive polonium poisoning in London in 2006. A British inquiry ruled in 2016 that Putin “probably approved” the killing.

Phnom Penh  Prime Minister Hun Sen rejected the possibility of negotiating with the former CNRP yesterday, maintaining that jailed opposition figures Kem Sokha and Um Sam An will not be pardoned, and that there would “be no second Paris peace agreement”.

Sokha, president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, was arrested on widely decried charges of “treason” in September. Two months later, the CNRP – the nation’s only viable opposition party – was forced to disband at the government’s behest and 118 of its senior members were banned from politics for five years. Many fled the country fearing arrest, and party members who remained reported increased surveillance and pressure to defect to the ruling party.

The premier yesterday claimed an unnamed member of the 118 had messaged him “respectfully”, calling him “uncle” and requesting that they be allowed to reenter the political arena.

“For the people whose political rights have been suspended, there is no law to hand back the right,” Hun Sen said, adding “this is the result of national betrayal, and this is the last message”.

In fact, there also appears to be no law permitting the 118 to be suspended in the first place. Though hasty amendments to the country’s Political Parties Law – rammed through by Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party last year – empowered the Supreme Court to forcibly disband or suspend parties at the request of the Ministry of Interior, they did not account for the suspension of specific individuals.

Sokha’s arrest, meanwhile, has spurred nearuniversal international condemnation and repeated calls for his unconditional release. However, Hun Sen yesterday said jailed opposition figures should not expect pardons.

“Now citizens don’t think who is in jail, who is outside the country or which party is dissolved,” he said. “And for those who are already in jail, don’t expect to get pardon from Hun Sen for the third time.”

Sokha has been pardoned twice before – once after being jailed while serving as the director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, and again while deputy president of the CNRP.

CNRP lawmaker Um Sam An was arrested in 2016 for “incitement” after sharing controversial Facebook posts criticising the government for allegedly ceding land to Vietnam. Opposition Senator Hong Sok Hour was arrested on similar grounds in 2015, but released last year after apologising. Yesterday Hun Sen said Sam Un would not receive similar treatment.

“You cannot get loose because you already admitted [guilt],” he said.

The premier claimed a letter requesting a pardon for Sam An was sent by both individual representatives and an unnamed “ambassador”. Sam An is a dual CambodianAmerican citizen. The US Embassy did not reply to requests for comment.

“You admitted your mistake, and you said the border problem is your mistake,” Hun Sen said.

In past cycles of political tension, the ruling party has proven amenable to pardoning opposition members embroiled in politically tinged court cases. Besides Sokha’s previous pardons, former opposition leader Sam Rainsy was also pardoned in 2013, allowing him to return from selfimposed exile just prior to that year’s national election.

His arrival, however, appeared to backfire for the ruling party, with the CNRP utilising Rainsy’s longstanding popularity to galvanise support and capture some 44 percent of the vote, more than any opposition party since the country’s first democratic elections in 1993.

According to Paul Chambers, an expert on Southeast Asia at Thailand’s Naresuan University, Hun Sen appears determined not to make the same mistake again.

“By his speeches and his actions, Hun Sen is letting Cambodians and the world know that Cambodia has become his personalised fief.

All opponents will be buried,” he said.

Rainsy’s political rebirth was indeed shortlived. The CNRP boycotted parliament for a year over alleged election irregularities, and shortly after it entered the National Assembly, an old conviction – previously believed to have been overturned by the pardon – was resurrected while Rainsy was on a trip abroad. He chose to reenter selfimposed exile, and was later forced to leave the party he helped found by new legal amendments.

On Sunday, Rainsy said he was open to negotiating with Hun Sen, but the premier also shot down that possibility yesterday.

“You failed and now you come and ask me for negotiations? You committed horrible things and insulted me, and you also called for the military to point the gun at its own government,” he said.

“You said that Hun Sen is isolated and Hun Sen faces protests inside the party, from the people and the army … I have no value to negotiate with you.”

Hun Sen also accused Rainsy of “adding the gasoline to the fire” of recent protests in Australia, during which CambodianAustralians burned effigies of the premier.

“There will be no second Paris peace agreement. I do not talk with prisoners and traitors, and don’t ask repeatedly like a ghost asking for rice,” he said.

He further added that he would not be open to negotiating with the opposition via an international mediator.

Los Angeles lawyer Michael Avenatti posted on his Twitter account a copy of what appears to be the suit filed on behalf of the porn star who goes by the name Stormy Daniels. Her real name is Stephanie Clifford.

The hush agreement does “not exist, because, among other things, Mr Trump never signed” the document with a Superior Court of California stamp, the suit says.

It alleges she had an intimate relationship with Trump from 2006 to 2007, which she sought to reveal after Trump won the Republican Party nomination for president and other women claimed to have had sexual encounters with him.

With help from his lawyer Michael Cohen, Trump then sought to “aggressively… silence Ms Clifford as part of an effort to avoid her telling the truth, thus helping to ensure he won the presidential election,” the document says.

Cohen prepared a non-disclosure agreement, a copy of which is attached to the lawsuit and which required a $130,000 payment to be wired from a company known as Essential Consultants LLC to Clifford in return for her silence, according to the documents.

Using the pseudonyms Peggy Peterson and David Dennison, Clifford and Trump were to sign the agreement, along with Essential Consultants.

Days before the November 2016 presidential election which Trump won, Clifford put her name to the document, as did Cohen for Essential Consultants, it says.

“Mr. Trump, however, did not sign the agreement, thus rendering it legally null and void and of no consequence,” the document adds.

Cohen told US media last month that he paid Clifford $130,000, prompting her manager to suggest a non-disclosure agreement had been broken.

Cohen declined to give details such as why he made the payment, or if Trump was aware of it at the time.

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly,” Cohen said, according to the New York Times.

Trump declined to comment on the issue. The White House has dodged questions about whether allegations of an affair are true, claiming the matter was dealt with during the campaign.

Cohen’s comments came after the watchdog group Common Cause filed a federal complaint in January arguing that the payout may have violated campaign finance rules.

Last week, we looked at the data from  World Justice Project related to rule of law from the perspective of ordinary people in different Asian countries. This week we collected data from the same report related to civil justice in Asia. Civil justice is important because it’s the law that most affects common people in terms of disputes related to property, personal injury, construction among others.

World Justice Project measures the access of people to civil justice system of their countries on the basis of how people perceive their access to the system free of discrimination. It measures the access on factors including justice is free of discrimination, free of improper government influence, effectively enforced, accessible and affordable.

Singapore is the only Asian country to figure in the top ten list of countries that have an accessible civil justice system. It is ranked 5 out of 113 countries globally. In 2016, the country established a committee to ensure accessible justice to its diverse population. Japan ranked 12 has been working gradually towards being a rule oriented society where individuals are given more access to justice system thus ensuring social equality.  It is followed by South Korea which is ranked 15.

Rest of the Asian countries are ranked below 50. Despite having various legal aid schemes for people to access the justice system Malaysia is ranked 51 which is followed by China at 57.  Amidst its economic growth China has made efforts to reform its justice system which remains under communist control. Last year the country opened its archives for scholars to study legal cases and judicial administration in China. Mongolia and Thailand are ranked 58 and 59 respectively.

Phillipines’ citizens perceive a lack of access to the justice system owing to the convoluted court proceedings due to lengthy delays. People express a low trust in court and the police. The country is ranked 81 closely followed by Nepal at 82.

Indonesia has a low number of civil claims which is indicative of the low confidence of its citizens in the court. It is ranked 90 out of 113 countries, followed by Sri Lanka and Vietnam at 91 and  92 respectively.

The citizens of the other three South Asian countries India (97), Bangladesh (106) and Pakistan (107) also express little faith in the integrity of the justice systems of their countries.

Myanmar still reeling under the violence inflicted on the Muslim Rohingyas is ranked the second worst in Asia at 109.

With decades of political instability and devastating violence like Khmer Rouge, Cambodia is perceived by its citizens to have worst access to civil justice system.  It is ranked at the bottom of 113 countries.

Seoul had earlier announced the two Koreas would hold a historic summit in the Demilitarized Zone next month — and that the North’s leader Kim Jong Un was ready to halt provocative missile and nuclear tests and sit down with its old enemies.

North Korea’s reclusive leader was further said to be willing to consider the dramatic step of abandoning costly and controversial weapons of mass destruction programs if the United States agrees not to attack or overthrow the regime.

Although Trump’s response was positive, his administration followed it up with another sharp rebuke when it declared that it had formally concluded that Kim’s regime had last year murdered his half-brother in a Malaysian airport with the banned VX nerve agent.

Trump also sounded a note of warning, signaling the threat of military action remains on the table should talks fail to make headway, and his administration said it would press ahead with potentially provocative joint war games with South Korea.

But the US leader was upbeat on the news from Seoul, crediting Washington’s “very, very strong” sanctions push, as well as “big help” from China, for the potential diplomatic breakthrough.

Calling the statements coming out of both Seoul and Pyongyang “very positive,” Trump refused to rule out a historic meeting with Kim.

“We have come a long way at least rhetorically with North Korea,” Trump said.

“We are going to do something, one way or the other, we are going to do something and not let that situation fester.”

North Korea’s talks offer appeared to be “sincere,” he said, adding: “We’ll soon find out.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all sides to seize the opportunity presented by the talks to move toward “sustainable peace and denuclearization.”

The United States says Pyongyang is testing — and will soon complete — an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuke to the continental United States.

That ominous technological breakthrough would put cities like Los Angeles and even New York in striking distance of a hostile regime, something that is unthinkable to many in the West Wing.

And Washington said its finding that Pyongyang was responsible for the February 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam, Kim’s elder half-brother and a potential rival, by spraying VX in his face at a busy Malaysian airport underlined the danger.

“This public display of contempt for universal norms against chemical weapons use further demonstrates the reckless nature of North Korea and underscores that we cannot afford to tolerate a North Korean WMD program of any kind,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Under the US legal ban on chemical weapons, the formal finding triggers a new layer of US economic sanctions, but in practical terms these duplicate those already in place.

– Neighborhood diplomacy –

The apparent offer of talks, not yet publicly confirmed by North Korea, is a tantalizing one for the White House — offering a possible off-ramp from the road to a bloody war. But it is also fraught with risks.

On multiple occasions, Kim’s father Kim Jong Il dangled the prospect of talks and denuclearization as a means of buying time, easing sanctions and dividing South Korea from its allies.

South Korea has been deeply worried by the bellicose rhetoric coming from both Kim and Trump, and has jumped at an Olympic-fueled diplomatic opening.

Next month’s summit — the result of a series of meetings on either side of the contested border — would follow a year of high tensions during which Pyongyang carried out its most powerful nuclear test to date, along with launches of rockets capable of reaching the US mainland.

Trump has dubbed Kim “Little Rocket Man” and boasted about the size of his nuclear button, while the North Korean leader called the American president a “mentally deranged US dotard.”

But the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South triggered an apparent transformation, with Kim sending his sister to the opening ceremony, sparking a flurry of cross-border trips as South Korean President Moon Jae-in moved to broker talks between Pyongyang and Washington.

Kim Yo Jong’s visit to the South was the first by a member of the North’s ruling dynasty since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

North and South agreed to hold a summit in late April in Panmunjom, the truce village in the DMZ, South Korea’s national security adviser Chung Eui-yong said after leading the most senior delegation to travel North for more than a decade.

– ‘Very important breakthrough’ –

It will be the third meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas, but the first to take place in the DMZ after summits in Pyongyang in 2000 and 2007.

The North “made clear that there is no reason to own nuclear (weapons) if military threats toward the North are cleared and the safety of its regime is guaranteed,” Chung said.

Pyongyang “expressed willingness to have frank dialogue with the US to discuss the denuclearization issue and to normalize North-US relations,” he added, and said there would be no provocations such as nuclear or ballistic missile tests while dialogue was under way.

“Also, the North promised not to use atomic weapons or conventional weapons towards the South,” he told reporters, adding that Seoul and Pyongyang would set up a hotline between the leaders.

Kim also said he would “understand” if the South goes ahead with delayed joint military exercises with the US that usually infuriate Pyongyang, a senior official at the South’s presidential office added.

Previous negotiations with Pyongyang have ultimately foundered. Six-party talks, grouping the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the US, and offering the North security and economic benefits in exchange for denuclearization, broke down almost a decade ago.

The foreign ministry issued a statement late Tuesday praising the “positive outcomes” of a meeting between South Korean envoys and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang.

The two countries agreed to hold a summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the Demilitarized Zone in late April, according to Seoul.

Pyongyang was also said to be ready to halt nuclear and missile tests, and consider the dramatic step of abandoning costly and controversial WMD programmes if the United States agrees not to attack or overthrow the regime.

“We hope that the DPRK and the ROK can earnestly implement the relevant consensus and continue with their efforts to advance reconciliation and cooperation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in the statement, using the acronyms of the North and South.

“We hope that all relevant parties can seize the current opportunity, work for the shared goal and make concerted efforts to promote the process of denuclearisation of the Peninsula and politically resolving the Korean Peninsula issue,” Geng said.

“China is willing to continue to play its due role to this end.”

Earlier on Tuesday, before the landmark announcement, Geng had told reporters that “interactions” between North and South Korea “should be expanded” to include the United States.

US President Donald Trump welcomed Pyongyang’s offer as positive — and apparently sincere — crediting Washington’s “very, very strong” sanctions push, as well as “big help” from China, for the potential diplomatic breakthrough.

Calling the statements coming out of both Seoul and Pyongyang “very positive,” Trump refused to rule out a historic meeting with Kim.

“We have come a long way at least rhetorically with North Korea,” Trump said. “It would be a great thing for the world, it would be a great thing for North Korea, it would be a great thing for the peninsula, but we will see what happens,” he said in the Oval Office.

“We are going to do something, one way or the other, we are going to do something and not let that situation fester,” Trump said, in a reference to the standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

The breakthrough should please Beijing as the Asian superpower, fearing a conflict at its border, has repeatedly called for negotiations to resolve the nuclear crisis.

China has also urged the United States, Japan and South Korea to suspend joint military drills in the region in return for North Korea to halt its nuclear activities.

The treaty is expected to provide a major boost to East Timor, one of Asia’s poorest countries, by establishing special arrangements for sharing revenue from the Greater Sunrise offshore gas fields in the Timor Sea.

After signing the treaty during a UN ceremony, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters that East Timor stood to gain “substantial benefits” from the deal.

“We are talking billions of dollars over the life of such a resource project,” Bishop said.

Discovered in 1974, Greater Sunrise has an estimated worth of between $40 and $50 billion. The offshore fields are located 150 kilometers (93 miles) southeast of East Timor and 450 kilometers northwest of Darwin.

East Timor’s minister for delimitations said development of the gas fields through a pipeline that would reach the south coast of his country would be a “game-changer.”

Such a project would have a “transformational impact” on the socioeconomics of the country, where 65 percent of the population of 1.5 million are “young people looking for jobs,” said Hermenegildo Augusto Cabral Pereira.

A commission that oversaw negotiations on the treaty will soon release a report on the various options to develop the Greater Sunrise fields.

Reassure investors

East Timor, one of Asia’s poorest countries, has been in dispute with Australia over the sea border since its independence from Indonesia in 2002.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres witnessed the signing of the treaty, which was the first-ever reached under a special conciliation mechanism of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

While details of the revenue-sharing arrangement have not been finalized, Bishop said East Timor would receive the lion’s share of revenue — 70 or 80 percent — from the development of Greater Sunrise.

The project could also help East Timor boost its standing among foreign investors, said Pereira.

“If foreign investors can see that Timor can manage successfully a complex industry downstream, building a platform, a pipeline and an energy plant, they will trust that we can do much more,” he said.

In 2016, East Timor dragged Australia before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the world’s oldest arbitration tribunal, based in The Hague, after contesting a previous deal signed in 2006.

Dili wanted that treaty, which also covered the vast Greater Sunrise fields, torn up after accusing Australia of spying to gain commercial advantage during the negotiations.

As the dispute escalated, a group of energy companies including Australia’s Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka Gas decided to mothball plans to develop the Greater Sunrise fields.

In January last year, the two neighbors announced that a new pact would be negotiated through the arbitration court.

East Timor was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 before it gained independence in 2002 after a UN-sponsored referendum.

The four-day port call, began Monday, highlighted the US presence in the contentious South China Sea, where Vietnam and many other Asean members are at loggerheads over territorial disputes with China.

However, Sawyer said the presence of the carrier had nothing to do with the dispute directly. “This is about our relationship with Vietnam, both from a military relationship and from a comprehensive partnership relationship,” he said.

The commander added that the US wanted to have more military engagement with its Vietnamese counterpart but did not have a specific plan in place.Senior leadership from Vietnam greet leaders from U.S. 7th Fleet, the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, and the Carl Vinson Strike Group, during a welcome ceremony in Da Nang

“As you might know, I am a career submariner and I would greatly look forward to bringing one of the US submarines into a port in Vietnam. So that’s certainly one of things I will offer going forward,” Sawyer told journalists across Asia via a phone conference.

The US is not a claimant in the disputed sea but has called for international laws to regulate the contentious area for the sake of freedom of navigation and over-flights as well as regional stability, said the US consul-general in Ho Chi Minh Cith, Mary Tarnowka

Guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) arrives in Da Nang

In order to strengthen the Vietnamese coastguard, the US has transferred equipment there. The most significant shipment was |the high-endurance cutter CSB8020, the largest ship in |the Vietnamese coastguard fleet, |she said, adding that six 15-metre “metal shark” patrol boats and a training and maintenance facility with a boat lift had also been sent to Vietnam.

The US also planed to provide the same types of boats and facilities to other regions to increase the coastguard’s maritime law enforcement force capabilities, she said.

“These ships and facilities, as well as the many ongoing expert exchanges and training opportunities, represent the deepening cooperation that we have in the areas of maritime law enforcement, maritime search and rescue, and humanitarian assistance operations within Vietnam’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone,” she said.

If confirmed by Pyongyang, the offer would mark the first time under the current leadership the North had declared itself willing to discuss conditions under which it might consider giving up its nuclear arsenal — a move it has previously insisted was firmly off the negotiating table.

Following a meeting in Pyongyang with leader Kim Jong Un, Chung Eui-yong, the national security adviser to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, said the North had stated there was “no reason” to hold on to its nuclear weapons “if military threats towards the North are cleared and the security of its regime is guaranteed”.

This handout from the presidential Blue House taken on March 5, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (3rd L) posing with South Korean delegation, who travelled as envoys of the South’s President Moon Jae-in, during their meeting in Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un discussed ways to ease tensions on the peninsula with visiting South Korean envoys, the state KCNA news agency reported on March 6. // AFP PHOTO

Chung said Kim and Moon would meet in late April at the fortified border village of Panmunjom for what would be only the third inter-Korean summit since the end of the 1950-53 Korean conflict.

He said the two sides would establish a leader-to-leader hotline, offering the highest-level contact between two nations that are technically still at war.

After months of soaring tensions that have seen Kim Jong Un trade insults and threats with US President Donald Trump, temperatures cooled dramatically as South Korea hosted the Winter Olympics.

Despite having few athletes competing at the Games, Pyongyang sent a large and colourful delegation, which included Kim’s sister, who met with Moon to offer a summit meeting.

That visit was returned this week when Moon sent the highest-level delegation in a decade north of the border.

The envoys returned Tuesday with news of apparent breakthroughs in the long-logjammed relationship.

This picture taken on March 5, 2018 and released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 6, 2018 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (R) shaking hands with South Korean chief delegator Chung Eui-yong (C), who travelled as envoys of the South’s President Moon Jae-in, during their meeting in Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un discussed ways to ease tensions on the peninsula with visiting South Korean envoys, the state KCNA news agency reported on March 6. // AFP PHOTO

“The South and the North agreed to hold the third summit at… Panmunjom in late April,” said Chung, referring to the truce village at the heavily-fortified border.

If realised, the summit will be the third meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas, which technically remain at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice instead of a peace treaty.

The previous two summits were held in 2000 and 2007, respectively, under South Korean presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun who both advocated dialogue with Pyongyang.

They both met with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il.

The two Koreas also agreed to open communication hotline between Moon and Kim to “defuse military tension and to have close coordination,” Chung said Tuesday.

The leaders will have their first phone conversation before the planned summit, he added.

North Korea also pledged that it would freeze its nuclear and missile testing programme during the period of dialogue.

Ryoko Azuma, 44, will command four warships making up a division with a total of 1,000 crew members.

“This is the first time a woman was appointed for the job,” a spokesman for the Maritime Self-Defence Force told AFP.

“But she wasn’t chosen because she was a woman.”

The ships include the helicopter carrier Izumo, the navy’s biggest ship.

“I want to do my best to carry out the heavy duty I have been given,” Azuma told reporters after a ceremony at Yokohama near Tokyo to mark her arrival in the post.

About 400 crew members attended the ceremony.

“I don’t think about being a woman but I want to try to become a role model for younger female officers,” she said.

About 14,000 women are currently serving in the Self-Defence Forces as the military is known, accounting for only six percent of the entire personnel.

On most levels, Japan lags behind other developed countries in terms of sexual equality.

In politics women are still under-represented with only 47 of the 465 members of the lower house.

According to statistics compiled by the Swiss-based Inter-Parliamentary Union, this ratio of 10.1 percent places Japan below Myanmar and Gambia.