Video Rating: 5 / 5

**Sound Warning** **Turn your speakers/headphones down…it gets loud!** Lucky, lucky catch. Just happened to be walking past the Fire Department/Paramedics station tonight. The voice on the speaker is roughly saying “Ambulance needed at ….blah blah…railway station”…and that’s all I could catch. …and yes, that is the Ambulance talking… (everything talks in Japan!)
Video Rating: 5 / 5

The Komatsu Light Armored Vehicle/LAV (Japanese: 軽装甲機動車 – Keisoukoukidousha) were first produced in 2002 by Komatsu Ltd. Defense Systems Division in Komatsu, Ishikawa, Japan. It is used exclusively by the Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces/JGSDF (Japanese: 陸上自衛隊, Rōmaji: Rikujō Jieitai). The vehicle has a passing resemblance to the French Panhard VBL that are in current use by the French army, albeit in a four-door form. The Komatsu LAV was developed in 1997 to meet a JGSDF need for an armored wheeled vehicle that could provide armored protection since their Toyota High Mobility Vehicles (the Mega Cruisers) and Mitsubishi Type 73 Light Trucks (Mitsubishi Pajero-based military vehicles) were not adequate to provide protection from small arms fire. The vehicle saw extensive use in Japan’s involvement in the Second Iraq War (USA’s Operation Iraqi Freedom) as part of the Japanese Iraq Reconstruction and Support Group (Japanese: 自衛隊イラク派遣 じえいたいイラクはけん – Jietaiirakuhaken), a battalion-sized, largely humanitarian contingent of the Japan Self-Defense Forces that was sent to Samawah, Southern Iraq in early January 2004 and withdrawn by late July 2006. Sources: en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org Music: Musicshake – Ride on Em
Video Rating: 4 / 5

USArmy ARMOR Magazine 1999 —Tank Assessment Survey Ranks— 「The third-place finisher is a surprise, coming from a nation never known for its tank technology. The Japanese Type 90,built by Mitsubishi, visually resembles the Leopard 2, uses the 120mm gun originally developed by Rheinmetall, and adds an automatic loader, permitting a three-man crew. Neither the governmentor the contractor have put out much information on the Type 90, making it a sort of “mystery tank,” but the Type 90 is, according to the report, “thoroughly modern and sophisticated, even more advanced in some of the areas of fire control and vehicle electronics than the highly publicized (French) Leclerc, Leopard 2A5, and M1A2. “It is the fire control suite and advanced vehicle electronics that really make the Type 90 a world-class tank. The well known Japanese prowess in electronics has been exploited to the fullest extent in the Type 90. While some details remain clouded in secrecy, the fire control suite has an automatic target tracking capability and it has long been rumored that some sort of target recognition/queuingand/or threat prioritization capability is incorporated in the suite.” The Type 90 is powered by a 1500 hp Mitsubishi diesel that provides a power-to-weight ratio similar to other world-class tanks. At 50 tons, the Type 90 is less heavily armored than designs intended for combat in Western Europe and the crew compartment is thought to be cramped. “All these things considered, the Type90 is …
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Ginza Shopping District Tokyo, Japan