Japan

News, deep dives, and analysis — every Japan story, newest first.

Articles

Beats covered

Reporters on beat

Sep 16

Last updated

JASDF RQ-4B Global Hawk parked in a hangar beneath a large Japanese flag

Japan · Japan

Japan's $110M Global Hawk Drone Crashes on Undisclosed Mission

Japan's first RQ-4B Global Hawk loss: the $110M drone crashed off Tottori three minutes after its link failed. The ASDF won't say what it was doing.

Haye KestelooSep 163 min read

A DJI Osmo Pocket camera showing a Japanese device-information screen with camera firmware version 10.02.00.97 next to a handheld DJI remote held in one hand displaying its RC firmware version 01.00.02.10 and a firmware update option

DJI

DJI Fixes Pocket 4P FrameTap And Mic Conflict, Users Find It First

Pocket 4P owners in Japan discovered DJI's latest firmware lets the FrameTap remote and DJI Mic 3 connect at once. DJI's changelog never mentioned it.

Haye KestelooSep 4

Helsing HX-2 strike drone with X-shaped wings backlit by white studio light bars in a dark hangar

Japan

Helsing Pitches Japan A Strike Drone With A Contested Combat Record

Rakuten is brokering Helsing's sale of HX-2 strike drones to Japan's army, and the aircraft under test is the same one a German defense ministry document said struggled to launch in Ukraine.

Haye KestelooAug 18

Japan

Japan Bets Combat Drones Can Hold The Line With China

Japan's defense ministry pushed four drone makers into navy testing under a rapid development program built on Ukraine's battlefield lessons, as Chinese carriers operate near Iwo Jima and Tokyo's own commercial drone market stays dominated by Chinese imports.

Rafael SuárezAug 5

Ukraine

GRU Officer Who Ran Russia's Drone Parts Pipeline Out of Tokyo Flees Japan After Press Exposure

Maksim Filchenkov, the GRU officer sourcing Japanese components for Russian drones and missiles, has fled Japan after a press investigation blew his cover. The pipeline he built stays open.

Haye KestelooJul 23

ACSL

Japan Drone Industry Urges Closer Ties With Taiwan

A senior figure in Japan’s drone industry is pushing for Japan and Taiwan to align their drone rules and deepen manufacturing cooperation, arguing that mismatched regulations and Japan’s limits on defense work are holding the sector back. Kakuya Iwata, executive director of the Japan UAS Industrial Development Association, made the case in an interview with…

Rafael SuárezJul 7

Drone Research

DRAGON Drone Reshapes Itself Midair To Fit Through Gaps

The University of Tokyo’s JSK Lab flew DRAGON v1.5, a drone that changes its own shape in the air, in a live demonstration on the Komaba Campus in Tokyo. The robot bends and curls to pass through gaps that would stop a fixed-frame drone, and it does it autonomously, using only its onboard sensors. Now…

Rafael SuárezJul 1

Airbus

Airbus Kawasaki Eurodrone ASW Variant Hunts Pacific Subs

Airbus and Kawasaki Heavy Industries signed a memorandum of understanding on June 26 to develop an anti-submarine and maritime patrol version of the Eurodrone for the Japanese market. The deal is the first concrete export pull for a European medium-altitude long-endurance UAV that has not yet flown. Japan joined the broader Eurodrone program in November…

Rafael SuárezJun 28

Japan

The drone industry moves fast. Stay ahead of it.