Japan SDF in S. Sudan

Japan SDF in S. Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan - Members of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force hold discussions with workers of a quarry company in Sudan on Jan. 19, 2012. An advance team of the GSDF arrived in the capital Juba in mid-January to build roads under a U.N. peacekeeping mission and help improve the infrastructure of the 54th African nation that became independent in July 2011.

Hosono at IAEA confab

Hosono at IAEA confab

TOKYO, Japan - Goshi Hosono, Japan's minister in charge of the nuclear accident, delivers a speech at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna on Sept. 19, 2011. Hosono said at the annual conference of the international nuclear watchdog that Japan aims to bring the crisis-hit Fukushima plant to a ''cold shutdown'' by year-end, moving up the deadline from mid-January 2012.

Hosono at IAEA confab

Hosono at IAEA confab

TOKYO, Japan - Goshi Hosono, Japan's minister in charge of the nuclear accident, delivers a speech at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in Vienna on Sept. 19, 2011. Hosono said at the annual conference of the international nuclear watchdog that Japan aims to bring the crisis-hit Fukushima plant to a ''cold shutdown'' by year-end, moving up the deadline from mid-January 2012. (Kyodo)

Japan SDF in S. Sudan

Japan SDF in S. Sudan

JUBA, South Sudan - Members of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force hold discussions with workers of a quarry company in Sudan on Jan. 19, 2012. An advance team of the GSDF arrived in the capital Juba in mid-January to build roads under a U.N. peacekeeping mission and help improve the infrastructure of the 54th African nation that became independent in July 2011. (Kyodo)