Japanese troops mistake live rounds for blanks

Agence France-Presse

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Japanese troops mistake live rounds for blanks
The "blanks" are discovered to be live rounds after a piece of an assault rifle is torn off, slightly injuring two soldiers

TOKYO, Japan – Japan’s Self-Defense Forces aren’t shooting blanks anymore.

At least they weren’t last month when troops mistook live ammunition for fake rounds at a training exercise.

No one was seriously injured despite almost 80 rounds of sharp-tipped ammunition being fired off in the hair-raising bullet blunder, the Asahi newspaper reported.

Blanks are identifiable by having a more curved tip than live rounds, but the unit in question reportedly only fires guns about twice a year.

The “blanks” were discovered to be live rounds after a piece of an assault rifle was torn off, slightly injuring two soldiers, the paper said, citing the results of a defense department investigation released this week.

A computer error was reportedly to blame for the incident in May at a training ground in Japan’s northernmost island Hokkaido.

SDF troops are supposed to act only in self-defense under a pacifist constitution imposed by the United States after World War II. – Rappler.com

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