TOKYO, April 23 (PNA/Xinhua) — The head of Japan’s National Police Agency (NPA) said Thursday a full investigation was underway following the landing of a drone containing traces of a radioactive substance on the roof of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s office.
The four-propeller drone which measured about 50 centimeters in diameter is thought to have been landed on the roof after April 20, as the remote-controlled craft was dry when it was discovered and it had rained in the vicinity of Abe’s offices on April 20, according to the meteorological agency here.
The drone was found by security personnel on the helipad at the prime minister’s offices, which was last used when Abe flew to Kanagawa Prefecture to attend a graduation ceremony at the National Defense Academy, government officials said.
Staff members at the offices said that no drone had entered the roof since then, according to the NPA.
Treating the breach of security with the utmost of concern, the NPA’s police chief, Masahito Kanetaka said that he has instructed his offices across the nation to beef up their surveillance of airspace over key facilities and surrounding areas.
Such facilities and locations, according to the NPA, include Abe’s offices, the Imperial Palace, nuclear power plants and airports.
Regular officers on foot patrol have also been urged to be extra vigilant for suspicious objects flying in the sky that might be drones, or other types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The police agency said that it is rapidly looking into countermeasures, in the event of a coordinated drone attack and Kanetaka said that he has deployed a team to come up with effective ways to intercept a drone, should such a terrorist incident occur.
The NPA also said it is studying surveillance footage from security cameras in the vicinity to try and determine when the drone touched down on the prime minister’s roof.
Traces of radioactive cesium were detected on the drone, possibly contained within a bottle of liquid the drone was said to be carrying. The drone was also carrying a radioactivity sticker, according to the police agency.
Investigative sources said Thursday that it was possible that the radioactive cesium was drawn from the air around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan’s northeast.
The police haven’t ruled out the possibility that the attack was an anti-nuclear protest related to the government’s plans to bring Japan’s reactors, that were idled in the wake of the March 2011 tsunami-triggered nuclear disaster, back online.
Investigators, additionally, haven’t ruled out the possibility that the landing of the drone on the prime minister’s helipad was a test-run for a larger scale future attack, and Eriko Yamatani, chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission, said the incident was extremely severe as it struck at the heart of Japan’s administration.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular press conference earlier Thursday that stricter regulation will be introduced during the current Diet session to better regulate the flying of drones.
“We should start from where we can as soon as possible,” Japan’ s top government spokesman said.
Currently Japan’s laws are relatively lax on the flying of drones, so long as the drones don’t affect the operation of regular aircraft.
According to the current laws, pilots only need to report their drone activities when flying at a height of 150 meters or higher under regular flight paths, or above 250 meters in other areas.
Suga said a liaison panel will be created between relevant ministries and agencies to operate under the auspices of Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiro Sugita. Under Sugita the new panel is expected to draft new operational rules for drones to replace the existing system.
The radioactive drone was found when the prime minister was in Jakarta, Indonesia, to take part in the 2015 Asian-African summit.
The drone found belongs to a series called “Phantom” produced by DJI Innovations and, as an all-in-one small Quad Copter, is widely-regarded as one of the best in its class. The drone is capable of carrying a GoPro camera and hence could easily be reconfigured to carry more threatening payloads. (PNA/Xinhua)