Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force Ship to Visit Cuba?

ACCORDING TO CUBAN SOURCES TRAINING SHIPS OF JAPAN'S MARITIME SELF DEFENSE FORCE MOORED IN THE PORT OF HAVANA , CUBA ON SATURDAY JULY 5, 2014.

Japan's NIPPON MARU training ship , U.S. Navy Photo, we have no idea if this is the type of ship or one of the ships visiting Cuba, but we like tall ships and we thought that you might not have seen this one.

THIS IS WHAT SUPPOSEDLY HAPPENED:

 We really weren't expecting this one. We normally monitor Japanese media and all sorts of specialized U.S. naval and maritime media but we did not notice any coverage of this event until we received an alert from our own sources.which are rather good, but informal since as an organization  we don't consider ourselves a "news service". We do print original posts though when we discover under reported but important events. This qualifies. Our source credits this story to Radio Cadena Agramonte a regular "commie" radio station on Cuba. Apparently Radio Cadena Agramonte needed to drum up some public interest in meeting and greeting America's number one Asian ally. The radio station put out the date and time of the visit and noted that this was an official visit hosted by the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The ships were not named but described as "training ships" and from the list of social activities planned our guess is that they are carrying naval academy students. The flotilla commander will call on the Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Navy, we suspect that this is basically a two ship flotilla, with possibly a third ship as escort, nothing larger than small destroyer escorts. According to the radio reports the ship's companies will visit the Cuban naval academy, convincing us again that this as a midshipman or cadet cruise. Reportedly, the ships arrived to a 21 gun salute by an artillery battery in the Fortress of San Carlos de La Cabana. Obviously the Cubans were happy to have the visitors.

THIS IS WHAT WE THINK IT MEANS:

 We don't think anything unusual is going here, and probably we are not seeing a first. Japanese naval vessels visit Gulf Coast Ports like New Orleans pretty much on an annual basis. While Japan's "navy" is constitutionally limited to being a "maritime self defense force " this pretty much means that they stay away from what would be commonly considered "aggressive " naval weapons such as air craft carriers,  big cruisers, and nuclear submarines capable of under water launches of missiles. But their naval force is usually rated about number 4 in the world for sheer size of fleet and air arm, and the number of personnel. Despite a tendency to keep the core of their fleet near home waters Japan trains its officers like naval professional anywhere. Academy graduates are supposed to graduate to the fleet not only educated but well traveled. Japan's naval vessels are not carrying contraband cargo. They are not violating any tenet of Japanese / American relations and may be developing a relationship that could be of benefit to us one day. The Chinese are after all, trying to buy Cuba. America won't make a counter offer because we still expect them to pay the heirs of United Fruit company for taking the Cuban lands the Fruit company operated. Japan is China's close economic and political rival for regional leadership. Japan participates in global trade. We suspect that a little Cuban visit has been on the Gulf Caribbean cruise agenda for years with the full knowledge of all of the U.S. administrations involved. Apparently Japan thinks the experience is good for its future naval officers. We believe that if its good for Japanese naval professionalism, its good for us. We doubt a visit to Cuba is going to throw any kind of wedge in U.S.-Japanese relationships, especially naval relationships. We've been economically, and militarily joined at the hip for roughly 70 years. In the Asia Pacific Japan, the Philippines, and Australia aren't just allies, they are our friends. Since China seeks to dominate vice cooperate they have neither formal allies nor friends in own neighborhood.  Cuba likes Chinese money, but if they like the Chinese at all, the extreme geographic distance helps. Relax, ops normal 

__._,_.___