Aegis destroyer Atago leaves Yokosuka for home port after collision
The Aegis destroyer Atago left the Maritime Self-Defense Force base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Friday for its home port in Maizuru on the coast of the Sea of Japan, after being docked in Yokosuka since a collision with a trawler in the Pacific in February.
Japanese warships are to leave on an anti-piracy mission off Somalia, in an operation that could see Japan's armed forces face combat abroad for the first time since World War II. The two destroyers -- the 4,650-tonne Sazanami and 4,550-tonne Samidare -- are set to leave the port of Kure, western Hiroshima prefecture, following a ceremony to be attended by Prime Minister Taro Aso and Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada.