title: Acetic acid

text: Acetic acid is mildly corrosive to metals including iron, magnesium, and zinc, forming hydrogen gas and salts called acetates:


title: Acetic acid

text: Because aluminium forms a passivating acid-resistant film of aluminium oxide, aluminium tanks are used to transport acetic acid. Metal acetates can also be prepared from acetic acid and an appropriate base, as in the popular "baking soda + vinegar" reaction giving off sodium acetate:


title: Acetic acid

text: A colour reaction for salts of acetic acid is iron(III) chloride solution, which results in a deeply red colour that disappears after acidification. A more sensitive test uses lanthanum nitrate with iodine and ammonia to give a blue solution. Acetates when heated with arsenic trioxide form cacodyl oxide, which can be detected by its malodorous vapours.


title: Acetic acid

text: Amounts of acetic acid used in these other applications together account for another 5–10% of acetic acid use worldwide.


title: Acetic acid

text: Vinegar was known early in civilization as the natural result of exposure of beer and wine to air, because acetic acid-producing bacteria are present globally. The use of acetic acid in alchemy extends into the third century BC, when the Greek philosopher Theophrastus described how vinegar acted on metals to produce pigments useful in art, including "white lead" (lead carbonate) and "verdigris", a green mixture of copper salts including copper(II) acetate. Ancient Romans boiled soured wine to produce a highly sweet syrup called "sapa". Sapa that was produced in lead pots was rich in lead acetate, a sweet substance also called "sugar of lead" or "sugar of Saturn", which contributed to lead poisoning among the Roman aristocracy.


title: Acetic acid

text: In the 16th-century German alchemist Andreas Libavius described the production of acetone from the dry distillation of lead acetate, ketonic decarboxylation. The presence of water in vinegar has such a profound effect on acetic acid's properties that for centuries chemists believed that glacial acetic acid and the acid found in vinegar were two different substances. French chemist Pierre Adet proved them identical.


title: Acetic acid

text: In 1845 German chemist Hermann Kolbe synthesised acetic acid from inorganic compounds for the first time. This reaction sequence consisted of chlorination of carbon disulfide to carbon tetrachloride, followed by pyrolysis to tetrachloroethylene and aqueous chlorination to trichloroacetic acid, and concluded with electrolytic reduction to acetic acid.


title: Acetic acid

text: By 1910, most glacial acetic acid was obtained from the pyroligneous liquor, a product of the distillation of wood. The acetic acid was isolated by treatment with milk of lime, and the resulting calcium acetate was then acidified with sulfuric acid to recover acetic acid. At that time, Germany was producing 10,000 tons of glacial acetic acid, around 30% of which was used for the manufacture of indigo dye.


title: Acetic acid

text: Because both methanol and carbon monoxide are commodity raw materials, methanol carbonylation long appeared to be attractive precursors to acetic acid. Henri Dreyfus at British Celanese developed a methanol carbonylation pilot plant as early as 1925. However, a lack of practical materials that could contain the corrosive reaction mixture at the high pressures needed (200 atm or more) discouraged commercialization of these routes. The first commercial methanol carbonylation process, which used a cobalt catalyst, was developed by German chemical company BASF in 1963. In 1968, a rhodium-based catalyst ("cis"−) was discovered that could operate efficiently at lower pressure with almost no by-products. US chemical company Monsanto Company built the first plant using this catalyst in 1970, and rhodium-catalyzed methanol carbonylation became the dominant method of acetic acid production (see Monsanto process). In the late 1990s, the chemicals company BP Chemicals commercialised the Cativa catalyst (), which is promoted by iridium for greater efficiency. This iridium-catalyzed Cativa process is greener and more efficient and has largely supplanted the Monsanto process, often in the same production plants.


title: Acetic acid

text: Interstellar acetic acid was discovered in 1996 by a team led by David Mehringer using the former Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association array at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory and the former Millimeter Array located at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory. It was first detected in the Sagittarius B2 North molecular cloud (also known as the Sgr B2 Large Molecule Heimat source). Acetic acid has the distinction of being the first molecule discovered in the interstellar medium using solely radio interferometers; in all previous ISM molecular discoveries made in the millimetre and centimetre wavelength regimes, single dish radio telescopes were at least partly responsible for the detections.


title: Acetic acid

text: Concentrated acetic acid is corrosive to skin. These burns or blisters may not appear until hours after exposure.


title: Acetic acid

text: Prolonged inhalation exposure (eight hours) to acetic acid vapours at 10 ppm can produce some irritation of eyes, nose, and throat; at 100 ppm marked lung irritation and possible damage to lungs, eyes, and skin may result. Vapour concentrations of 1,000 ppm cause marked irritation of eyes, nose and upper respiratory tract and cannot be tolerated. These predictions were based on animal experiments and industrial exposure.


title: Acetic acid

text: In 12 workers exposed for two or more years to acetic acid airborne average concentration of 51 ppm (estimated), produced symptoms of conjunctive irritation, upper respiratory tract irritation, and hyperkeratotic dermatitis. Exposure to 50 ppm or more is intolerable to most persons and results in intensive lacrimation and irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, with pharyngeal oedema and chronic bronchitis. Unacclimatised humans experience extreme eye and nasal irritation at concentrations in excess of 25 ppm, and conjunctivitis from concentrations below 10 ppm has been reported. In a study of five workers exposed for seven to 12 years to concentrations of 80 to 200 ppm at peaks, the principal findings were blackening and hyperkeratosis of the skin of the hands, conjunctivitis (but no corneal damage), bronchitis and pharyngitis, and erosion of the exposed teeth (incisors and canines).


title: Acetic acid

text: The hazards of solutions of acetic acid depend on the concentration. The following table lists the EU classification of acetic acid solutions:


title: Acetic acid

text: Concentrated acetic acid can be ignited only with difficulty at standard temperature and pressure, but becomes a flammable risk in temperatures greater than , and can form explosive mixtures with air at higher temperatures (explosive limits: 5.4–16%).


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Japan Self-Defense Forces (; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified "de facto" military forces of Japan established in 1954. The self-defence forces consists of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. They are controlled by the Ministry of Defense, with the Prime Minister as commander-in-chief.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In recent years, the JSDF has engaged in international peacekeeping operations with the United Nations. Tensions with North Korea have reignited debate over the status of the JSDF and its relationship to Japanese society. Since 2010, the JSDF has refocused from countering the former Soviet Union to the People's Republic of China, also since 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine the JSDF also considered Russian Federation a major threat; increasing military cooperation with Australia, India, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States; and acquiring new equipment and hardware.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Japan was deprived of any military capability after being defeated by the Allies in World War II and was forced to sign a surrender agreement presented by General Douglas MacArthur in 1945. It was occupied by U.S. forces and only had a minor domestic police force on which to rely for domestic security and crime. Rising tensions in Europe and Asia due to the Cold War, coupled with leftist-inspired strikes and demonstrations in Japan, prompted some conservative leaders to question the unilateral renunciation of all military capabilities. These sentiments were intensified in 1950 as occupation troops began to be moved to the Korean War (1950–53) theater. This left Japan mostly defenseless, vulnerable, and very much aware of the need to enter a mutual defense relationship with the United States to guarantee the nation's external security. Encouraged by the American occupation authorities, the Japanese government in July 1950 authorized the establishment of a , consisting of 75,000 men equipped with light infantry weapons. In 1952, the , the waterborne counterpart of NPR, was also founded.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Security Treaty Between the United States and Japan was signed on 8 September 1951. The treaty allowed United States forces stationed in Japan to deal with external aggression against Japan while Japanese ground and maritime forces would deal with internal threats and natural disasters. It allowed the US to act for the sake of maintaining East Asian peace and exerting power over Japanese domestic disputes. Accordingly, in mid-1952, the National Police Reserve was expanded to 110,000 men and named the National Safety Forces. Along with it, the Coastal Safety Force was moved to the National Safety Agency to start a navy.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Under Article 9 of the 1947 constitution, which was written by Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara under the supervision of the SCAP, Japan forever renounces war as an instrument for settling international disputes and declares that Japan will never again maintain "land, sea, or air forces or another war potential." Later cabinets interpreted these provisions as not denying the nation the inherent right to self-defense and, with the encouragement of the United States, developed the JSDF step by step.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 1 July 1954, the National Security Board was reorganized as the Defense Agency, and the National Security Force was reorganized afterwards as the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ("de facto" post-war Japanese Army), the Coastal Safety Force was reorganized as the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ("de facto" post-war Japanese Navy), and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force ("de facto" post-war Japanese Air Force) was established as a new branch of JSDF. General Keizō Hayashi was appointed the first Chairman of the Joint Staff Council—professional head of the three branches. The enabling legislation for this was the 1954 (Act No. 165 of 1954).


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Far East Air Force, U.S. Air Force, announced on 6 January 1955 that 85 aircraft would be turned over to the fledgling Japanese air force on about 15 January, the first equipment of the new force.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 19 January 1960, the amended Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan corrected the unequal status of Japan in the 1951 treaty by adding mutual defense obligations. The U.S. is required to pre-inform Japan of any mobilization by the U.S. Army. The U.S. is also prohibited from exerting any power on domestic issues within Japan. The treaty obligates Japan and the United States to assist each other if there's an armed attack in territories administered by Japan. Because it states that any attack against Japan or the United States in Japanese territory would be dangerous to each country's peace and safety, the revised treaty requires Japan and the United States to maintain capacities to resist common armed attacks; thus, it explains the need for US military bases in Japan. This established a security alliance between Japan and the United States. The treaty has lasted longer than any other alliance between two great powers since the Peace of Westphalia treaties in 1648.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In 1983, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone pledged to make Japan an "unsinkable aircraft carrier in the Pacific", assisting the United States in defending against the threat of Soviet bombers.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Although possession of nuclear weapons is not explicitly forbidden in the constitution, Japan, being the only nation to experience the devastation of nuclear attacks, expressed early its abhorrence of nuclear arms and its determination never to acquire them. The Atomic Energy Basic Law of 1956 limits research, development, and use of nuclear power to peaceful uses only. Beginning in 1956, national policy embodied non-nuclear principles that forbade the nation from possessing or manufacturing nuclear weapons, or allowing them to be introduced into its territories. In 1976, Japan ratified the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (adopted by the United Nations Security Council in 1968) and reiterated its intention never to "develop, use, or allow the transportation of nuclear weapons through its territory"; nonetheless, because of its advanced technological capabilities and large number of operating nuclear power plants, Japan is considered "nuclear capable", i.e., it could develop usable nuclear weapons within one year if the political situation changes significantly. Thus, many analysts consider Japan a "de facto" nuclear state. Japan is often said to be a "screwdriver's turn" away from possessing nuclear weapons, or possessing a "bomb in the basement".


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 28 May 1999, the Regional Affairs Law was enacted. It allows Japan to automatically participate as "rear support" if the United States wages war under "regional affairs."


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law was passed on 29 October 2001. It allows the JSDF to contribute by itself to international efforts to the prevention and eradication of terrorism. While on duty, the JSDF can use weapons to protect itself and others who come under its control. Previously Japan's policy was non-involvement. On 27 March 2004, the Japan Defense Agency activated the Special Operations Group with the mandate under the JGSDF as its Counter-terrorist unit.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 8 June 2006, the Cabinet of Japan endorsed a bill elevating the under the Cabinet Office to full-fledged cabinet-level . This was passed by the National Diet in December 2006 and has been enforced since 9 January 2007.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Section 2 of Article 3 of the Self Defense Forces Act was revised on 9 January 2007. JSDF activities abroad were elevated from "miscellaneous regulations" to "basic duties." This fundamentally changed the nature of the JSDF because its activities were no longer solely defensive. JMSDF ships can be dispatched worldwide such as in activities against pirates. The JSDF's first postwar overseas base was established in Djibouti (July 2010). On 18 September 2015, the National Diet enacted the 2015 Japanese military legislation, a series of laws that allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to defend allies in combat. The JSDF may provide material support to allies engaged in combat overseas. The new law also allows JSDF troops to defend weapons platforms belonging to Japan's allies if doing so would somehow contribute to Japan's defense. The justification being that not defending or coming to the aid of an ally under attack weakens an alliances and endangers Japan. These were Japan's broadest changes to its defense laws since World War II. The JSDF Act was amended in 2015 to make it illegal for JSDF personnel/staff to participate in collective insubordination or to command forces without authority or in violation of orders, which was stated to be the reason Japan was involved in China in World War II. A Credit Suisse survey published in 2015 ranked Japan as the world's fourth most-powerful military behind Russia, China, and United States. Since March 2016, Japan's Legislation for Peace and Security enables seamless responses of the JSDF to any situation to protect the lives and livelihood of Japanese citizens. It also increases proactive contributions to peace and security in the world and deepens cooperation with partners. This enhanced the Japan-US alliance as global partners to promote peace and security in the region and the international community.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Japan activated the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, its first marine unit since World War II, on 7 April 2018. It is trained to counter invaders from occupying Japanese islands. The Ministry of Defense said that beginning 1 October 2018, the maximum age for enlisted personnel and non-commissioned officer applicants would be raised from 26 to 32 to secure "a stable supply of Self-Defense Forces [military] personnel amid a declining pool of recruits due to the recently declining birth rate." In March 2019, the Ministry of Defense intended to establish its first regional cyber protection unit in the Western Army of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) to safeguard defense communications from cyber attacks, such as for personnel deployed on remote islands with no established secure lines. The Ministry of Defense has been developing supersonic glide bombs to strengthen the defense of Japan's remote islands, including the Senkaku Islands. The anti-surface strike capability will be used to help the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade’s landing and recapture operations of remote islands.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: British troops of the Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) conducted a field exercise together for the first time with Japanese GSDF soldiers in Oyama, Shizuoka prefecture on 2 October 2018. This also marked the first time in history that foreign soldiers other than Americans have had field exercises on Japanese soil. The purpose was to improve their strategic partnership and security cooperation. The JGSDF and the Indian Army conducted their first joint military exercise in the Indian state of Mizoram from 27 October to 18 November 2018, practicing anti-terror drills and improving bilateral cooperation between 60 Japanese and Indian officers. From 29 October to 2 November 2018, Japan and the United States conducted the largest military exercise around Japan to date, known as Keen Sword. It included 57,000 sailors, marines and airmen. Of those, 47,000 service members were from the JSDF and 10,000 from the U.S. Armed Forces. A naval supply ship and frigate of the Royal Canadian Navy also participated. There were simulations of air combat, ballistic missile defense, and amphibious landings.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Japan unveiled the 84-meter long, 2,950-ton "Taigei"-class submarine on 4 October 2018. Japan's first submarine powered by lithium-ion batteries, it was developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force used it for the first time in March 2020.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Japanese government approved the first-ever JSDF dispatch to a peacekeeping operation that was not led by the United Nations. Two JGSDF officers monitored a cease-fire between Israel and Egypt at the Multinational Force and Observers command in the Sinai peninsula from 19 April till 30 November 2019. Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya announced plans to deploy Type 12 surface-to-ship missiles in March 2020. The missiles have a range of 300 km and will be used to protect the southern Ryukyu Islands. Japan is also developing high-speed gliding missiles with a range of 1000 km.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 10 September 2020, Japan and India signed a military pact called the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA). The pact enables the exchange of logistical support and supplies. The purpose is to encourage closer cooperation between the two countries and to deter Chinese aggression in Asia. Japan already had such agreements with Australia, Canada, France, UK and USA.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On May 5, 2022, Japan and the United Kingdom signed a defensive partnership which deepens military ties to counter ""autocratic, coercive powers" in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. The Prime Ministers Fumio Kishida and Boris Johnson both condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On May 23, 2022, Japan and the United States signed an agreement. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Koshida and U.S. President Joe Biden met together in Tokyo.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Since the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, there's been growing military coordination between China and Russia. This has resulted in an uptick of military activity around Japan.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On August 4, 2022, the Japanese government lodged formal protests to Beijing when 5 missiles landed near Hateruma in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone. These Chinese missile launches and military exercises occurred in response to the 2022 visit by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On October 22, 2022, Japan and Australia signed a new bilateral security agreement that includes military, intelligence and cybersecurity cooperation. It is an upgrade to the 2007 Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation. This is the first time that Japan made such a pact with another country other than the United States.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Prime Minister is the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Military authority runs from the Prime Minister to the cabinet-level Minister of Defense of the Japanese Ministry of Defense.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Prime Minister and Minister of Defense are advised by the (currently Kōji Yamazaki, 山崎幸二), who heads the . The Joint Staff includes a Senior Enlisted Advisor to the "Chief of Staff, Joint Staff", the Vice Chief of Staff, Joint Staff (currently Yutaka Masuko), an Administrative Vice Chief of Staff, as well as many departments and special staffs. Each service branch is headed by their respective Chiefs of Staff; the Chief of Staff of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) (currently Gorō Yuasa), the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) (currently Hiroshi Yamamura), and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF) (currently Yoshinari Marumo).


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The "Chief of Staff, Joint Staff", a four star Admiral or General, is the highest-ranking military officer in the Japan Self-Defense Forces, and is the head of the Operational Authority over the Japan Self-Defense Forces, executing orders of the Minister of Defense with directions from the Prime Minister. The "Chief of Staff, Joint Staff" supervises the service branches operations, and would assume command in the event of a war, but his or her powers are limited to policy formation and defense coordination during peacetime.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The chain of Operational Authority runs from the "Chief of Staff, Joint Staff" to the Commanders of the several Operational Commands. Each service branches Chiefs of Staff (JGSDF, JMSDF, JASDF) have administrative control over their own services.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 4 December 2013, the National Security Council was established, with the aim of establishing a forum which will undertake strategic discussions under the Prime Minister on a regular basis and as necessary on various national security issues and exercising a strong political leadership.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 17 December 2013, National Security Strategy was adopted by Cabinet decision. NSS sets the basic orientation of diplomatic and defense policies related to national security. NSS presents the content of the policy of "Proactive Contribution to Peace" in a concrete manner and promotes better understanding of Japan's national security policy.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 25 July 2018, the Japanese government settled on a 3-year strategy to counter possible cyberattacks against key parts of the nation's infrastructure ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution prohibits Japan from establishing a military or solving international conflicts through violence. However, there has been widespread public debate since 2000 about the possibility of reducing or deleting Article 9 from the constitution. The article is interpreted as meaning that armed forces are legitimate for self-defense. This limits the capabilities of the JSDF as primarily for national defense. Currently, there are no long-range attack capabilities such as medium or Intercontinental ballistic missile. As of 2022, Japan was developing supersonic glide weapons with a range of more than 400 km and cruise missiles with a range of more than 1000 km. However, due to the constraints of the Constitution, these are not for preemptive attacks on other countries, but for counter-attacks.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In 1976, then Prime Minister Miki Takeo announced defense spending should be maintained within 1% of Japan's gross domestic product (GDP), a ceiling that was observed until 1986. As of 2005, Japan's military budget equalled about 3% of the national budget; about half is spent on personnel costs, while the rest is for weapons programs, maintenance and operating costs. As of 2011, Japan has the world's eighth-largest military budget.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The published military budget of Japan for 2015 was 4.98 trillion yen (approximately US$42 billion, and roughly 1% of Japanese GDP), a rise of 2.8 percent on the previous year.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: After the North Korean Kwangmyŏngsŏng-1 satellite launching in August 1998, which some regarded as a ballistic missile test, the Japanese government decided to participate in the American anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defense program. In August 1999, Japan, Germany and the US governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding of joint research and development on the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. In 2003, the Japanese government decided to deploy three types of ABM system, air defense vehicles, sea-based Aegis and land-based PAC-3 ABM.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The four Kongō class Aegis destroyers of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force were modified to accommodate the ABM operational capability. On 17 December 2007, successfully shot down a mock ballistic missile by its SM-3 Block IA, off the coast of Hawaii. The first PAC-3 (upgraded version of the MIM-104 Patriot) firing test by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force was carried out in New Mexico on 17 September 2008. PAC-3 units are deployed in 6 bases near metropolises, including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sapporo, Misawa and Okinawa.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Japan participates in the co-research and development of four Aegis components with the US: the nose cone, the infrared seeker, the kinetic warhead, and the second-stage rocket motor.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On 30 July 2018, Japan picked Lockheed Martin Corp to build a $1.2 billion radar for two ground-based Aegis ballistic missile defense stations. These are meant to guard against missile strikes. On the same day, Japan's Defense Ministry said to be considering to withdraw PAC3 missile interceptor units from the country's northern and western region amid an easing of tensions with North Korea. Ministry officials told that North Korea is less likely to fire ballistic missiles after it held a summit with the United States the previous month. But the officials also said the ministry will maintain its order to destroy any incoming missiles. They added that the ministry will be ready to quickly redeploy the PAC3 units if the situation changes.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: On August 31, 2022, the Japan Ministry of Defense announced that Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) will operate two "Aegis system equipped ships" (イージス・システム搭載艦 in Japanese) to replace its earlier cancellation of the Aegis Ashore program, commissioning one ship by the end of fiscal year 2027, and the other by the end of FY2028. The budget for design and other related expenses are to be submitted in the form of “item requests”, without specific amounts, and the initial procurement of the lead items are expected to clear legislation by FY2023. Construction is to begin in the following year of FY2024. At 20,000 tons each, both vessels will be the largest surface combatant warships operated by the JMSDF.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In light of tensions over the Senkaku Islands, Japan began to assemble the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade in 2016, its first marine unit since World War Two, designed to conduct amphibious operations and to recover any Japanese islands taken by an adversary.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade was activated on 7 April 2018, in a ceremony at JGSDF's Camp Ainoura in Sasebo, on the southwest island of Kyushu. The brigade was established to protect and defend Japanese or Japanese-claimed islands along the edge of the East China Sea as Chinese defense spending and interest in the area rose. Related to the defense of the southwestern islands, Japan has initiated a program to convert its Izumo-class destroyer two-ship fleet from "helicopter carrier destroyers" to aircraft carriers with a capability to launch the F-35B – to be the first Japanese aircraft carriers since World War II.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The JSDF's self-defence system is known as Jieitaikakutōjutsu (meaning "Japan Self-Defense Force Combatives" or "Self-Defense Forces martial arts".) The first system was adopted in 1959, based on the bayonet and knife techniques of used during Imperial Army times with an added hand-to-hand combat curriculum based on Nippon Kempo and Tomiki-Ryu Aikido (future Shodokan Aikido). The system was refined in 2006 to 2007, and the new system introduced in 2008 placed a new emphasis on throws and chokeholds, and more aggressive knife defense training.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The outer outline of specified quotas for personnel and equipment for each force that were deemed necessary to meet its tasks. Particular elements of each force's mission were also identified. The JGSDF was to defend against any ground invasion and threats to internal security, be able to deploy to any part of the nation, and protect the bases of all three services of the Self-Defense Forces. The JMSDF was to meet invasion by sea, sweep mines, patrol and survey the surrounding waters, and guard and defend coastal waters, ports, bays, and major straits. The JASDF was to provide aircraft, missile interception, fighter units for maritime and ground operations, air reconnaissance and transport for all forces, and maintain airborne and stationary early warning units.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The JSDF's disaster relief role is defined in Article 83 of the Self-Defense Forces Law of 1954, requiring units to respond to calls for assistance from prefectural governors to aid in fire suppression, search and rescue, and flood fighting through the reinforcement of embankments and levees. The JSDF has not been used in police actions, nor is it likely to be assigned any internal security tasks in the future.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In late June and early July 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet agreed to lift the long-term ban on engaging Japanese troops abroad, a prohibition dating to the end of the Second World War, in a bid to strengthen Japan's position against growing Chinese military aggression and North Korean nuclear weapons testing. Though these actions were considered to be in accordance with article 9 of the Japanese constitution forbidding the use of war as a means of settling disputes, the government signaled that it may seek to, in the future, reinterpret the prohibition.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In June 1992, the National Diet passed a UN Peacekeeping Cooperation Law which permitted the JSDF to participate in UN medical, refugee repatriation, logistical support, infrastructural reconstruction, election-monitoring, and policing operations under strictly limited conditions.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The non-combatant participation of the JSDF in the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in conjunction with Japanese diplomatic efforts contributed to the successful implementation of the 1991 Paris Peace Accords for Cambodia.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura had stated that discussions with Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura were taking place regarding the possibility of creating a permanent law for JSDF forces to be deployed in peacekeeping missions outside Japan. The adoption of a permanent peacekeeping law has been considered by the government, according to the Mainichi Daily News. In 2014, the LDP did not make progress due to concerns from Komeito that JSDF forces can be sent to a peacekeeping operation where Japan is not involved.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In 2004, the Japanese government ordered a deployment of troops to Iraq at the behest of the United States. A contingent of the Japan Self-Defense Forces was sent to assist in the U.S.-led Reconstruction of Iraq. This controversial deployment marked a significant turning point in Japan's history, as it marked the first time since the end of World War II that Japan sent troops abroad except for a few minor UN peacekeeping deployments. Public opinion regarding this deployment was sharply divided, especially given that Japan's military is constitutionally structured as solely a self-defense force, and operating in Iraq seemed at best tenuously connected to that mission. The Koizumi administration, however, decided to send troops to respond to a request from the US. Even though they deployed with their weapons, because of constitutional restraints, the troops were protected by Japanese Special Forces troops and Australian units. The Japanese soldiers were there purely for humanitarian and reconstruction work, and were prohibited from opening fire on Iraqi insurgents unless they were fired on first. Japanese forces withdrew from Iraq in 2006.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Japan provided logistics units for the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force Zone, which supervises the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, monitors Israeli and Syrian military activities, and assists local civilians.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Japanese forces are frequent among the international disaster relief teams, with deployments in Rwanda (1994), Honduras (1998), Turkey (1999), West Timor (1999–2000), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Iran (2003–2004), Thailand (2004–2005), Indonesia (2005), Russia (2005), Pakistan (2005), Indonesia (2006), Indonesia (2009), Haiti (2010), Pakistan (2010), New Zealand (2011). In the aftermath of an earthquake in Haiti, Japan deployed a contingent of troops, including engineers with bulldozers and heavy machinery, to assist the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti. Their duties were peacekeeping, removal of rubble, and the reconstruction of roads and buildings.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Self-Defense Forces have conducted overseas activities such as dispatching UN peacekeepers to Cambodia. In 2003, Japan created a law to deal with armed attacks and amended the Self-Defense Forces law. In 2004, Japan dispatched for two and a half years to the Samawa district of southern Iraq under the Special Measures for Iraqi Recovery Support Act.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force deployed a force off the coast of Somalia to protect Japanese ships from Somali Pirates. The force consists of two destroyers (manned by approximately 400 sailors), patrol helicopters, speedboats, eight officers of the Japan Coast Guard to collect criminal evidence and handle piracy suspects, a force of commandos from the elite Special Boarding Unit, and P-3 Orion patrol aircraft in the Gulf of Aden. On 19 June 2009, the Japanese Parliament finally passed an anti-piracy bill, which allows their force to protect non Japanese vessels. In May 2010, Japan announced it intended to build a permanent naval base in Djibouti to provide security for Japanese ships against Somali pirates.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Construction of the JSDF Counter-Piracy Facility in Djibouti commenced in July 2010, completed in June 2011 and opened on 1 July 2011. Initially, the base was to house approximately 170 JSDF personnel and include administrative, housing, medical, kitchen/dining, and recreational facilities as well as an aircraft maintenance hangar and parking apron. The base now houses approximately 200 personnel and two P-3C aircraft.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Since 1991, the Japan Self-Defense Forces have conducted international activities to provide support for peacekeeping missions and disaster relief efforts as well as to help prevent conflict and terrorism.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The arm of service to which members of the ground force are attached is indicated by branch insignia and piping of distinctive colors: for infantry, red; artillery, yellow; armor, orange; engineers, violet; ordnance, light green; medical, green; army aviation, light blue; signals, blue; quartermaster, brown; transportation, dark violet; airborne, white; and others, dark blue. The cap badge insignia the JGSDF is a sakura cherry blossom bordered with two ivy branches underneath, and a single chevron centered on the bottom between the bases of the branches; the JMSDF cap badge insignia consists of a fouled anchor underneath a cherry blossom bordered on the sides and bottom by ivy vines; and the JASDF cap badge insignia features a heraldic eagle under which is a star and crescent, which is bordered underneath with stylized wings. "(For more, see Defensive meritorious badge)"


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: There are nine officer ranks in the active JSDF, along with a warrant officer rank, five NCO ranks, and three enlisted ranks. The highest NCO rank, first sergeant (senior chief petty officer in the JMSDF and senior master sergeant in the JASDF), was established in 1980 to provide more promotion opportunities and shorter terms of service as sergeant first class, chief petty officer, or master sergeant. Under the earlier system, the average NCO was promoted only twice in approximately thirty years of service and remained at the top rank for almost ten years.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: As of 2016, the total strength of the JSDF was 247,154. In addition, the JSDF maintained a total of 47,900 reservists attached to the three services. The Japanese Constitution abolished conscription on 3 May 1947. Enlistment in the JSDF is voluntary at 18 years of age. As of 2017, roughly 37% of Japan's active military personnel were over 40 years old.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: When Japan's active and reserve components are combined, the country maintains a lower ratio of military personnel to its population than any member nation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Of the major Asian nations, only India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand keep a lower ratio of personnel in arms. Since India and Indonesia have much larger populations, they have larger numbers of personnel.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: JSDF uniformed personnel are recruited as self-defense official cadet for a fixed term. Ground forces recruits normally enlist for two years; those seeking training in technical specialties enlist for three. Naval and air recruits normally enlist for three years. Officer candidates, students in the National Defense Academy and National Defense Medical College, and candidate enlist students in technical schools are enrolled for an indefinite period. The National Defense Academy and enlisted technical schools usually require an enrollment of four years, and the National Defense Medical College require six years.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: When the JSDF was originally formed, women were recruited exclusively for the nursing services. Opportunities were expanded somewhat when women were permitted to join the JGSDF communication service in 1967 and the JMSDF and JASDF communication services in 1974. By 1991, more than 6,000 women were in the JSDF, about 80% of service areas, except those requiring direct exposure to combat, were open to them. The National Defense Medical College graduated its first class with women in March 1991, and the National Defense Academy began admitting women in FY 1992. In total, 20% of JSDF recruits are women. In one of its recent attempts to increase recruitment rates, its marketing campaigns have focused more on women. The JSDF's recruitment levels often fail to meet national targets. In 2018, the number of new recruits to the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force was below 60% of its annual goal.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: JSDF personnel benefits are not comparable to such benefits for active-duty military personnel in other major industrialized nations. Health care is provided at the JSDF Central Hospital, fourteen regional hospitals, and 165 clinics in military facilities and on board ship, but the health care only covers physical examinations and the treatment of illness and injury suffered on duty. There are no commissary or exchange privileges. Housing is often substandard, and military appropriations for facilities maintenance often focus on appeasing civilian communities near bases rather than on improving on-base facilities.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In 2010, Sapporo District Court fined the state after a female JASDF member was sexually assaulted by a colleague then forced to retire, while the perpetrator was suspended for 60 days.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Due to the strong anti-militarism and pacifism pervading Japan in the aftermath of World War II, the JSDF was the subject of public ridicule and disdain in its early years. The forces were called "tax thieves" and personnel in uniform were sometimes pelted with stones while out in public.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Appreciation of the JSDF continued to grow in the 1980s, with over half of the respondents in a 1988 survey voicing an interest in the JSDF and over 76% indicating that they were favourably impressed. Although the majority (63.5%) of respondents were aware that the primary purpose of the JSDF was maintenance of national security, an even greater number (77%) saw disaster relief as the most useful JSDF function. The JSDF therefore continued to devote much of its time and resources to disaster relief and other civic action. Between 1984 and 1988, at the request of prefectural governors, the JSDF assisted in approximately 3,100 disaster relief operations, involving about 138,000 personnel, 16,000 vehicles, 5,300 aircraft, and 120 ships and small craft. The disaster relief operations increased its favorability with the public. In addition, the JSDF participated in earthquake disaster prevention operations and disposed of a large quantity of World War II explosive ordnance, especially in Okinawa Prefecture. The forces also participated in public works projects, cooperated in managing athletic events, took part in annual Antarctic expeditions, and conducted aerial surveys to report on ice conditions for fishermen and on geographic formations for construction projects. Especially sensitive to maintaining harmonious relations with communities close to defense bases, the JSDF built new roads, irrigation networks, and schools in those areas. Soundproofing was installed in homes and public buildings near airfields.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In terms of public opinion regarding the JSDF in relation to its role in Japan's national security, an analysis of surveys on public opinion towards the JSDF found broad support for the JSDF as part of a "reassurance strategy," and noted specifically that support for the JSDF is related to individuals' exposure to war memories through family members and war memorials. The analysis finds that "exposures to war memories through various venues enhance Japanese citizens’ support for the SDF’s reassurance strategy in which the SDF issues peaceful signals toward other countries in the region."


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: Since the establishment of the National Police Reserve in 1950, 1,964 National Police Reserve, National Security Forces, and Self-Defense Force personnel died in the line of duty until 2021. The 6,000 square meters Memorial Zone is on the east-side of the Ministry of Defense headquarters in Ichigaya. It features the martyr to duty cenotaph of the Self Defense Forces. 16 memorial monuments scattered in the Ichigaya area were collected and transferred to this place. The cenotaph for the martyrs of the Self-Defense Forces faces the direction of the Yasukuni Shrine, but it is unaffiliated. As a general rule, the memorial ceremony for those who died in the service of the Self-Defense Forces is held here.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The celebrates the foundation of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. It is celebrated every year in Japan since 1966. The JGSDF, JMSDF and JASDF hold annual reviews in rotation. There is also a three-day music event called the JSDF Marching Festival. The date varies per year.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The 28th Fleet Review was held in Sagami Bay on 18 October 2015. 42 vessels participated in the celebratory cruise including the and six vessels from Australia, France, India, the Republic of Korea, and the United States. 37 aircraft from the JASDF and the U.S. forces flew over.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: During the 2018 Self-Defense Forces Day, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reviewed JSDF members at Camp Asaka. There were 4,000 troops, 260 tanks and other military vehicles and 40 warplanes. Abe said that they have gained public trust and it is the responsibility of politicians to revise the 1947 constitution to mention the JSDF and give them a sense of pride.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The is the JSDF's largest music event held annually around November. It usually takes place in Nippon Budokan for three days. It also features guest bands from other countries. It was established in 1963. It is one of the oldest military tattoos in the Asia-Pacific region.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: In 2014, the JGSDF Central Band, the JMSDF Tokyo Band, the JASDF Central Band, and the JGSDF Northern and Eastern Army Bands participated as well as special guest bands from the United States Army, Japan, the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force, the Australian Army, and the Philippine Marine Corps. There were band performances, honor guard display by the 302nd Military Police Company, a drill by the National Defense Academy and taiko drum performance by the JSDF Drum Teams.


title: Japan Self-Defense Forces

text: The is the JGSDF's largest annual live-fire drill. It began in 1961 and is open to the public since 1966 to deepen the public's understanding of the JSDF. On 26 August 2018, it was held in front of the defense minister and 24,000 spectators at the East Fuji Maneuver Area in Gotemba near the foot of Mount Fuji. That was the first time that the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade participated. The drill was based on a scenario of Japanese troops being deployed to recover far-flung islands from enemy forces. It involved about 2,400 troops, 80 tanks and armored vehicles, 60 artillery shells and 20 helicopters and fighter jets.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performances: he played the didgeridoo; is credited with the invention of the wobble board; and is associated with the stylophone. Harris was convicted in 2014 of the sexual assault of four underage girls, which effectively ended his career.


title: Rolf Harris

text: As a teenager, Harris was a champion swimmer. He began his career in television, music, and art in the 1950s, releasing several songs including "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" (a Top 10 hit in Australia, the UK, and the US), "Jake the Peg", and his recording of "Two Little Boys" (which reached number 1 in the UK). During the 1960s and 1970s, Harris became a successful television personality in the UK, later presenting shows such as "Rolf's Cartoon Club" and "Animal Hospital". In 1985, he hosted the short educational film "Kids Can Say No!", which warned children between ages five and eight how to avoid situations where they might be sexually abused, how to escape such situations, and how to get help if they are abused. In 2005, Harris painted an official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. He lived in Bray, Berkshire, England, for more than six decades.


title: Rolf Harris

text: After the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal broke in late 2012, Harris was arrested as part of the Operation Yewtree police investigation. He was questioned in May 2013 regarding historical allegations of sexual offences. Harris denied any wrongdoing, and was bailed without charge. In August 2013, Harris was again arrested by Operation Yewtree officers and charged with nine counts of indecent assault dating to the 1980s, involving two girls between 14 and 16 years old, and four counts alleging production of indecent child images in 2012.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In July 2014, at the age of 84, Harris was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison on twelve counts of indecent assault on four female victims during the 1970s and 1980s. He was released on licence in 2017 after serving nearly three years at HM Prison Stafford. Following his conviction, Harris was stripped of many of the honours that he had been awarded during his career, and reruns of television programs featuring Harris were pulled from syndication. One count, that Harris indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl in Portsmouth, was overturned as unsafe in 2017. Harris applied for permission to appeal against his convictions concerning the three remaining girls, but permission was refused.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris was born on 30 March 1930 in Bassendean, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, to Agnes Margaret ("née" Robbins) and Cromwell ("Crom") Harris, who had both emigrated from Cardiff, Wales. He grew up in Wembley, Perth. He was named after Rolf Boldrewood, the pseudonym of an Australian writer whom his mother admired. After his later fame, Harris was often referred to as "the boy from Bassendean" within Australia. As a child he owned a dog called Buster Fleabags, about whom he later wrote a book (for the UK Quick Reads Initiative).


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris attended Bassendean State School and Perth Modern School in Subiaco, later gaining a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia and a Diploma of Education from Claremont Teachers' College (now Edith Cowan University). While he was just 16, and still a student at Perth Modern School, his self-portrait in oils was one of the 80 works (out of 200 submitted) accepted to be hung in the Art Gallery of New South Wales as an entry in the 1947 Archibald Prize. He painted a portrait of the then Lieutenant Governor of Western Australia, Sir James Mitchell, for the 1948 Archibald Prize. He won the 1949 Claude Hotchin prize for oil colours with his landscape "On a May Morning, Guildford".


title: Rolf Harris

text: As an adolescent and young adult Harris was a champion swimmer. In 1946, he was the Australian Junior Backstroke Champion. He was also the Western Australian state champion over a variety of distances and strokes during the period from 1948 to 1952.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris moved to England in 1952 and became an art student at City and Guilds of London Art School in South London, at the age of 22. In 1953 he found work in television, at the BBC, performing a regular ten-minute cartoon drawing section in a one-hour children's show called "Jigsaw", with a puppet called "Fuzz", made and operated on the show by magician Robert Harbin. He went on to illustrate Harbin's "Paper Magic" programme in 1956. In 1954, Harris was a regular on a BBC Television programme "Whirligig", which featured a character called "Willoughby", who sprang to life on a drawing board, but was erased at the end of each episode.


title: Rolf Harris

text: By this stage, Harris had drifted away from art school as a slightly disillusioned student. He then met his longtime hero, Australian impressionist painter Hayward Veal (1913–1968), who became his mentor, teaching him the rudiments of impressionism and showing him how it could help with his portrait painting. At the time that he was working with Veal, Harris was also entertaining with his piano accordion every Thursday night at a club called the Down Under, frequented by Australians and New Zealanders. At the Down Under venue Harris honed his entertainment skills over several years, eventually writing what later became his theme song, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport".


title: Rolf Harris

text: Although Harris chiefly appeared on the BBC, he was also on the British ITV network, and when commercial television started in 1955, he was the only entertainer to work with both the BBC and ITV. He performed on the BBC with his own creation, Willoughby, a specially made board on which he drew Willoughby (voiced and operated by Peter Hawkins). The character would then come to life to engage in a comedic dialogue with Harris as he drew cartoons of Willoughby's antics. On Associated Rediffusion's "Small Time", Harris invented a character called Oliver Polip the Octopus, which he drew on the back of his hand and animated. Harris then illustrated the character's adventures with cartoons on huge sheets of card.


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 1 March 1958, in London, Harris married Alwen Hughes, a Welsh sculptor and jeweller, while they were both art students. At their wedding, they had a dog as bridesmaid.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris returned to Perth in Australia when television was introduced there in 1959 after he was headhunted. He subsequently produced and starred in five episodes of a half-hour weekly children's show, as well as his own weekly evening variety show. From 1959, he worked on TVW-7's first locally produced show, "Spotlight", and during this time he recorded "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" on a single microphone placed above him in the television studio.


title: Rolf Harris

text: The song was sent to EMI in Sydney, Australia, and was released shortly afterwards as a record, becoming both his first recording and his first number one single. The song was successful in the UK. Harris offered four local backing musicians 10% of the royalties from the song, but they decided to take a recording fee of £7 each, because they did not think the song would be successful. The novelty song was originally titled "Kangalypso" and featured the distinctive sound of the "wobble board".


title: Rolf Harris

text: The fourth verse – "Let me abos go loose, Lou/Let me abos go loose/They're of no further use, Lou/So let me abos go loose" – became increasingly controversial, because of the use of what later became regarded as a racial slur, and was removed in later versions of the song. In 2006, four decades after the song's release, Harris expressed his regret about the original lyric.


title: Rolf Harris

text: At the end of 1960, he toured Australia sponsored by Dulux paints and singing his hit song whilst doing huge paintings on stage with Dulux emulsion paint. While painting on stage, one of his catchphrases was, "Can you tell what it is yet?" After Harris and his wife returned to England, they visited Perth to meet family and for tours of Australia, where he spent as much as four months travelling with his band. In 1964, he and his wife had a daughter, Bindi (born 10 March 1964), named for the town of Bindi Bindi.


title: Rolf Harris

text: After returning to the UK in 1962, he was introduced to George Martin, who re-recorded all of his songs the following year, including a remake of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" which became a huge hit in the US, and "Sun Arise", an Aboriginal-inspired song Harris had written with Perth naturalist Harry Butler. The song reached number two in the UK charts. Harris met and worked with the Beatles after they started recording with Martin, and he compèred their 16-night season of Christmas shows at London's Finsbury Park Astoria Theatre (now the Rainbow Theatre) in 1963. Harris sang "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", with the Beatles singing backing vocals, for the first edition of the "From Us to You" BBC radio show in December 1963. Harris changed the original lyrics to create a version that was specially written for the Beatles.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris was the presenter of "Hi There" and "Hey Presto it's Rolf" in 1964. By the time "The Rolf Harris Show" was broadcast in 1967, lasting until 1974, on BBC1, he had gained a high profile on British television. He was the commentator for the United Kingdom in the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris created one of his best known characters in the 1960s, Jake the Peg, but his biggest success in terms of record sales was in 1969, with his rendering of the American Civil War song "Two Little Boys", originally written in 1902. Harris later discovered a personal poignancy to the song, as the story bears such a resemblance to the World War I experiences of his father Crom, and Crom's beloved younger brother Carl, who died at the age of 19 after being wounded in battle in France two weeks before the Armistice of November 1918. "Two Little Boys" was the Christmas Number One song in the UK charts for six weeks in 1969. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, his BBC TV programmes remained a light-entertainment staple, with the last show, "Rolf on Saturday OK?", broadcast on Saturday evenings. On many of his television appearances, Harris painted pictures on large boards in an apparently slapdash manner, with the odd nonsense song thrown in, asking "Can you tell what is it yet?" as he painted. Only at the end of the song would a fully formed picture emerge, sometimes only after the board was turned through 90 or 180 degrees. Such appearances led to several television series based on his artistic ability, such as "Rolf's Cartoon Time", broadcast on BBC One from 1979 to 1989, and "Rolf's Cartoon Club", on CITV between 1989 and 1993. In the early 1980s, he starred in his own weekly Australian television series, The Rolf Harris Show, produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The series featured numerous guests, including regulars such as Jane Scali. During the show Harris would also paint Australian bush scenes.


title: Rolf Harris

text: He was the subject of "This Is Your Life" in December 1971, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews in New Bond Street in London, UK. In 1973, Harris performed the first concert in the Concert Hall of the newly completed Sydney Opera House. On his 1974 single "Papillon" (issued by EMI), a cover of a German song for which he wrote an English lyric, he played autoharp, in addition to singing. He played the didgeridoo on two albums by English pop singer Kate Bush, entitled "The Dreaming" (1982) and "Aerial" (2005); he also contributed vocals to the songs "An Architect's Dream" and "The Painter's Link" on "Aerial". Harris was again the subject of the UK version of "This Is Your Life" in September 1995, when Michael Aspel surprised him during a bagpipes parade in Edinburgh, Scotland. He also appeared on the Australian version of the television programme on two occasions.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In the late 1980s, Harris was touring in Australia and was asked to sing his own version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" for the television programme "The Money or the Gun" performing with his own small group; a version was released as a single in the UK several years later. This cover version reached number seven in the charts, which led to his appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in 1993. Harris appeared at six subsequent Glastonbury festivals—1998, 2000, 2002, 2009, 2010 and 2013—and a wobble board Harris used to perform "Stairway to Heaven" on "Top of the Pops" is an exhibit at the National Museum of Australia. In 2000, Harris, along with Steve Lima, released a dance track called "Fine Day", which entered the "top 30" in the UK charts at that time. A "Killie-themed" version of the song was scheduled for release in March 2007, to coincide with the Scottish football club Kilmarnock's appearance in the Scottish League Cup final after the song was adopted by the club's fans in 2003. One of the adapted lyrics referred to a hypothetical situation, in which Kilmarnock could be losing the match 5–0, and the club coincidentally lost 5–1. Harris performed "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" in 2000 with the Australian children's group the Wiggles, he was subsequently digitally removed from DVD releases after his conviction.


title: Rolf Harris

text: From 1994 to 2003, Harris was the host of the reality television programme "Animal Hospital", a chronicle of a British veterinary practice. During his time hosting the series, he adopted an abandoned English Bull Terrier from the practice named "Dolly". Harris presented 19 series of "Animal Hospital" for BBC One and the show won the "Most Popular Factual Entertainment Show" award at the National TV Awards on five occasions. Harris eventually announced that it was "time to move on" at the completion of the series, which broke "the hearts of thousands of fans across the country", according to the "Radio Times".


title: Rolf Harris

text: In 2001 and 2004, Harris presented "Rolf on Art", a television series that highlighted the work of a selection of his favourite artists, including van Gogh, Degas, Monet and Gauguin. In November and December 2002, under the direction of Charles Saumarez Smith, London's National Gallery exhibited a collection of Harris's art.


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 26 September 2004, Harris oversaw a project to recreate John Constable's "The Hay Wain" painting on a large scale, with 150 people contributing to a small section. On live BBC television, each individual canvas was assembled into the full picture as part of the episode "Rolf on Art: The Big Event". Also in 2004, as a part of the "Rolf on Art" series, Harris travelled to Lapland to design and paint a Christmas card for the "Children in Need" charity organisation.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris presented three series of the BBC art programme "Star Portraits with Rolf Harris", with the first and second series airing in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Following the first series, a touring exhibition—featuring portraits of Cilla Black, Michael Parkinson and Adrian Edmondson—was organised with County Hall Gallery. In 2001, Harris had said he always imagined he would eventually become a portrait painter as his grandfather, George Frederick Harris, had been.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris was commissioned to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II for her 80th birthday. The painting was conducted at Buckingham Palace and was unveiled there by Harris on 19 December 2005. The painting also became the subject of a special episode of "Rolf on Art". Harris explained to "The Daily Telegraph" the following year: "I was as nervous as anything. I was in a panic". The portrait was later voted as the second most-favoured portrait of the Queen by the British public.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In September 2006, the Royal Australian Mint launched the first of the new 2007 Silver Kangaroo Collector's Coin series and Harris was commissioned to design the first coin of the series. In January 2007, a one-hour documentary titled "A Lifetime in Paint", about Harris's work as an artist—from his early years in Australia to the present day—was screened on BBC One.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In 2007 Harris participated in the BBC Wales programme "Coming Home", in which he discussed his Welsh family history. In December 2007 a new DVD, titled "Rolf Live!", was released through his website, while "Rolf on Art: Beatrix Potter" was screened on BBC One during the same month. Harris appeared with a wobble board in a Churchill Insurance advertisement in 2009, and hosted the satirical quiz show "Have I Got News for You" in May 2009.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris was narrator of the 2010 Australian documentary series "Penguin Island", a six-part natural history documentary about the life of the little penguin. From September 2010 to October 2010, he took part in "Jamie's Dream School", teaching art to a class of 20 students, followed by an appearance as himself on the Christmas special of "My Family", which aired on 24 December 2010.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris performed on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival on 25 June 2010, during the festival's 40th birthday, followed by an appearance at the Bestival Festival on the Isle of Wight in September 2010. On 5 August 2011, Harris played at Wickham Festival in Wickham, Hampshire, and also appeared on the Wiggles' 2011 DVD release "Ukulele Baby", singing and performing the song "Good Ship Fabulous Flea" with his wobble board. In 2011 Harris made a guest appearance on BBC One's "The Magicians", hosted by Lenny Henry. On 5 November 2011, Harris appeared in an episode of "Piers Morgan's Life Stories", in which he wept as he spoke about a period in which he felt his "life was over": "I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know what to think. I now know what people mean when they say, 'I've got clinical depression.' I'd never felt so low. There's no way to come out of the blackness. I felt out of control". Harris also stated that he regrets missing so much of his daughter's childhood.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In December 2011, Harris's portrait of Bonnie Tyler was valued at an estimated £50,000 on BBC's "The Antiques Roadshow". From 19 May to 12 August 2012, a major retrospective of Harris's paintings, titled "Rolf Harris: Can You Tell What It Is Yet?", was exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. The opening day yielded the busiest Saturday on record, with visitor figures peaking at 3,632.


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 2 May 2012, Harris appeared on "The One Show", in which he described his artistic style as being "impressionistic". On 4 June 2012, he performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert outside Buckingham Palace.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In October 2012, Harris started presenting a series on Channel 5, based at Liverpool University's Veterinary School, called "Rolf's Animal Clinic". At the time of his arrest by British police on suspicion of sexual offences, the show was broadcasting a repeat run and was consequently ceased without any details of its future. As of 8 August 2013, Channel 5 has recommissioned the show under a new title, "Ben Fogle's Animal Clinic", and has replaced Harris with former BBC host Ben Fogle.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris has released 30 studio albums, two live albums and 48 singles. In 1960 his single "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" reached number 1 in Australia, and in 1969 "Two Little Boys" reached number 1 on both the Irish and UK charts. His 1992 "Rolf Rules OK?" album was nominated for the ARIA Music Award for Best Comedy Release.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris is credited with inventing a simple homemade instrument called the wobble board. As well as his beatboxing, similar to eefing, Harris went on to use an array of unusual instruments in his music, including the didgeridoo (the sound of which was imitated on "Sun Arise" by four double basses), the Jew's harp and, later, the stylophone (for which he also lent his name and likeness for advertising).


title: Rolf Harris

text: His version of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", featuring didgeridoo and wobble board, reached the UK top ten in 1993. Harris also recorded a version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and performed the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself", accompanied only by his wobble board, for "Denton's Musical Challenge" on MMM radio's "Breakfast Show" (the recording was released on the first Musical Challenge compilation album in 2000). Harris also recorded an Australian Christmas song called "Six White Boomers", about a joey kangaroo trying to find his mother during the Christmas period. The song describes how Santa Claus used six large male kangaroos ("boomers"), instead of reindeer. In October 2008 Harris announced he would re-record his popular 1969 song "Two Little Boys", backed by North Wales' Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir, to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. Proceeds from the release were donated to the Poppy Appeal. Harris was inspired to make the recording after participating in "My Family at War", a short series of programs that aired during the BBC's "Remembrance" season, broadcast in November 2008. He discovered that the experiences of his father and uncle during the Great War mirrored the lyrics of the song.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In March 2013, Harris was one of twelve people arrested during Operation Yewtree, for questioning regarding historical allegations of sexual offences. The allegations were not linked to those made against media personality Jimmy Savile, and Harris denied any wrongdoing. He was bailed without charge, did not comment publicly on the allegations, and was understood to have denied them strongly. When returning to the stage in May 2013 for the first time since his arrest, he thanked the audience for their support.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In August 2013, Harris was again arrested by Operation Yewtree officers and charged with nine counts of indecent assault dating to the 1980s, involving two girls between 14 and 16 years old, and four counts alleging production of indecent child images in 2012. The Crown Prosecution Service's Alison Saunders explained to the media:


title: Rolf Harris

text: Having completed our review, we have concluded there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest for Mr Harris to be charged ... The decision has been taken in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors and the Director of Public Prosecutions's interim guidelines on prosecuting cases of child sexual abuse. We have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction and that a prosecution is in the public interest.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 23 September 2013, charged with nine counts of indecent assault and four counts of making indecent images of children. His lawyer indicated that Harris would plead not guilty and he was subsequently bailed. In December 2013, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed that Harris was facing three further counts of sexual assault. The CPS said that the new charges were of alleged assault against females aged nineteen in 1984, aged seven or eight in 1968 or 1969, and aged fourteen in 1975. At a further hearing at Southwark Crown Court on 14 January 2014, Harris pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.


title: Rolf Harris

text: The four counts of making indecent images were related to the Protection of Children Act 1978, which interprets viewing images on a computer as making images. The charges were brought after detectives examined Harris' computer and found 33 images of possibly underage models among thousands of adult pornographic images. Harris never entered a plea on the charges, as his lawyers argued successfully that the charges should be severed from the twelve sexual assault charges and tried separately. In the aftermath of Harris' conviction, it was reported that his legal team had obtained the identity documents of the models involved, confirming they were adults over eighteen. The websites Harris had visited, according to the Internet Watch Foundation, are not known for illegal images of children. The prosecution informed the court that they would not be proceeding with the indecent images charges.


title: Rolf Harris

text: The trial of Harris began on 6 May 2014 at Southwark Crown Court. Seven of the twelve charges involved allegations of a sexual relationship between Harris and one of his daughter's friends. Six charges related to when she was between the ages of 13 and 15, and one when she was 19. Harris denied that he had entered into a sexual relationship with the girl until she was 18. During the trial, a letter Harris had written to the girl's father in 1997 after the end of the relationship was shown in court, saying: "I fondly imagined that everything that had taken place had progressed from a feeling of love and friendship—there was no rape, no physical forcing, brutality or beating that took place."


title: Rolf Harris

text: Three charges related to the assault of a 15-year-old Australian girl visiting the UK in 1986. One charge was that he sexually assaulted an eight-year-old girl who asked for his autograph at a community centre in Hampshire in 1968 or 1969. When questioned by police about this allegation, Harris replied "I would simply never touch a child inappropriately." Harris was also accused of groping the bottom of a 14-year-old girl at a celebrity "It's a Knockout" event in Cambridge in 1975. He denied that he had visited Cambridge until four years before the trial, but television archive material was produced in court showing that he had taken part in an episode of the ITV show "Star Games", which had been filmed in Cambridge in 1978. Harris denied that he had told a deliberate lie and said that his failure to remember the show was "a lapse of memory." Additional witnesses who claimed to have been assaulted in Malta, New Zealand, and Australia were called to testify against Harris, although these charges could not be pursued in the British courts.


title: Rolf Harris

text: After several delays in the trial, in which the judge's summing-up took three days, the jury retired to consider its verdict on 19 June 2014. On 30 June, Harris was found guilty of all 12 counts of indecent assault.


title: Rolf Harris

text: At Southwark Crown Court on 4 July 2014, Mr Justice Sweeney sentenced Harris to a total of five years and nine months in prison. When passing sentence, the judge said to Harris: "You have shown no remorse for your crimes at all. Your reputation now lies in ruins, you have been stripped of your honours but you have no one to blame but yourself." Some sentences were expected to run consecutively, and Harris was expected to serve half of his sentence in prison. He was told he must pay prosecution costs, though not compensation to the victims. The sentence was referred to the Attorney General Dominic Grieve after complaints that it was too lenient. On 30 July 2014, the new Attorney General, Jeremy Wright, announced that he would not be referring the sentence to the Court of Appeal for review "as he did not think they would find it to be unduly lenient and increase it. The sentencing judge was bound by the maximum sentence in force at the time of the offending."


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 1 August 2014, the Judicial Office said that Harris had applied to appeal against his conviction and that his lawyers had lodged papers at the Court of Appeal. In October 2014, Harris was refused permission to appeal, and could apply again before three judges. Harris did not lodge an appeal within the required 28 days, or ask for an extension.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Following his conviction, it was reported in July 2014, October 2014 and February 2015 that he was being investigated by police over other alleged sexual offences.


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 14 June 2015, "The Mail on Sunday" published a letter, claimed to have been written by Harris in HM Prison Stafford and sent to one of his friends. It contained song lyrics that were highly abusive towards his female accusers. Harris was accused by Liz Dux, lawyer for the women who gave evidence, of victim blaming. In response to the lyrics one of the victims said, "What he did was damage young women's self-worth, their confidence and, for some of those women, he affected them deeply for the rest of their lives." The publication of the letter led Dux to question whether Harris should get parole:


title: Rolf Harris

text: Vanessa Feltz has alleged that he sexually assaulted her while she interviewed him live on the bed during an edition of Channel 4 morning programme "The Big Breakfast".


title: Rolf Harris

text: Linda Nolan has alleged that he groped her when she was only 15, when the Nolan sisters were his support act.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris served his sentence at HM Prison Stafford. He was released on 19 May 2017, after serving three years of his sentence of five years and nine months.


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 12 February 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that Harris would face seven further indecent assault charges. The offences allegedly occurred between 1971 and 2004 and involve seven complainants who were aged between 12 and 27 at the time. Harris pleaded not guilty to all of the charges via videolink at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 17 March and was told to appear at Southwark Crown Court on 14 April. On 14 April, he pleaded not guilty to seven charges of indecent assault and one charge of sexual assault.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris's trial began on 9 January 2017, with him appearing and watching by videolink from Stafford Prison. Harris did not have to attend in person because of his age and poor health. The prosecution started its case on 11 January; the allegations involved unwanted groping. Unlike at the previous trial, Harris did not give any evidence. His defence said that the jury in the first trial "got it wrong" and that the ensuing media frenzy "made him vulnerable to people making accusations against him". On 8 February, Harris was acquitted of three charges. Judge Alistair McCreath discharged the jury from deliberating on the further four counts of which he was accused.


title: Rolf Harris

text: The prosecution team asked for one week to decide if it would apply for a retrial. On 15 February, it was announced he would face a retrial for three offences, and one new charge (to which he pleaded not guilty). His retrial began on 15 May. On 30 May, the jury were unable to reach verdicts and the prosecution announced that they would not pursue another retrial.


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 16 November 2017, Harris's conviction on the charge that he had indecently assaulted an eight-year-old girl at a community centre in Portsmouth in 1969 was overturned on the grounds that it was unsafe. The Court of Appeal dismissed applications to challenge the other eleven convictions from the 2014 trial.


title: Rolf Harris

text: On 4 August 2022, ITV announced that it had commissioned a two-part documentary featuring interviews with Harris's victims, police investigators and colleagues. Made by Optomen and given the working title of "Rolf Harris: Hiding In Plain Sight", the two 60-minute episodes for ITVX are executive-produced by Tina Flintoff and Nick Hornby.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris received multiple awards and honours, but following his conviction many of these were rescinded. Harris was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1968; he was advanced to Officer (OBE) in 1977, then to Commander (CBE) in 2006, but these honours were revoked in March 2015.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In 1986, Harris planted a "Cathormion umbellatum" tree at Kununurra's celebrity tree park. The plaque recording the planting was stolen in July 2014, a week before the local council voted to keep it. The council, however, felt that ongoing vandalism at the park made it unlikely that the plaque would be replaced.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In 1989, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), and was advanced to Officer (AO) in the Queen's 2012 Birthday Honours. These appointments were rescinded in February 2015.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In 2001, he was awarded the Centenary Medal "for service to entertainment, charity and the community". On 30 July 2014, the board of the National Trust of Australia (New South Wales) voted to remove Harris from the list of those honoured as "Australian National Living Treasures" and to withdraw the award. Harris had been among the original 100 Australians selected for the Medal in 1997.


title: Rolf Harris

text: Harris received two honorary doctorates: from the University of East London in 2007 and Liverpool Hope University in 2010. Both were rescinded following his indecent assault conviction.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In 2008, Harris was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. He was joined onstage by the Seekers to perform "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" and his "Jake the Peg" routine. After his conviction, the Australian Recording Industry Association removed him from the ARIA Hall of Fame.


title: Rolf Harris

text: The same year, to coincide with the release of "Art: The Definitive Visual Guide", publishers Dorling Kindersley conducted the "What the British really think about art today" survey and placed Harris above notable English artist Damien Hirst.


title: Rolf Harris

text: In 2011, Harris was awarded the title of "Best Selling Published Artist" by the Fine Art Trade Guild. He was made a Fellow of BAFTA the following year, but following his conviction, the academy announced that his fellowship would be annulled. In July 2014, Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir announced that Harris's honorary vice-presidency had been annulled.


title: Rolf Harris

text: The ARIA Music Awards are a set of annual ceremonies presented by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), which recognise excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe organised by UEFA. It was held in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016. Spain were the two-time defending champions, having won the 2008 and 2012 tournaments, but were eliminated in the round of 16 by Italy. Portugal won the tournament for the first time, following a 1–0 victory after extra time over the host team, France, in the final played at the Stade de France.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: For the first time, the European Championship final tournament was contested by 24 teams, having been expanded from the 16-team format used since 1996. Under the new format, the finalists contested a group stage consisting of six groups of four teams, followed by a knockout phase including three rounds and the final. Nineteen teams – the top two from each of the nine qualifying groups and the best third-placed team – joined France in the final tournament, who qualified automatically as host; a series of two-legged play-off ties between the remaining third-placed teams in November 2015 decided the last four finalist spots.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: France was chosen as the host nation on 28 May 2010, after a bidding process in which they beat Italy and Turkey for the right to host the 2016 finals. The matches were played in ten stadiums in ten cities: Bordeaux, Lens, Lille Métropole, Décines-Charpieu, Marseille, Nice, Paris, Saint-Denis, Saint-Étienne, and Toulouse. It was the third time that France hosted the finals, after the inaugural tournament in 1960 and the 1984 finals.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Four bids came before the deadline on 9 March 2009. France, Italy and Turkey put in single bids while Norway and Sweden put in a joint bid. Norway and Sweden eventually withdrew their bid in December 2009.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The qualifying draw took place at the Palais des Congrès Acropolis in Nice, on 23 February 2014, with the first matches being played in September 2014.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: 53 teams competed for 23 places in the final tournament to join France, who automatically qualified as hosts. Gibraltar competed in a European Championship qualifying for the first time since their affiliation to UEFA in 2013. The seeding pots were formed on the basis of the UEFA national team coefficients, with the Euro 2012 champions Spain and hosts France automatically top seeded.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The 53 national sides were drawn into eight groups of six teams and one group of five teams. The group winners, runners-up, and the best third-placed team (with the results against the sixth-placed team discarded) qualify directly for the final tournament. The remaining eight third-placed teams contested two-legged play-offs to determine the last four qualifiers.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: In March 2012, Gianni Infantino, the UEFA general secretary at the time, stated that UEFA would review the qualification competition to ensure that it was not "boring". In September 2011, during UEFA's first full strategy meeting, Michel Platini proposed a qualification format involving two group stages, but the member associations did not accept the proposal. In May 2013, Platini confirmed a similar qualifying format would be again discussed during the September 2013 UEFA executive committee meeting in Dubrovnik.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Thirteen of the sixteen teams (including hosts France) that qualified for Euro 2012 qualified again for the 2016 final tournament. Among them were England, who became only the sixth team to record a flawless qualifying campaign (10 wins in 10 matches), defending European champions Spain, and world champions Germany, who qualified for their 12th straight European Championship finals.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Romania, Turkey, Austria and Switzerland all returned after missing out in 2012, with the Austrians qualifying for just their second final Euro tournament, after having co-hosted Euro 2008. Returning to the final tournament after long absences were Belgium for the first time since co-hosting Euro 2000, and Hungary for the first time in 44 years, having last appeared at Euro 1972, and 30 years since appearing in a major tournament, their previous one being the 1986 FIFA World Cup.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Five teams secured their first qualification to a UEFA European Championship final tournament: Albania, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales. Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Wales had each previously competed in the FIFA World Cup, while Albania and Iceland had never participated in a major tournament. Similarly, both Austria and Ukraine completed successful qualification campaigns for the first time, having only previously qualified as hosts (of 2008 and 2012 respectively).


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Scotland were the only team from the British Isles not to qualify for the finals, and it also marked the first time that both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland qualified for the same major tournament finals. Greece, champions in 2004, finished bottom in their group and failed to qualify for the first time since 2000. Two other previous champions, the Netherlands (1988) and Denmark (1992), missed out on the finals. The Dutch team failed to qualify for the first time since Euro 1984 (also held in France), missing out on their first major tournament since the 2002 FIFA World Cup and only 16 months after having finished third at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Denmark did not appear at the Euro finals for the first time since 2008, after losing in the play-off round against Sweden.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The draw for the finals took place at the Palais des Congrès de la Porte Maillot in Paris on 12 December 2015, 18:00 CET. The 24 qualified teams were drawn into six groups of four teams, with the hosts France being automatically placed in position A1. The remaining teams were seeded into four pots of five (Pot 1) or six teams (Pots 2, 3 and 4). As the title holders, Spain were seeded in Pot 1, while the other 22 teams were seeded according to the UEFA national team coefficients updated after the completion of the qualifying group stage (excluding the play-offs), which were released by UEFA on 14 October 2015.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Teams were drawn consecutively into Group A to F. First, the Pot 1 teams were assigned to the first positions of their groups, while next the positions of all other teams were drawn separately from Pot 4 to 2 (for the purposes of determining the match schedules in each group).


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Ten stadiums were used for the competition. Initially, twelve stadiums were presented for the French bid, chosen on 28 May 2010. These venues were to be whittled down to nine by the end of May 2011, but it was suggested in June 2011 that eleven venues might be used. The French Football Federation had to choose which nine would actually be used.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The choice for the first seven was undisputed – the national Stade de France, four newly constructed ones in Lille Metropole (Villeneuve-d'Ascq), Décines-Charpieu (Lyon Metropolis), Nice and Bordeaux, and two stadiums in the two largest cities, Paris and Marseille. After Strasbourg opted out for financial reasons following relegation, two more venues were selected to be Lens and Nancy, leaving Saint-Étienne and Toulouse as reserve options.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: In June 2011, the number of host venues was increased to eleven due to the new tournament format featuring 24 teams, instead of the previous 16. The decision meant that the reserve cities of Toulouse and Saint-Étienne joined the list of hosts. Then, in December 2011, Nancy announced its withdrawal from the tournament, after plans for the stadium's renovation were cancelled, finalising the list of host venues at ten.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Two other possible options, the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes and the Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier (venues which were used for the 1998 World Cup) were not chosen. The final list was confirmed by the UEFA Executive Committee on 25 January 2013. Capacity figures are those for matches at UEFA Euro 2016 and are not necessarily the total capacity that the venues are capable of holding.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Each team had a "team base camp" for its stay between the matches. The teams trained and resided in these locations throughout the tournament, travelling to games staged away from their bases. From an initial list of 66 bases, the 24 participating teams had to confirm their selection with UEFA by 31 January 2016.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: To accommodate the expansion from a 16-team finals tournament to 24 teams, the format was changed from that used in 2012 with the addition of two extra groups in the group stage, and an extra round in the knockout phases. The six groups (A to F) still contained four teams each, with the top two from each group still going through to the knockout phase. In the new format, however, the four best third-ranked sides also progress, leaving 16 teams going into the new round-of-16 knockout phases, ahead of the usual quarter-finals, semi-finals and final, and only 8 teams going out at the group stage. The format is exactly the one that was applied to the 1986, 1990, and 1994 FIFA World Cups, except for the absence of a third place play-off.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: This format generates a total of 51 matches, compared with 31 matches for the previous 16-team tournament, to be played over a period of 31 days. UEFA's general secretary Gianni Infantino previously described the format as "not ideal" due to the need for third-ranked teams in the group stage advancing, leading to difficulty in preventing situations where teams might be able to know in advance what results they need to progress out of the group, leading to a lack of suspense for fans, or even the prospect of mutually beneficial collusion between teams.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Each national team had to submit a squad of 23 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers, at least ten days before the opening match of the tournament. If a player became injured or ill severely enough to prevent his participation in the tournament before his team's first match, he would be replaced by another player.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: On 15 December 2015, UEFA named eighteen referees for Euro 2016. The full referee teams were announced on 1 March 2016. England was the only country to have two referees in the tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Hungarian referee Viktor Kassai was chosen to officiate the opener between France and Romania. English referee Mark Clattenburg was chosen to officiate the final between Portugal and France.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Two match officials, who serve only as fourth officials, and two reserve assistant referees were also named:


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: An hour before the first match at the Stade de France on 10 June 2016, 20:00 CEST, the opening ceremony of the tournament was held. The ceremony featuring 600 dancers, 150 of which were involved in a traditional French dance before an uptempo version of "La Vie en rose" by French singer Édith Piaf was played. Following this, French DJ David Guetta took to the stage, he performed shortened versions of some of his hits before he was joined on stage by Swedish singer Zara Larsson to perform the official song of the tournament "This One's for You".


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The ceremony ended with a fly over from the Patrouille Acrobatique de France of the French Air Force, trailing the French blue, white, and red. The ceremony also featured a tribute to the victims of the November 2015 Paris attacks. Following the ceremony, the hosts France beat Romania 2-1 in the opening game of the tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: UEFA announced the tournament schedule on 25 April 2014, which was confirmed on 12 December 2015, after the final draw.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: If two or more teams were equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following tie-breaking criteria would be applied:


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: In the knockout phase, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The UEFA Technical Team was given the objective of naming a team of eleven players during the tournament, a change from the 23-man squads in the past competitions. The group of analysts watched every game before making the decision following the final. Four players from the winning Portuguese squad were named in the tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The Player of the Tournament award was given to Antoine Griezmann, who was chosen by UEFA's technical observers, led by UEFA chief technical officer Ioan Lupescu and including Sir Alex Ferguson and Alain Giresse.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The Young Player of the Tournament award, open to players born on or after 1 January 1994, was given to Renato Sanches who was named above Kingsley Coman and Portugal teammate Raphaël Guerreiro. The particular player, who deserved the award, was also chosen by UEFA's technical observers.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The Golden Boot was awarded to Antoine Griezmann, who scored one goal in the group stage and five in the knockout phase.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The Silver Boot was awarded to Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored two goals in the group stage and one in the knockout phase, as well as providing three assists.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The Bronze Boot was awarded to Olivier Giroud, who scored one goal in the group stage and two in the knockout phase, as well as providing two assists; compatriot Dimitri Payet amassed the same tally, but played 50 more minutes than Giroud.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: The Goal of the Tournament was decided by online voting. A total 5 goals were in the shortlist. On 13 July 2016, after an open vote with over 150,000 entries, UEFA announced that Hungarian midfielder Zoltán Gera's goal against Portugal had been named as fans' goal of the tournament. In a separate poll, UEFA's technical observers decided that Swiss winger Xherdan Shaqiri's goal against Poland deserved top spot in their list of the ten best goals of the tournament.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: A total of €301 million was distributed to the 24 teams contesting in the tournament, a growth from the €196 million payment in the preceding event. Each team was rewarded €8 million, with further rewards depending on their performances. Portugal, the champions of the competition, were awarded €8 million in addition to any prize money earned in earlier rounds – the biggest prize attainable was €27 million (for winning all group matches and the final).


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Pre-tournament concerns included heavy flooding of the River Seine in Paris, and strikes in the transport sector shortly before the beginning of the event.


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: Following the attacks on Paris on 13 November 2015, including one in which the intended target was a game at the Stade de France, controversies about the safety of players and tourists during the upcoming tournament arose. Noël Le Graët, president of the French Football Federation, explained that the concern for security had increased following the attacks. He claimed: "there was already a concern for the Euros, now it's obviously a lot higher. We will continue to do everything we can so that security is assured despite all the risks that this entails. I know that everyone is vigilant. Obviously, this means that we will now be even more vigilant. But it's a permanent concern for the federation and the [French] state".


title: UEFA Euro 2016

text: A "suspicious vehicle" near the Stade de France was destroyed by a police-mandated controlled explosion on 3 July, hours before the venue held the quarter-final between France and Iceland.