Meanwhile back in Japan...

I was looking for information on the 'making of a modern Japanese Marine Corps' which first took me to David Axe's site War is Boring which led me to the website Japanese Security Watch.  While still surfing for information on the 'new' Japanese Marine Corps, I ran up on the issue of the nuclear disaster and the ingenious Japanese using the NBC equipped Type 74 Main Battle Tank as part of the effort.  Read it all here, but this is the main part of the story.

According to the Daily Yomiuri, the GSDF is sending two Type 74 main battle tanks to the Fukushima Daiichi reactor to help clean up rubble and debris from the earthquake, tsunami, and explosions at the reactor site. The rubble and debris are hampering emergency efforts to repair the reactors. The GSDF is using tanks instead of bulldozers because the thick steel hull of the Type 74 is effective at blocking some radiation from the crew. The tanks also have NBC air filtration systems.

Swords into plows...or in this case adhoc nuclear disaster fighting vehicles.  Just out of curiosity I wonder why they're using these older vehicles instead of the more modern MBT's available?  Is there a difference in armor composition that makes them less robust around high levels of radiation?