U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth has announced plans to strengthen the US military command in Japan, describing the country as critical in fighting Chinese aggression.
“We share a warrior ethos that defines our forces,” Hegseth told Japanese Defence Minister General Nakatani in Tokyo on Sunday, adding that Japan is “our indispensable partner” in “deterring communist Chinese military aggression,” including across the Taiwan Strait.
Hegseth stated that Japan is a “cornerstone of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific” and that the Trump administration will continue to collaborate closely with the Asian country.
Last year, former President Joe Biden’s administration proposed a substantial restructuring of the U.S military command in Japan to improve cooperation with the country’s forces, as the two allies dubbed China their “greatest strategic challenge.”
The change will position a combined operational commander in Japan, serving as a counterpart to the chief of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces’ joint operations command, which was established last week.
U.S. President Donald Trump has complained that the bilateral defence treaty in which the U.S. government vows to defend Japan is not reciprocal.
Japan hosts 50,000 U.S. military personnel, squadrons of fighter jets and America’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier strike group along a 1,900-mile East Asian archipelago that hems in Chinese military power.
This comes as Japan doubles its military budget, including funds to buy longer-range missiles. However, the operational scope of its military is constrained by its U.S.-authored constitution, established following its defeat in World War II, which renounces the ability to declare war.
Hegseth and Nakatani agreed to expedite a proposal to jointly develop beyond-visual-range air-to-air AMRAAM missiles and to discuss collaborating on the production of SM-6 surface-to-air defence missiles to address a munitions shortfall, Nakatani stated.
