Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on March 30 that Japan is indispensable to combatting Chinese aggression in the South Pacific and that plans will soon commence to enhance the U.S. military command in the nation.
“We share a warrior ethos that defines our forces,” Hegseth told Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani during a meeting in Tokyo. “Japan is our indispensable partner in deterring communist Chinese military aggression, [including across the Taiwan Strait].”
Japan is a “cornerstone of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific,” Hegseth said, noting that the Trump administration will keep working closely with its critical Asian ally.
In July 2024, the Biden administration announced a significant enhancement of the U.S. military command in Japan to strengthen coordination with the country’s forces. Both nations view China as their “greatest strategic challenge.”
The latest move will position a combined operational commander in Japan, whose role will include being part of the head of a joint operation command created on March 24 by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.
President Donald Trump has characterized the bilateral defense treaty in which the United States vows to defend Japan as non-reciprocal and, in his first term, said the country should pay more for U.S. military support.
There are 50,000 U.S. military personnel, squadrons of fighter jets, and America’s sole forward-deployed aircraft carrier strike group in Japan along a 1,900-mile East Asian archipelago that deters the Chinese regime’s military.
Japan is doubling its military spending and buying longer-range missiles. However, the operational scope of the nation’s forces is confined by its U.S.-devised constitution, which was implemented after its defeat in World War II, renouncing Japan’s right to declare war.
Hegseth and Nakatani endorsed fast-tracking a plan to collaboratively develop beyond-visual-range air-to-air (AMRAAM) missiles and to consider jointly generating SM-6 surface-to-air defense missiles to bolster a munitions deficit, according to Nakatani.
Hegseth noted that he asked Nakatani for increased entry to Japan’s strategic southwest islands, which are located on the edge of the contested East China Sea near Taiwan.
This is Hegseth’s first official visit to Asia, where he is traveling to Japan from the Philippines. On March 29, the defense secretary attended a memorial service on Iwo Jima, the location of intense fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces 80 years ago during World War II.
