Japan’s new Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi held talks Thursday (Oct. 8) with Air Force Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider, commander of U.S. forces in Japan. The two men shared concerns about China’s expanding maritime activities. On Wednesday, the U.S. and Japan announced that the two countries’ militaries would conduct amphibious landing drills on islands off the coast of Japan.
On Thursday, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi toured the headquarters of the Japan Air Self-Defense Force Air Headquarters at Yokota Base on the outskirts of Tokyo before visiting the same site and meeting with the top commander of U.S. forces in Japan, Lieutenant General Schneider.
“During their discussions, the two men reaffirmed the critical importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance to the maintenance of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region. The two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to addressing common security threats through bilateral cooperation,” the U.S. military in Japan said in a statement.
Nobuo Kishi said the two men shared concerns about China’s expanding maritime activities in the East and South China Seas, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.
This is Nobuo Kishi’s first visit to Yokota Air Base since he took office last month. A few days earlier, the foreign ministers of the United States, Japan, India and Australia met in Tokyo for four-way talks, reaffirming cooperation on maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with Japanese media at the time that the quartet of regional organizations is a “structure” that has the potential to “meet the challenge that the Chinese Communist Party poses to all of us.
General Schneider said at a press conference in July that China was the “number one challenge” to regional security.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the U.S. Marine Corps and Japan’s recently established Surface-to-Surface Maneuvering Group will conduct amphibious landing exercises on islands off the coast of Japan. The exercise is part of a joint military exercise between U.S. and Japanese forces this month, code-named Keen Sword. About 9,000 U.S. military personnel from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Army and Air Force will train with their Japanese counterparts throughout Japan, including Okinawa and Japanese territorial waters, the statement said.
About 37,000 Japanese personnel, as well as 20 ships and 170 aircraft, will participate in the Sword exercise, according to a statement from the Japan Self-Defense Forces Joint Staff. The amphibious landing exercise will be conducted during the Sword joint military exercises.
Japan’s Marine Maneuver Regiment is a new unit of the Ground Self-Defense Force (JSDF), which was established in March 2018 and is the first Japanese unit similar to the U.S. Marine Corps. Its primary mission is to protect Japan’s outer islands, including some that China claims sovereignty over. The regiment has been strengthening its capabilities with the help of the U.S. Marine Corps.
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