The Japanese government has agreed to allow the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters to move from its current location in Washington State to Camp Zama outside Tokyo, a report in the Japanese-language daily Asahi Shimbun said yesterday.
Camp Zama is located in the cities of Zama and Sagamihara in Kanagawa Prefecture. The restructuring of the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters is part of an adjustment to allow for better defense cooperation between the US and Japan in the Far East.
Many analysts cite the need to respond rapidly to a contingency on the Korean Peninsula or in the Taiwan Strait as a major factor behind the move.
The sphere of the US Army's 1st Corps headquarters command currently spans the Pacific and Indian oceans. According to media reports, the Japanese government's acceptance of the plan would be contingent on allowing the headquarters to deal only with affairs in the Pacific.
Many details of the move still remain to be worked out before Tokyo will officially accept the plan, the Asahi said. If the move goes ahead, Camp Zama is expected to serve as a unified command center for the army, navy, air force and the marine corps, the report said.
Some 50,000 US troops are stationed in Japan under the Treaty of Mutual Security between the Japan and the United States of America, most of them in Okinawa.
On Monday, Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi met with the new US ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer. Yachi told Schieffer that bilateral ties between Japan and the US have been "in a very good situation" thanks to close personal relations between US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, the Foreign Ministry said.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better