Japan and the US have agreed to conduct a joint military exercise starting on Nov. 10, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said on Friday, as countries in the region and beyond are increasingly becoming wary of China’s growing military assertiveness.
The drill, dubbed “Keen Sword,” takes place biennially around Japan. About 36,000 personnel, 30 vessels and 370 aircraft from Japan’s Self-defence Forces and the US military are to participate in this year’s exercise, which is scheduled to run until Nov. 19.
“By demonstrating Japan’s and the United States’ strong will and coordination, we aim to contribute to defending Japan and securing peace and safety of the region,” Japanese Minister of Defense Yasukazu Hamada told reporters.
Photo: REUTERS
Canada also plans to dispatch two vessels to the drill, while Australia and Britain are to send one warship each, the ministry said.
The drills are to be held around Japan’s southwestern islands, including Tokunoshima, which is closer to Taipei than to Tokyo.
Meanwhile, Australia and Japan yesterday agreed to share more sensitive intelligence and deepen military cooperation, signing a security pact aimed at countering China’s military rise.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed the accord Perth, revamping a 15-year-old agreement drafted when terrorism and weapons proliferation were the overriding concerns.
“This landmark declaration sends a strong signal to the region of our strategic alignment,” Albanese said, hailing what is called the Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation.
Under the accord, the two countries agreed that military forces would train together in northern Australia, and would “expand and strengthen cooperation across defense [and] intelligence sharing,” Australian officials said.
Without naming China or North Korea, Kishida said the deal was a response to an “increasingly harsh strategic environment.”
Neither Australia nor Japan has the armies of overseas intelligence operatives and foreign informants needed to play in the major leagues of global espionage.
Japan does not have a foreign spy agency equivalent to the US’ CIA, the British Secret Intelligence Service, the Russian Federal Security Service or the much smaller Australian Security Intelligence Organization.
However, Australia and Japan have formidable signals and geospatial capabilities — electronic eavesdropping and high-tech satellites that provide invaluable intelligence on adversaries, Australian Institute of International Affairs executive director Bryce Wakefield said.
The agreement could also have broader significance, providing a template for Japan to accelerate intelligence ties with countries like Britain, Wakefield said.
Some even see the accord as another step toward Japan joining the powerful Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance between Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and the US.
It is “an epoch-making event that Japan can share [signals intelligence] with a foreign nation” other than the US, Nihon University researcher Ken Kotani said.
“This will strengthen the framework of Quad [Australia, India, Japan and the US], and the first step for Japan’s join to the Five Eyes,” he added.
Such a suggestion would have been unthinkable a few decades ago, but events in Japan’s neighboring regions have forced a rethink of the country’s pacifist policies established in the wake of World War II.
North Korea has repeatedly lobbed missiles over and around Japan, while China has built the world’s largest navy, revamped the globe’s biggest standing army, and amassed a nuclear and ballistic arsenal right on Japan’s doorstep.
However, hurdles remain for Tokyo’s closer security cooperation with allies.
Japan’s intelligence sharing with the US and other allies has been hampered by longstanding concerns about Tokyo’s ability to handle sensitive confidential material and transmit it securely.
“To put it bluntly, Japan has traditionally leaked like a sieve,” said Brad Williams, author of a book on Japanese intelligence policy and a professor at the City University of Hong Kong.
Laws have been introduced to more severely punish intelligence leaks, but for now, Australia would likely be forced to scrub any intelligence gleaned from the Five Eyes network that it passes to Japan, he said.
Kishida and Albanese also pledged more cooperation on energy security.
Japan is a major buyer of Australian gas and has made a series of big bets on hydrogen energy produced in Australia, as it tries to ease a lack of domestic energy production and its dependence on fossil fuels.
“Japan imports 40 percent of its [liquefied natural gas] from Australia. So it’s very important for Japan to have a stable relationship with Australia, from the aspect of energy,” a Japanese official said ahead of the meeting.
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