Japan – 2023/02/23: A Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopter of the U.S. Marine Helicopter Squadron (HSM-51, known as Warlords) flies near Naval Air Station Atsugi.
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The United States will unveil major reforms to its military command structure in Japan and other measures to deepen defense ties with its Asian ally during high-level security talks in Tokyo on Sunday, a U.S. official said.
The changes come as Tokyo looks to set up a new joint headquarters to oversee its armed forces by March to better coordinate with Washington on growing regional threats they see emanating from China and North Korea.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are scheduled to hold talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara later Sunday.
“Secretary Austin plans to announce the United States' intention to reconfigure U.S. Forces Japan as the headquarters of the Joint Force, reporting to the commander of U.S. Pacific Command,” the U.S. official said in a press briefing ahead of the talks.
The official said the command would be headed by a three-star general, not the four-star rank Japan had requested.
For the first time, the U.S.-Japan ministerial talks will also address the topic of “extended deterrence,” a term used to describe the U.S. commitment to use its nuclear forces to deter attacks on its allies.
Japan provides the United States with a base to project military power in Asia, hosting 54,000 U.S. troops, hundreds of U.S. aircraft, and Washington's only aircraft carrier strike group.
Faced with China’s growing military might and regular missile tests by nuclear-armed North Korea, Japan has begun to reverse decades of post-World War II pacifism. In 2022, Japan unveiled a plan to double defense spending to 2 percent of GDP.
Austin and Kihara also met their South Korean counterpart Shin Won-sik for talks in Tokyo on Sunday, where they signed an agreement to “institutionalize” trilateral cooperation through efforts such as sharing real-time North Korean missile warning data and joint military exercises.
The Biden administration is seeking to boost cooperation between Tokyo and Seoul, which has previously been hampered by tense relations dating back to Japan's occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945.
“This memorandum strengthens cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea, making our partnership solid no matter how the international situation changes,” Kihara told reporters after the meeting.
Washington also wants to tap Japanese industry to help ease pressure on U.S. defense companies suffering from a lack of demand caused by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Last month, Tokyo and Washington began talks on deepening cooperation in the defense industry under the U.S.-Japan Forum on Defense Industrial Cooperation, Acquisition and Sustainment, established by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Joe Biden in April.
After Tokyo, Blinken and Austin will hold security talks with another ally, the Philippines, as the Biden administration seeks to counter an increasingly assertive China.
Blinken met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Laos on Saturday and reiterated that Washington and its partners want to maintain a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” according to a U.S. readout of the meeting.
