Joint military exercises between the US and Japan focus on threats to islands southwest of Tokyo (Photo: SCMP).
In a statement, General Joel Vowell, commander of US Army Japan, said Washington is working with Tokyo to strengthen defenses on the southwestern islands of the East Asian country.
He stressed that one activity was conducting joint military exercises focused on countering the activities of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
"The focus has shifted to the real issue at hand, which is defending Japanese sovereignty , with the main effort being on the southwestern islands," Vowell said. "We all see that as the biggest security challenge."
Japan has shifted its defense focus from North Korea to China because of concerns the PLA could pose to Japan's southwestern islands, including the Ryukyu Islands, according to military experts.
The US and Japan have conducted a number of exercises including the annual Yama Sakura and Orient Shield exercises, which focus on situations such as a military attack or an infringement of Japan's sovereignty.
General Vowell said Japan is concerned that the PLA could blockade or seize some of Tokyo's islands to prevent military intervention if Taiwan were attacked.
“Japan looks at that and they see a threat from the Chinese coast guard militia, which has pushed Japanese fishermen away around the islands,” the US general added.
In August 2022, Tokyo and Beijing escalated tensions when five PLA ballistic missiles fell into Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) while China held live-fire military exercises around Taiwan.
The US military said the incident was seen as a strategic message from China, but Beijing rejected it and said it did not agree on the limits of the area.
The controversial drills began after former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defied Beijing’s warnings to visit Taiwan and meet with its leader, Tsai Ing-wen. Beijing staged another military exercise this month after Tsai met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
In addition, the US is also helping Japan consider the capabilities needed to defend its southwestern islands and how the Pentagon can support them, according to Vowell. One of these, he said, is a strategy to disrupt the PLA's ability to prevent enemy forces from entering the battlefield or moving freely within it.
The PLA tested this capability, known as anti-access/area denial (A2/AD), a few weeks ago during exercises around Taiwan, with a group of warships led by the aircraft carrier Shandong.
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