The US wants to disperse US Marine units throughout Japan’s Okinawa islands by 2026, arming them with missiles and lighter gear to deter China’s military, and would discuss the plan with Tokyo in Washington, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.
The US has already told Japan about the reorganization, which it would announce after a two-plus-two meeting in Washington today between the Japanese ministers of defense and foreign affairs and their US counterparts, the paper reported.
A Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs official declined to comment about the report, but said Japan and the US “will discuss matters regarding issues on the US Forces Japan, including the realignment of the US Forces Japan.”
Photo: Reuters
The creation of the new units, called Marine Littoral Regiments, is part of a major reorganization of the US Marine Corps outlined by its commandant, General David Berger, in 2020.
At the time Berger said that he wanted those units to work closely with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to prevent easy access to the Pacific for the Chinese military.
In response to a question about the possible deployment of the new units, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) told a regular news conference yesterday that bilateral military cooperation between the US and Japan “should not harm the interests of third parties, and regional peace and stability.”
Under the littoral regiment concept, the US Marines are cutting aircraft numbers, and dumping most of their cannon artillery and heavy armor in favor of smaller “dispersed” forces equipped with missiles and drones that can operate in contested areas.
Japan hosts 18,000 US Marines, the biggest concentration outside the US. Most of them are in bases in Okinawa, which is part of a chain that stretches along the edge of the East China Sea to within about 100km of Taiwan.
In related news, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday pledged more security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region as Kishida made his first visit to France since taking office.
Japan holds the presidency of the G7 and Kishida on Monday began a tour of fellow members France, Italy, the UK, Canada and the US.
In a joint statement with Macron on Monday evening, the Japanese prime minister said he was looking forward to more cooperation with France in the Asia-Pacific region.
“France is a leading partner for the realization of a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kishida said.
“As unilateral attempts to change by force the status quo in the East and South China Sea intensify and the security environment becomes increasingly tense, we wish to continue to cooperate with France,” he said, alluding to joint military drills.
The Japanese government approved a major defense policy overhaul last month, including a significant spending hike, as it warned China posed the “greatest strategic challenge ever” to its security.
Macron said France and Japan would continue their “joint actions in the Indo-Pacific.”
Kishida is scheduled to meet US President Joe Biden on Friday.
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS