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The United States and Japan seek to “modernize” their alliance amid growing concerns about China and tensions over Taiwan and North Korea, as Japanese ministers visit Washington two days before Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s arrival.
Japan has made it clear that 2023 will mark the start of its rearmament, and so far this year it has dedicated itself to reinforcing and consolidating military pacts with allied countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The defense and foreign ministers of Japan and the United States pledged, Wednesday in Washington, to enhance Japan’s ability to counterattack countries that are preparing to fire missiles at its archipelago.
The talks are expected to include a repositioning of US forces on the Japanese island of Okinawa – strategically close to Taiwan – which is home to more than half of Washington’s 50,000 troops on the archipelago.
The agreement, which will also cover the protection of Japanese cyberspace, was announced as part of the preparations for the meeting, tomorrow Friday, in the US capital, between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and President Joe Biden.
Kishida is touring the G-7 countries, as the next summit of that group will be held in the city of Hiroshima in May of this year.
In Washington, Kishida will arrive after signing an unprecedented military cooperation agreement with his British counterpart, Rishi Sunak.
Tokyo plans to double its defense budget to 2% of Gross Domestic Product in the next five years, spending that would place it third in the world after the United States and China.
The Chinese expansion and the continuous tests of North Korean missiles that fly over Japan are the background of the Japanese rearmament despite the fact that its pacifist Constitution, imposed by the United States after its surrender in World War II, remains in force.
