United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, on his first trip to the Indo-Pacific, called Japan a vital Ally in deterring an increasingly pugnacious China in the region.
“Japan is our indispensable Partner in deterring communist Chinese military aggression,” Hegseth said in Tokyo before the late-March 2025 meeting with his Japanese counterpart, according to The Associated Press (AP). “The U.S. is moving fast … to reestablish deterrence in this region and around the world.”
Hegseth, after his talks with Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, said the U.S. would abide by promises to increase security cooperation with Japan. That includes a previously announced plan to create a joint command in Tokyo — Hegseth called it a “war-fighting headquarters” — for the two nations, according to The New York Times newspaper.
“America first does not mean America alone,” Hegseth said during a joint news conference with Nakatani, according to the Times. “America and Japan stand firmly together in the face of aggressive and coercive actions by the communist Chinese.”
Hegseth said there would be an increase in combined defense exercises near Taiwan, according to the Times. China claims the self-ruled island and has threatened to take it by force. During their news conference, Hegseth and Nakatani agreed on the need to bolster Japan’s defense posture on the Senkanku Islands to further increase deterrence against China. The islands are located along disputed areas in the East China Sea and near Taiwan.
Not long after Hegseth’s visit to Japan, China conducted a large-scale military drill around Taiwan. “Once again, China’s aggressive military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan only serve to exacerbate tensions and put the region’s security and the world’s prosperity at risk,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement.
In the Tokyo meetings, Japan and the U.S. agreed to accelerate plans to jointly develop and manufacture advanced medium-range air to air missiles (MRAAM) and to consider production of SM-6 surface-to-air missiles to help alleviate munitions shortages, Nakatani said, according to AP. The defense chiefs said they would quicken the process involving the maintenance of U.S. warships and warplanes in Japan to strengthen and complement both nations’ respective defense industries. Japan is also home to more than 50,000 U.S. troops.
Nakatani also said he told his U.S. counterpart about Japan’s plans to double its defense and other security spending by 2027.