Pentagon “Reconstitutes” US Forces in Japan Into New Joint Headquarters

By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News

It’s one more sign of how the US views the threat posed by China – and how Washington believes that Japan will play a crucial role in countering it.

After several days of meetings in Tokyo between the defense secretary, the secretary of state and their Japanese counterpart, the Pentagon announced that it will “reconstitute” US Forces Japan into a joint air, ground and naval headquarters that will report to the head of the US Indo-Pacific Command based in Hawaii. The new command will be led by a three-star officer and will be a counterpart to the new Japan Joint Operations Command, which is to come into existence next year.

“We are reinforcing our combined ability to deter and respond to coercive behavior in the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III. “We’re reinforcing the rules-based international order that keeps us all safe. And the agreements that we’ve advanced today will ensure that the US-Japan alliance remains a cornerstone of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”

Currently, coordination between the US military and Japan’s Self Defense Forces is handled through Hawaii. That will change under the new setup, which Austin said would allow the two forces to work together more closely than before, and would advance “collective deterrence.”

The US has 54,000 military personnel in Japan, more than half of which are stationed on Okinawa. Headquarters for US Forces Japan is Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo.

A joint statement from the two countries highlighted what they called the “increasingly deteriorating regional security environment,” including China’s expansion of its nuclear arsenal, North Korea’s development of ballistic missile and nuclear programs and Russia’s “undermining of arms control and the global nonproliferation regime.”

The ministers also objected to China’s recent activities in the South China Sea, where the Chinese coast guard has clashed with ships from the Philippines over a reef where the Philippines has a tiny garrison.