U.S. Upping Defense Ties with Japan, S. Korea

Tokyo (Jiji Press)- U.S. initiative to strengthen cooperation with Japan and South Korea in the field of defense is gathering momentum amid tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
In December, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, voiced hopes of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces taking part in joint military drills by the United States and South Korea.
While South Korea remains cautious about Japan's possible participation, against the backdrop of bilateral history including Japan's colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula, Tokyo's new basic defense program calls for deepening and promoting the Japan-U.S. alliance.
At a U.S.-South Korea joint military drill last July, the first after North Korea torpedoed a South Korean patrol ship in March, Maritime SDF officers were present as observers for the first time.
When Japan and the United States held a joint military drill in December, in the wake of a U.S.-South Korea exercise conducted immediately after North Korea's artillery attack on South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island in late November, the United States invited South Korean naval officers to an Aegis destroyer off the Noto Peninsula in the Sea of Japan.
Defense cooperation between the United States, Japan and South Korea is moving forward especially in the naval field, due to the special relations between the U.S. Navy and the Japanese MSDF, symbolized by the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. This is effectively the sole home port for U.S. aircraft carriers outside the United States.
While the MSDF assigns much of its naval power to the escort of U.S. aircraft carriers, the U.S. Navy relies on the MSDF for antisubmarine patrols and other functions in East Asia.
But the close relationship between the U.S. Navy and the MSDF occasionally leads to basic regulations being neglected.
The United States is required to notify the Japanese government 15 days in advance in principle and five days in an emergency when it uses firing ranges and other facilities in and around Okinawa Prefecture.
But when mobile troops of a U.S. carrier planned to conduct drills near Okinawa and the western part of the Kyushu southwestern region on Jan. 5, the Japanese government was notified no earlier than the previous day.
In addition, the marine area subject to a navigation warning issued by the United States for the drill included Taishojima, one of the Senkaku Islands, where the U.S. forces in Japan have a firing range, although the drill was not carried out in the end.
The Senkaku Islands are effectively under Japanese control, but are also claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu.
Although the U.S. presence in the Senkaku area is beneficial for Japan, "the negligence of rules is a different matter," said a Japanese Defense Ministry official.
To "deepen" the Japan-U.S. alliance, as mentioned in the new basic defense program, means that the armed forces of the two countries will take specific actions in an emergency and conduct the necessary drills, the official said.
"To this end, Japan should not only follow the United States but also have its own and definite strategy," he added.