Hegseth says US is upgrading Japan ops to war-fighting command

Gen Nakatani, Japan’s defense minister, left, and Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo.

Hegseth said the US would add more personnel to a new joint command in Japan that would direct any initial US military response to a crisis in the region, and would work closely with a newly created Japanese military command overseeing air, land, sea and other forces.

US Forces Japan would become a “war-fighting headquarters,” he said, a move that “increases our readiness to respond to contingency or crisis, support US operations and help Japan and US forces defend this territory.”

Hegseth’s visit to Japan, coming after a similar emphasis on deepening the US alliance with the Philippines during a stop in Manila, goes some way toward reassuring allies that it intends to remain engaged in the region.

Doubts were fueled earlier this month when President Donald Trump criticized the US-Japan Security Treaty, signed in 1960, by highlighting the fact that the US is obliged to defend Japan under the agreement but Japan doesn’t offer the same security guarantees in return.

Japanese officials say they’ve been looking for reassurances that Washington would follow through on plans created under the Biden administration to ramp up US military presence in Japan with the creation of the joint force headquarters. While Japan is increasing its defense spending, it continues to rely heavily on the US for its security as it faces threats from China and North Korea.

Trump in the past has called for Japan to spend more on defense and pay more for US military bases, but Hegseth and Nakatani said the subject of Japan’s defense budget and what it pays to the US for bases didn’t come up during their meeting.

Instead, Nakatani said the meeting focused on broad strategy and ways to deepen the alliance.

“Together with Secretary Hegseth, I confirmed our determination to move forward with a sense of urgency to strengthen our respective defense capabilities and the Japan-US alliance’s deterrence and response efforts,” he said.

The largest US permanent overseas military presence is in Japan, where about 53,000 active duty service members are stationed at bases around the country.

Japan makes a commitment every five years to help cover the costs of US bases. Under the current deal, which runs through March 2027, Japan pays an average of 211 billion yen ($1.4 billion) each year. Tokyo is also in the process of raising its defense spending to about 2% of gross domestic product in 2027 from about 1% five years earlier.

On Saturday, the two defense ministers visited the Japanese island of Iwo Jima to mark the 80th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II between the US and Japan.