Leading news in Japan's newspaper's today is a report that the US military is finally compiling detailed plans for a crisis on the Korean Peninsula in cooperation with the Japanese government, the Self-Defense Forces, local governments, and private actors. (See the Yomiuri Shimbun's article here.)As the title of this post suggests, the only thing surprising …
Tag: US-Japan alliance
Drifting again?
Yomiuri reports today that the US and Japanese governments will likely convene a meeting of the Security Consultative Committee -- known as a 2 + 2 meeting, because it will consist of the foreign and defense ministers / secretaries of both countries -- in mid-January, following the elevation of the Japan Defense Agency (JDA) to …
A changing US-Japan alliance?
Meanwhile in the midst of the nuclear weapons flap, two senior US State Department officials were in Tokyo for meetings with Foreign Minister Aso. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Robert Joseph, undersecretary for arms control and international security, met with Mr. Aso to continue alliance coordination in response to the DPRK's …
Nukaga calls for Japanese cruise missiles
The Yomiuri Shimbun reports (article in Japanese) that former JDA Director-General Nukaga Fukushiro gave a talk at a Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation) symposium on North Korea's nuclear test and East Asian security. In his remarks, Mr. Nukaga asked: "If North Korea decided to use force and fired a Nodong at Japan, which American warships …
Tobias S. Harris 