Japan-US marine combat drills held amid China, Russia maritime activity

Japanese and US Marines had their first airborne landing and combat training together on Tuesday near Mt. Fuji as the two allies strengthen military cooperation amid growing maritime activity by China and Russia in the regional seas.

Japan has been expanding its defence budget and capability for about a decade and is now revising its key national security strategy in the face of threats from China, North Korea and now Russia.

On Tuesday, 400 troops from Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade and 600 US Marines based on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa jointly practised landing and combat operations in a scenario of an enemy invasion of a remote Japanese island, using tilt-rotor Ospreys, amphibious armoured vehicles and artilleries such as M777.

The exercise comes at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has intensified worries about what could happen in East Asia, where China’s growing assertiveness has escalated tension around Taiwan.

While Japan has shifted its security focus to the southwest, it also faces Russia’s growing naval activity and its increased cooperation with China.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the Japanese navy spotted a fleet of six Russian warships Monday passing the Soya Strait between Hokkaido and Sakhalin as part of Russia’s major naval exercises, days after another Russian fleet crossed the Tsugaru Strait between Aomori on the northern tip of Japan’s main island and Hokkaido.

He said Russia also conducted a land-to-air missile firing last week on the Russian-held Kuril Islands, which Japan also claims. The dispute over the islands Moscow took at the end of World War II has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a peace treaty.