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Japan sends message to China, US with largest military drill in 30 years
- As part of the exercise, personnel and vehicles will be moved to the country’s southwest, where areas such as the Diaoyu Islands are seen as at risk of attack
- Analysts say this will give Japan some much-needed logistical experience, while signalling to rival Beijing and ally Washington that it is ready to protect itself
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Japan’s largest military drill in nearly 30 years is primarily an exercise in transporting heavy weapons and materiel to the country’s southwest, regarded as the most likely site of a clash with a neighbouring nation, in what analysts say is a much-needed logistical exercise as well as a message to China and the United States.
The Japan Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF) exercise began on Wednesday and will involve units across the country until the end of November – including some 100,000 personnel, 20,000 surface vehicles, and 120 aircraft from all three branches of the Japanese military, as well as American forces including a US Army landing ship.
The last time Japan carried out such expansive manoeuvres was in 1993, after the end of the Cold War.
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A key element of the drill is the relocation of 12,000 personnel and 3,900 vehicles from Hokkaido in the far north, the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan, and Shikoku in the country’s west. These are headed for Kyushu, in the far southwest.
The GSDF has traditionally based the vast majority of its tanks and land-based artillery in the north to deter an attack from Russia or its Cold War predecessor, the Soviet Union. Security needs have changed significantly in recent years, however, and there is a widespread recognition that Japan’s remote islands – particularly those off Okinawa in the southwest – are most at risk of attack.
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