Japan has started a nationwide full-scale military drill on Wednesday for the first time in nearly 30 years as it aims to enforce its capabilities to defend remote islands amid China’s assertive actions in the Indo-Pacific.
“In order to respond effectively to various situations, including attacks on the islands, it is essential that the necessary forces are deployed quickly and extensively, depending on the situation,” said Nobuo Kishi, the country’s minister of defense, Tokyo-based news agency Kyodo News reported.
“In an increasingly uncertain security environment, the focus of our work will be on operational readiness,” the official added.
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (GDSF) announced that the military exercise will involve all units and will be carried out until mid-to-late November. The drills will include around 100,000 personnel, 20,000 vehicles, and 120 aircraft, the network reported.
A total of 12,000 military members and nearly 4,000 vehicles from two GSDF divisions based on Hokkaido, a Japanese prefecture, and the Tohoku region, as well as a brigade in the Shikoku region, will start an expeditionary mission in southwestern Japan next week.
JGSDF’s latest drill is the first large-scale military exercise since 1993—when all units of the JGSDF, the largest of the three warfare branches in Japan, participated in a military exercise about two years after the Cold War ended.
In May, dozens of Japanese, American, and French troops held the first-ever joint drills by the three allies on Japanese soil as they sought to step up military ties amid China’s growing assertiveness.
Taiwan Annual Drills Reach Peak
Also on Sept. 15, Taiwanese fighter jets landed on a makeshift runway on a highway strip overseen by President Tsai Ing-wen as annual drills reached their peak, skills that would be needed in the event China attacks and targets Taiwan’s vulnerable air bases.