Japan, U.S. working to strengthen, expand alliance

Felix Kim

The Japan-United States alliance, a long-standing cornerstone of security in the Indo-Pacific, has reached a new level of collaboration, with the nations’ leaders recently underscoring an expanded vision of cooperation that emphasizes not just regional but also global stability.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden hailed the alliance’s evolution into a “global partnership fit for the challenges of today and tomorrow,” a commitment marked by new strategic initiatives and strengthened defense cooperation.

“Over the course of the last three years, the U.S.-Japan Alliance has reached unprecedented heights,” President Biden said in a joint statement after the leaders’ April 2024 summit at the White House in Washington, D.C.

The leaders pledged to continue building a cooperative framework encompassing defense, technological innovation and global diplomacy. “Our purpose as partners is to uphold and bolster the free and open international order based on the rule of law that has allowed so many nations to develop and prosper,” Kishida said.

A key aspect of the strengthened alliance is the enhancing of the mutual defense treaty, such as Japan’s bolstering of its defense capabilities and the U.S.’s affirmation of its “unwavering commitment” to defend Japan, including the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands. The People’s Republic of China claims the East China Sea archipelago as its territory and Tokyo has condemned incursions by Beijing’s coast guard and other Chinese vessels in waters around the islands.

“The core of our global partnership is our bilateral defense and security cooperation under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, which is stronger than ever,” the leaders stated.

To address emerging and evolving security threats, the nations will upgrade their command-and-control frameworks to ensure seamless integration of operations. The moves will enhance interoperability and planning between Japanese and U.S. forces during peacetime and contingencies, thereby strengthening deterrence and promoting a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.

The two leaders also noted ambitious collaborative projects such as joint development of a glide-phase interceptor to counter hypersonic weapons, as well as an April 2024 agreement that calls for Japan to design, develop and operate a rover for crewed and uncrewed missions to the moon, while NASA will launch and deliver the rover to the lunar surface.

“The most profound aspect of the summit was not the itemized ‘deliverables’ but rather the underlying message: that the U.S.-Japan alliance is now global,” Dr. Jeffrey Hornung, a defense analyst with the Rand Corp., wrote in an analysis for Japan’s Nikkei Asia publication. “This shift began with the 1991 Gulf War when the U.S. looked for Japan to do something commensurate with its political power. Provocations by North Korea and China in the following years impacted the alliance further, as did the global war on terror.”

Since then, Hornung said, the allies increasingly have engaged in minilaterals and other informal security groupings with nations such as Australia and India, expanding their strategic reach within the Indo-Pacific and beyond. Those broadening relationships include enhanced defense ties between Japan and NATO, highlighting the 32-member security alliance’s growing global outlook.

“There is much work left to be done on implementing all the big ideas announced,” Hornung wrote. “Nevertheless, the outcome of the summit is clear. The U.S.-Japan alliance is strong, aligned, and truly global.”

Felix Kim is a FORUM contributor reporting from Seoul, South Korea.