SDF have 51 joint exercises with US forces a year

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

SDF have 51 joint exercises with US forces a year

The Japanese Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. Forces conducted at least 51 joint military exercises in the fiscal year 2009.

This was discovered in data released by the Defense Ministry at the request of Akahata.

In February this year, a Ground SDF unit took part in the "Iron Fist" exercise with the U.S. forces in Camp Pendleton in California. GSDF troops boarded the U.S. Navy's amphibious transport dock ship New Orleans and conducted beach assault training with the U.S. Marine Corps.

The GSDF has repeatedly carried out joint exercises with the U.S. Marines and Army units which have sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, including the one it had in February at Okayama's Camp Nihonbara with the U.S. Marine Combat Attack Battalion, which has frequently been dispatched to Afghanistan from Okinawa.

On the occasion of a joint exercise with the GSDF at Camp Higashi-Chitose in Hokkaido last December, U.S. Army Pacific Commander Benjamin Mixon reportedly expressed his hope for the GSDF's deployment to Afghanistan and said that based on their repeated joint exercises the GSDF and the U.S. Army will be able to cooperate easily.

- Akahata July 13, 2010