September 6, 2025

The Ministry of Defense in July did not inform the Okinawa Prefectural government that the U.S. Marine Corps state-of-the-art unmanned surface-to-ship missile system, Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS), was deployed to U.S. Marine Corps Camp Hansen in the prefecture early this month.

Japanese Communist Party members of the House of Representatives Akamine Seiken and Tamura Takaaki on September 5 held a hearing with the ministry regarding this matter.

Ministry officials admitted that the ministry had received an advance notification from the U.S. military that NEMSIS will arrive at Camp Hansen on July 10. They said that the ministry gave this information only to the three municipalities hosting the base (Ginoza Village, Onna Village, and Kin Town) on July 3 and excluded the prefectural government from information sharing.

It is suspected that the ministry concealed the fact out of fear of the influence on the July 20 House of Councillors election.

Akamine said, “The first-ever deployment of NEMSIS in Japan is totally unacceptable as it is an embodiment of the U.S. military strategy toward China under which it is highly likely that the Nansei Islands, of which Okinawa is a part, will be turned into a battlefield.”

He went on to say, “Hiding the NEMSIS deployment from the prefectural government and Okinawan people is out of the question. What the government should do is to promote peace diplomacy aimed at making East Asia a region free from the fear of war.”

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An overview of a large-scale Japan-U.S. joint military exercise was released on September 5. The joint exercise, “Resolute Dragon 2025” will be conducted jointly by Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Marine Corps between September 11-25 in Okinawa and seven other prefectures. In the drills, many missile systems of the Japanese and U.S. forces, including NMESIS will be used.