No Change in Japan-U.S. Military Cooperation Policy: Nakatani

Tokyo, March 21 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Friday no change has been made to the Japan-U.S. policy of improving cooperation in military command and control.

Nakatani's remarks at a press conference followed U.S. media reports that Pentagon is considering canceling plans to expand U.S. Forces Japan.

Tokyo and Washington agreed last year to convert the U.S. forces stationed in Japan into a joint force headquarters empowered to operate troops to make it the U.S. counterpart of the soon-to-be-launched joint operations command of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.

"As the significance of the Japan-U.S. alliance grows further, it is required to keep strengthening deterrence and response capabilities," Nakatani said.

Also pointing out that Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and U.S. President Donald Trump, at their first summit in February, acknowledged the importance of stepping up command-and-control cooperation between the SDF and the U.S. military, Nakatani maintained, "This policy has not changed."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]