The US and Japan will announce they are extending their security alliance to space in an attempt to defend against attacks on satellites amid growing concern about the threat from China, US officials said.
Tokyo and Washington will announce the expanded security co-operation later on Wednesday in Washington, where US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and US secretary of state Antony Blinken are holding talks with their Japanese counterparts.
The announcement, which comes ahead of Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida’s summit with US president Joe Biden on Friday, marks the latest effort by Washington and Tokyo to increase co-operation to counter China and prepare for a possible conflict over Taiwan.
It also comes as China is significantly boosting its satellite presence amid growing military activity in space.
Since Biden took office, the US and Japan have taken a range of actions to send a stronger message to Beijing, including conducting war games and stepping up war planning.
While the US has taken an increasingly hawkish stance towards Beijing, the Chinese military’s aggressive activity around Taiwan has contributed to a major shift in Japan’s position on the need to bolster its security.
After years of urging Tokyo to step up its defences, US officials have strongly welcomed the change, which was championed by former prime minister Shinzo Abe but has been continued by his successors, Yoshihide Suga, and now Kishida.
One senior US official said the moves amounted to a substantial “step change” from March 2020 when Suga visited Washington and signed the first US-Japan joint communiqué to mention Taiwan in more than 50 years.
“What Kishida has done has gone much further than not only any other Japanese leader before him, but much further than we thought frankly politically possible,” said the official. “What Japan is doing is basically moving up to the level of a top-tier Nato partner with respect to the kinds of appropriate military engagement, planning and investment.”
As part of Wednesday’s announcement, US and Japanese officials will say that any external attack in or from space could trigger Article 5 of the US-Japan Security Treaty, which stipulates that an attack on either party would prompt the other to “act to meet the common danger”.
The senior defence officials and diplomats will also announce on Wednesday the long-planned stationing of a US Marine regiment in Okinawa, to be completed by 2025. The unit includes advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities as well as anti-ship and transportation capabilities, officials said.
US and Japanese officials are also discussing Japan’s possible purchase of Tomahawk missiles.
Kishida’s White House visit, his first since taking office in late 2021, comes weeks after Tokyo outlined a radical security policy shift that will include a substantial increase in defence spending and acquisition of counter-strike capabilities.
The five-year expansion of its military budget includes ¥5tn ($38bn) to buy Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US, which would allow it to strike targets in China.
Japanese officials say Kishida wants to use his meeting with Biden to showcase bolstered US-Japan deterrence and seek US co-operation ahead of the G7 summit, which he will host in his home city of Hiroshima in May.