Radio New Zealand: Japan defence minister visits Guam military bases

Minister Tomomi Inada has been reported to be considering the purchase of a missile defense battery similar to the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system the Pentagon deployed to Guam more than two years ago.

The Marianas Variety reported that the US deployed the system in response to missile-launch threats from North Korea.

North Korea has threatened to launch missile attacks toward Guam and other US military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and South Korea. 

Japan's minister was also understood to have been updated on the progress of Japan government-funded projects in Guam for the relocation there of almost 5,000 US Marines from Okinawa.

Editorial: Trump should uphold Obama's Asia-focused policies

The administration of outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama advocated "rebalancing" toward Asia, placing importance on the Asia-Pacific region for security, diplomatic and economic policies and strengthening ties with U.S. allies in the region such as Japan, South Korea and Australia. At the same time, the Obama administration failed to stop China's unilateral maritime advancement, including artificial islets the country has been building in the South China Sea, nor did Obama present effective solutions to North Korea's nuclear development program. 

It is believed that Obama first declared his focus on the Asia-Pacific region in a speech at the Australian Parliament in November 2011. He called the United States a "Pacific nation" and said he made a decision for his country to "play a larger and long-term role in shaping this region and its future, by upholding core principles and in close partnership with our allies and friends."

SOFA-tied deal does little to ease crime concerns in Okinawa

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy on Jan. 16 exchange signed documents related to the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement. (Wataru Sekita)

Government officials and residents in Okinawa Prefecture raised doubts that a highly touted Japan-U.S. supplementary agreement will do much to reduce crimes committed by U.S. military personnel or civilian workers at U.S. bases.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida lauded the Jan. 16 agreement, which will define the “civilian component” covered under the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), as “groundbreaking.”

However, in Okinawa Prefecture, questions were already being raised on why the central government would think that new definitions will change anything.

Okinawan governor to visit U.S. to convey anti-base stance to Trump gov't

TOKYO —

Okinawa Gov Takeshi Onaga will visit Washington soon after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office Friday, hoping to convey to the new administration his opposition to a plan to move a U.S. air base within the island prefecture, the local government said Monday.

It is the third time that Onaga will visit the U.S. capital since he was elected governor in 2014 on a pledge to oppose the long-stalled plan to move the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma within Okinawa.

According to prefectural government officials, Onaga will visit Washington between Jan 31 and Feb 4 with the aim of directly contacting officials representing the new administration before its security policies are fleshed out.

US, Philippine forces exchanging subject matter experts

MANILA (Tribune News Service) — United States and Philippine militaries will conduct “subject matter expert exchanges” at Clark Air Base in Pampanga until January 25, according to the Pacific Air Forces.

Upon the invitation of the Philippine government, the US Air Force, US Army and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) service members will also conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, PACAF said.

Security officials have recommended a “reduced” number of joint military exercises between the Philippines and the US since President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of a “military and economic separation” from Washington as part of an “independent foreign policy.”

On its website, PACAF said the exchanges would focus on capability related to the US Air Force’s ground-based satellite imagery system known as “Eagle Vision.”

Washington Post: Trump's tough talk unlikely to redefine US relationship with China

by Anne Gearan 

Donald Trump talked tough on China during his presidential run, blaming the country for the loss of American jobs, lobbing accusations of unfair currency manipulation or hostile trade practices, and suggesting that the United States levy enormous tariffs on Chinese goods.

"Look at what China is doing to our country," Trump said in September, during a presidential debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"They're using our country as a piggy bank to rebuild China," he added. "We have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us."

Several analysts predicted that Trump's tough talk on tariffs and jobs will recede as he contends with the complexity of intertwined economies and the reality of China's military expansion.

Guam Daily Post: Japan defense minister tours Guam military bases

HAGÅTÑA — Japan’s defense minister on Friday visited the missile-defense system the Pentagon deployed to Guam following recurring missile-launch threats from North Korea.

North Korea threatened to launch missile attacks toward Guam and other U.S. military bases in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan and South Korea.Minister Tomomi Inada’s delegation wasn’t available for comment, but Japan’s media had been reporting since November that Tokyo was considering the purchase of a missile defense battery similar to the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system the Pentagon deployed to Guam more than two years ago.

Inada visited Andersen Air Force Base, which hosts Global Hawk surveillance drones and B-1 bombers, and a Los-Angeles class submarine on the Navy base, said Lt. Timothy Gorman, public affairs officer for the military’s Joint Region headquarters in Guam.

Foreign Policy in Focus: Will Japan Stand in Splendid Isolation?

Two names explain Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s current tour of South East Asia: Rodrigo Duterte and Donald Trump.

Just a year ago, things were, as the British would put it, “going swimmingly” for Abe. He had rammed through his unilateral interpretation that “collective defense,” which would involve Japan in military operations with allies outside its home territory, did not violate Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. He had faced down domestic opposition to Japan’s participation in the regional free trade arrangement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In both enterprises, Japan had acted, in the traditional fashion, as Washington’s junior partner.

Collective defense was Japan’s contribution to President Obama’s vaunted strategic reorientation that came under the rubric “Pacific Pivot.” The TPP was the geoeconomic counterpart of the pivot, with the world’s biggest national economy teaming up with its third biggest, to contain the second biggest, China.

Manila Standard: US satellite put to a test in PH

AMERICAN and Filipino forces will be testing the capability for intelligence work and disaster relief operations of the US Air Force’s Eagle Vision satellite, according to a news release posted on Jan. 12 in the website of the Pacific Air Forces.

US Air Force and Army personnel will operate and share the mobile and ground-based satellite from Jan. 16 to 25 at the Clark Air Base in Pampanga. 

“The exchanges will center on the capability produced by the US Air Force’s deployable ground-based satellite imagery system known as Eagle Vision,” the website said. 

Nippon.com - Trump’s Defense Pick Intends to Keep Military Posture in Asia-Pacific

Washington, Jan. 12 (Jiji Press)—Retired Gen. James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump’s defense chief pick, underscored on Thursday the need to maintain the US military posture in the Asia-Pacific region.

“As this is a primarily maritime theater, our naval forces, supported by other elements of the military, should be the centerpiece of the Department of Defense’s integrated strategy for the region,” Mattis said in prepared documents for his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing.

“Additionally, our alliances and partnerships in this region will be vital in preserving international law and deterring conflict,” the former commander of the US Central Command went on to say.

Sputnik News - Japanese Minister Inspects US Guam Bases Ahead of Troops Relocation From Okinawa

Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada on Friday inspected the US military bases located at the Pacific island of Guam ahead of the forthcoming transfer of thousands of US marines from the Japanese Okinawa.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Within the framework of an agreement between Washington and Tokyo, the United States are expected to relocate up to 5,000 marines currently deployed at Okinawa to the US Pacific territory by the early 2020s. 

During her visit, the minister inspected air force and naval bases at the island and the construction of facilities to accommodate US troops redeployed from Okinawa, the NHK broadcaster reported. 

According to the media outlet, Inada said that Japan and the United States would continue their efforts aimed at transfer of US troops from the Japanese territory. 

Japan, U.S. to sign pact limiting base workers' immunity next week

TOKYO —

Japan and the United States will sign next week an agreement narrowing the scope of legal immunity granted to U.S. military base workers under the bilateral status of forces agreement, aiming to deter crime, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Friday.

The pact will supplement the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, under which the United States has primary jurisdiction over U.S. military personnel and base workers classified as a “civilian component” when they are accused of crimes while on duty.

The move is a response to the arrest in May last year of a civilian U.S. base worker in Okinawa Prefecture over the violent death of a local woman. The killing intensified existing anti-base sentiment in the southwestern island prefecture, which shoulders much of the U.S. military presence in Japan.

Brookings: The Trump administration contemplates its North Korea strategy—Following Obama’s lead?

Author: Jonathan D. Pollack

Interim SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies - Foreign Policy, Center for East Asia Policy Studies; 

Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China Center

North Korea could quite possibly trigger the first major foreign policy crisis confronting the incoming Trump administration. In his New Year’s Day address, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed that the country’s nuclear and missile advances in 2016 meant that Pyongyang had “entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.” On January 3, President-elect Trump tweeted:

But the president-elect didn’t intimate why or how a test could be prevented, leaving most observers wondering what (if anything) his message implied. Five days later, outgoing Defense Secretary Ash Carter stated that the United States was prepared to shoot down any such missile “if it were coming towards our territory or the territory of our friends and allies.”

PDN: More veterans allege Agent Orange use at military bases

Kyla P. Mora, Pacific Daily News, January 14, 2017

NEW EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS HAVE SURFACED SUPPORTING THE CLAIMS OF MSGT. LEROY FOSTER AND VETERAN GERARD LAITRES

New accounts support the statements by Leroy Foster, 68, and Guam resident and veteran Gerard Laitres that Agent Orange was used on Guam — and not only at Andersen Air Force Base, but at Naval Station, Naval Magazine, Naval Communications Station, Naval Air Station, Navy Harbo, and the Marbo housing complexes.

Foster, who lives in Florida, has been reaching out for years to anyone who would listen to his story of personally spraying thousands of gallons of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange at Andersen during his 10-year hitch with the 43rd Supply Squadron Fuels Division.

Rally calling for release of Okinawan activists protesting U.S. bases

A rally calling for the release of members of a grassroots movement in Okinawa who were arrested protesting the construction of Osprey helipads for the U.S. Marine Corps was held in Tokyo on Jan. 12. 

Hosted by writer Keiko Ochiai and pundit Makoto Sataka, among others, and held in the House of Councillors Members' Office Building in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, the rally was attended by some 350 people, with many left standing as the number of participants exceeded organizers' expectations.

Head of the Okinawa Heiwa Undo Center, Hiroji Yamashiro, 64, was arrested in October 2016 by Okinawa Prefectural Police on charges of destruction of property when he cut through barbed wire that the Defense Ministry's Okinawa Defense Bureau had installed around the U.S. Marine Corps Jungle Warfare Training Center, also known as Camp Gonsalves, which spans the villages of Kunigami and Higashi in northern Okinawa Prefecture. Residents and activists have been protesting the construction of helipads in the area for the U.S. military's MV-22 Osprey aircraft.

Okinawa prepares for new effort to block Henoko base by rallying local opposition

Okinawa Prefecture is scrambling to plot its next move in the wake of a recent Supreme Court ruling siding with the central government’s effort to relocate the operations of a U.S. military base within the prefecture despite fierce local opposition.

Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga was forced by the ruling to withdraw his action to block work to replace U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, in the city of Ginowan, with a new airstrip at the Henoko coastal area of Nago farther north on Okinawa Island. Onaga is now testing the limits of his authority in preparation for what is being seen as the second stage in the battle against the central government.

The Okinawa Defense Bureau is meanwhile poised to start soon the main construction work at the replacement site, as the ruling gave the green light to fill in offshore areas to accommodate runways extending offshore at the Henoko replacement airstrip.

China responds to Trump comment with Pacific exercise

SHUNSUKE TABETA, Nikkei staff writer

BEIJING -- China engaged in its own version of gunboat diplomacy, sailing the nation's sole aircraft carrier into the Pacific Ocean for the first time, following a remark by President-elect Donald Trump that the U.S. does not have to be bound by the "one China" policy.

Wu Shengli, commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy, proposed sending the Liaoning into the open waters of the western Pacific, while attending a military leadership meeting last month in Beijing immediately after Trump's comment. Chinese President Xi Jinping nodded in approval.

Nonfatal Osprey crash in Okinawa brings safety fears to fore

The MV-22 Osprey accident last month in Okinawa rekindled concerns about the tilt-rotor aircraft, which was once known as the “widow maker” for those killed during its development.

Starting this year, Japan will see more of the odd-looking hybrids in its skies than the 24 deployed by the U.S. Marine Corps in Okinawa, and residents are worried about potential accidents in densely populated areas and noise issues.

Here are some basic facts and about the Osprey and the lingering issues surrounding it:

Task force looking into PCBs, DDT and Agent Orange on Guam

Senators are launching a new investigative task force to delve into data surrounding possible pollutants used by the United States military on Guam. While stories have been told of the use of deadly contaminants by the armed forces on the island, there is little, if any, substantiated evidence illustrating just how much these pollutants may have been used throughout the island.

Amid recent testimony alleging the use of agent orange in Guam during the 1970's, Senator Fernando Esteves has launched an investigative task force to review and record reports of the use of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), and Agent Orange on Guam.

"Specifically those three," he explained, "because those are the stories that have come forward, we do know and there is a federal probe currently on the PCB contamination at the Cocos Lagoon, and then Agent Orange, obviously these stories are coming out, and we've grown up hearing these stories, but they've never been substantiated, and then as well as hearing stories on DDT, which is commonly found in pesticides which were used as anti-mosquito and anti-rodent repellents around the bases."

Chief judge concerned about nature of Guard recruiting case

Still no sentence has been handed down against Guam Army National Guard Specialist Denille Calvo. In federal court on Wednesday, the chief judge continued to raise concerns over the circumstances of the case - that the defendant may have been intimidated or threatened by her supervisor to commit the crimes.

Parties agreed to no jail time - only probation - for Calvo, but Chief Judge Frances Tydingco-Gatewood refused to continue with sentencing.

"I just don't have a good feeling about this case...I've never tried to abort a sentence", she said as she contemplated if the defendant was in a culpable mental state at the time of the crime. Calvo previously pleaded guilty to theft of government property but it was later disclosed to the court that Calvo's supervisor, a higher ranking officer, allegedly sexually harassed and intimidated her as he stood behind her at the computer instructing her what data to input in order to collect the bonuses so he could take a cut.