October 29, 2025
Ministry of Defense
On October 29, Defense Minister Koizumi and War Secretary Hegseth held discussions from 10:25 for approximately 60 minutes at the Ministry of Defense. The summary is as follows.
1 Overview
At the outset, Minister Koizumi offered his greetings as the new Defense Minister and expressed his firm resolve to fulfilling his duties with utmost dedication in order to build the strong and capable Self-Defense Force. Secretary Hegseth congratulated Minister Koizumi on his appointment and stated his expectations for close collaboration going forward.
The Ministers candidly exchanged and shared the views on increasingly severe security situation in the Indo-Pacific. Based on the concurrence between the two leaders at Japan-U.S. summit meeting on October 28, the Ministers confirmed their shared responsibility for concrete implementation of the concurred items and that they will demonstrate strong leadership to further strengthen deterrence and response capabilities of the Alliance, which is “the greatest alliance in the world”. Especially, Minister Koizumi expressed his intention to work with a sense of speed, his commitment to continue working on fundamentally reinforcing Japan’s defense capabilities and increasing Japan’s defense spending as Japan’s own initiative, and explained that Japan has begun discussions toward revising the National Security Strategy and other related documents. Secretary Hegseth expressed his support to these efforts.
2 Further Strengthening the Alliance Capabilities to Deter and Respond
The Ministers concurred to promote various initiatives to further strengthen the Alliance capabilities to deter and respond, with a sense of urgency and speed, in order to respond to challenges posed by the changing security environment. The key points of the discussion are as follows:
- With regard to upgrading respective command and control frameworks, the Ministers welcomed tangible progress in the upgrade of U.S. Forces Japan and implementation of the Japan Self-Defense Forces Joint Operations Command (JJOC). They confirmed to make efforts to further effective bilateral cooperation from peacetime to contingency.
- The Ministers welcomed the progress and confirmed on expansion of bilateral joint presence in the southwestern region of Japan as one of the highest priorities of the Alliance, including enhancement of more advanced and realistic bilateral training across Japan, and in the southwestern region in particular.
- With regard to defense equipment and technology cooperation, the Ministers recognized that strengthening the defense production and technological base is a shared challenge and reaffirmed the importance of mutually complementing the defense production and technological base of Japan and the United States. The Ministers welcomed the progress under Defense Industrial Cooperation, Acquisition, and Sustainment (DICAS), including exploring missile co-production such as AMRAAM and co-sustainment of vessels and aircraft of U.S. forces, and confirmed to further advance these initiatives. Minister Koizumi expressed appreciation for the United States’ efforts to accelerate delivery of missiles as a demonstration of the Alliance’s commitment to enhancing deterrence.
- In addition, the Ministers concurred that they will continue to advance multilateral cooperation including information sharing and operational collaboration with regional partners namely Australia, the Republic of Korea and the Philippines, with Japan and the U.S. at the center of such cooperation.
3 Realignment of U.S. Forces etc.
In order to maintain deterrence and mitigate the impact on local communities, Ministers reiterated the vital importance of the steady implementation of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan in accordance with the Okinawa Consolidation Plan and other existing bilateral arrangements, such as the return of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Futenma including the construction of the Futenma Replacement Facility at Henoko as the only solution that avoids the continued use of MCAS Futenma. The Ministers also concurred to advance cooperation to prevent recurrence of incidents and accidents involving U.S. forces in Japan.