Japan, U.S. arranging exercise to defend remote islands in Dec.+

TOKYO, Oct. 3 Kyodo -
Japan and the United States are making arrangements to hold a joint exercise in
December involving Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military with a
focus on defending islands in remote waters, sources involved in bilateral
relations said Sunday.
The plan was drawn up during the fiscal year ended in March and is not a
response to the collisions last month between a Chinese trawler and Japan Coast
Guard patrol boats near disputed territories in the East China Sea, the sources
said.
But the planned exercise, coming shortly after China's strong reaction over the
incident near the Japanese-administered Senkaku Islands, which Beijing also
claims, is likely to highlight close cooperation between the security allies.
The exercise is expected to be held under the assumption that remote Japanese
islands would be invaded by force of arms and would provide training for joint
efforts by the SDF and the U.S. military to deal with such a situation, the
sources said.
The drill at sea is likely to be held on the Pacific side of the Nansei
Islands, consisting of such isles as the main Okinawa island and Ishigaki
Island, while a candidate site for the ground drill is the Japanese Ground
Self-Defense Force's Hijudai exercise area in Oita Prefecture on the island of
Kyushu, the sources said.
The Japan-based aircraft carrier George Washington of the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet
is expected to take part in the sea drill, while the GSDF's Western Army is
likely to be dispatched for the ground drill, they said.
There is also an exercise planned off central Japan's Noto Peninsula in the Sea
of Japan that assumes a North Korean missile attack, according to the sources.
In the past, Japan and the United States conducted a joint exercise near Iwoto
Island in the Pacific in 2006, using a scenario in which the Senkaku islet
group, called the Diaoyu Islands in China, would come under an attack.
==Kyodo
2010-10-03 23:47:44