TOKYO — US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is set to hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi in Tokyo on Wednesday, as Japan strives to fortify its defense posture and strengthen its decades-old alliance with the United States.
The meeting comes a day after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told visiting US President Donald Trump that she was determined to bolster Japan’s defense capabilities and expressed her desire to realize a “new golden age” of the alliance.
Japan already hosts the largest concentration of US forces overseas, including an aircraft carrier, a Marine expeditionary unit, and dozens of fighter jets.
Takaichi said in her policy speech last week that the government plans to raise Japan’s defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product in the current fiscal year to March 2026, from about 1.8% currently.
That would be two years earlier than originally planned, but the level falls short of NATO’s new defense investment pledge of 5% of GDP by 2035.
Japan regards the security environment surrounding the country as the gravest since the end of World War Two due to destabilizing factors in the region including China’s military expansion and North Korea’s missile and nuclear programs.
Koizumi, son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, ran in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s leadership election this month, but lost to Takaichi, who then went on to become Japan’s first female prime minister. — Reuters
