Japan evolving into US military outpost as China gets more assertive

TOKYO – Japan is shaping up to be a de facto Indo-Pacific defence outpost for its security ally, the United States, given an imminent overhaul of their military command structures and Tokyo’s unprecedented sale of weapons to Washington.

These plans were spelt out in a

joint statement

issued at the “two-plus-two” talks between Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defence Minister Minoru Kihara and their US counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin in the Japanese capital on July 28.