On his last Indo-Pacific trip as SecDef, Austin will see ‘a lot of firsts’ in Japan

TOKYO — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin touched down in Japan on Sunday night local time, kicking off his 13th and final trip to the Indo-Pacific region as the Pentagon’s chief.

Here, he’ll spend the next three days engaging with U.S. troops and Japanese leaders about ongoing joint command-and-control upgrades the two militaries are pursuing, as well as a range of other nascent cooperative efforts designed to expand and modernize their shared arsenals of warfighting assets.

During an 11-hour flight overseas from California, a senior U.S. defense official traveling in Austin’s delegation briefed a small group of reporters on the demonstrations and activities the secretary and his team are set to observe and participate in at multiple military installations around the island nation.

“Throughout the next three days, we’re going to see a lot of ‘firsts’ in Japan,” the senior defense official said.

It might be his last visit to the close U.S. treaty ally as secretary, but this trip also marks Austin’s fourth official time in Japan while steering DOD.

In the senior defense official’s view, “it’s fitting that the secretary would travel again to Japan at the end of this year because his first overseas trip as secretary in March 2021 was to the Indo-Pacific — and his first foreign stop on that trip was Japan.”

On Monday, Austin will head to Yokosuka Naval Base and tour the USS George Washington, which has been docked there since last month and is the only forward-deployed U.S. aircraft carrier worldwide at this time.

According to the senior official, it’s also the first time, in this context, that the Navy’s forward-deployed carrier air wing includes fifth-generation aircraft, the stealthy F-35C.

“So, this really marks a very significant milestone for our force posture efforts in Japan. And importantly, it showcases just how we are continuously modernizing the alliance’s capabilities, especially since we’ve started in 2021,” they said.

Next up, on Tuesday, the secretary will head to Yokota Air Base, where U.S. Forces Japan is now headquartered.  

“He’s actually going to get a progress report on how we are doing on command and control, or C2, and the upgrades that they’re actually making underway,” the senior defense official explained.

At a 2+2 dialogue in Tokyo this summer, top U.S. and Japanese national security officials solidified a plan to strategically update their alliance’s C2 capabilities, largely by deepening defense industry and advanced technology cooperation, and enhancing cross-domain operations.

“We have to get this right — but we also have to do it the right way. So, I think Tuesday’s briefing is going to give [Austin] a chance to really take stock on what’s been happening, what’s progressed today, what’s expected of this ongoing effort,” the senior defense official said.

Further, Japan is currently developing its military’s own, first-ever Joint Operations Center, with aims to officially stand it up in March 2025. Austin and his counterparts are looking to discuss changes America is making to U.S. Forces Japan to ensure they can eventually link up with that new joint operational command in a way that they have not been able to before.

From there, Austin and the team will head to Yokohama North Dock to meet directly with the U.S. Army’s 5th Composite Watercraft Company.

“This is significant because this company was actually activated in February of this year. It’s not only the first time this is deployed — now, it’s the first time [any of the] companies deployed outside the United States,” the senior defense official told reporters.

And then to close out Tuesday’s packed schedule of events, Austin is set to attend an office call with Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, and then a working dinner with Minister of Defense Gen Nakatani.

“These engagements are going to give the secretary the opportunity to really take stock of the progress that we’ve made together over the years, thank the two of them, really, for the partnership, and underscore the importance of the alliance as a cornerstone of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” the official noted.

They and others have suggested to DefenseScoop that China’s intensifying employment of political, economic and military coercion to essentially reshape the international order in the Indo-Pacific — for its own benefit — is considered a major motivation for the U.S. and Japan’s steadily strengthening alliance in the region.

Finally, on Wednesday, Austin will conclude the trip after traveling to Camp Asaka to observe the multi-day military exercise Yama Sakura unfolding in real-time.

“This exercise has taken place every year since 1982, but this is the first time that we’re actually incorporating more and formal Australian participation, which is something that Secretary Austin and his counterparts in Australia and Japan announced a few weeks ago in Darwin,” the senior defense official said.

Over recent months, leaders within the trilateral security alliance between Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. have been hosting nascent discussions with their Japanese counterparts about cooperating on a project-by-project basis under AUKUS Pillar 2, which entails the co-development of disruptive warfighting technologies across six focus areas.

In response to questions from DefenseScoop on Sunday regarding what capability areas may be prioritized first with Japan, the senior defense official confirmed consultations are ongoing, but declined to identify the specific technologies in question for nearest-term acceleration.

They committed to sharing more information after the trip to Tokyo ends.

“Importantly, we continue to work with Japan on deepening our trilateral and multilateral security partnerships — whether that’s with the Republic of Korea, Australia, the Philippines and others,” the senior defense official repeatedly emphasized during the briefing.

Notably, ahead of departing for this trip, DOD planners told reporters who were invited that there was a possibility that the secretary and his crew would also visit South Korea along the way. That changed after South Korea‘s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Dec. 3 — and subsequently lifted it hours later after massive public outcry and lawmakers unanimously rejected the decree.

“When Secretary Austin meets with his counterparts, they often spend a good deal of time comparing assessments of major events in the region. And the trilateral relationship between the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea has been a top tier priority for the Biden administration from the very start,” the senior defense official said in response to questions from DefenseScoop about whether the secretary planned to discuss the chaos and still-unfolding fallout in South Korea with his Japanese partners.

“And I think there is every reason to expect that all parties involved will remain quite committed — and certainly between Washington and Tokyo — quite committed to carrying on that progress,” they said.