Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military have drawn up a draft joint operation plan that would enable the setup of an attack base along the southwest Nansei island chain in the event of a Taiwan contingency, according to Japanese government sources.
Japan and the United States will likely agree to begin work to formalize an operation plan when their foreign and defense chiefs meet in early January under the “two-plus-two” framework, the sources said Thursday.
The development will likely draw a backlash from China, which regards the self-ruled island of Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Under the draft plan, U.S. Marines will set up a temporary attack base at the initial stage of contingency on the Nansei Islands, a chain stretching southwest from the prefectures of Kagoshima and Okinawa toward Taiwan.
The U.S. military will get support from the SDF to send troops to the islands when a Taiwan contingency appears imminent, the sources said.
Such a deployment, however, would make the islands the target of attack by China’s military, putting the lives of residents there at risk. Legal changes would be needed in Japan to realize the plan, the sources said.
The SDF and the U.S. forces have around 40 candidate sites along the Nansei chain, which consists of around 200 islands, including uninhabited ones. Most of the locations have residents, the sources said.
As longtime security allies, Japan and the United States have been strengthening defense cooperation and boosting the interoperability of the SDF and the U.S. military. They face threats from China’s military buildup and assertive moves at sea as well as North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.
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