Japan is joining the U.S. in its first-ever participation in the Valiant Shield 2024 military drills.
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00:00Japan is making its first appearance in the biennial U.S.-led Valiant Shield military
00:05exercises in the Western Pacific.
00:08Valiant Shield is one of the U.S.'s largest war games and trains all branches of the militaries
00:13involved on how to work together in this part of Asia.
00:17Japan says this year armed forces will also carry out drills in waters that extend from
00:22Japan to the Philippines and the east coast of Taiwan.
00:25The drills will last until June 18th.
00:30As military activity ramps up in the Indo-Pacific, countries like Japan are boosting their defenses
00:35in case of a conflict.
00:37For more on this and how it could affect Taiwan, our reporter Jaime Okan spoke to Robert Ward,
00:42Director of Geoeconomics and Strategy at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
00:48So in terms of this exercise, this Valiant Shield 2024, Japan's first time joining these
00:54exercises.
00:55What does that say about the role and the position it's going to play in maintaining
00:58security in the Indo-Pacific?
00:59Well, Japan's in the middle of one of perhaps the biggest set of defense reforms that it's
01:06undertaken since the end of the Second World War.
01:09So really major stuff.
01:12And it set out its plans in the 2022 National Security Strategy, which was the end, if you
01:18like, of the post-war view that had predominated basically that Japan would rely on the U.S.
01:25for all its defense, would be quite passive.
01:30One of the key bits about how Japan views its strategic environment now is it sees it's
01:36important to disrupt invasions and the like outside its own territory.
01:45And this is a really important psychological, emotional, strategic leap for Japan.
01:52But that means that it has to work far more closely now, operationally, strategically
01:57with the United States.
01:59Is there any kind of message that Japan is trying to send here in conducting these large-scale
02:04exercises with the U.S.?
02:06Well, with Valiant Shield 2024, clearly Japan's trying to do and the U.S. trying to do a number
02:11of things.
02:13It's very important strategically for the U.S. and Japan to be sending this signal to
02:40China.
02:41And in terms of Taiwan and a potential war there, how important is Japan in possibly
02:46working with the United States to help Taiwan in the event of a conflict?
02:51I think over the last couple of years, you've seen quite a big change in how Japanese government,
02:58Japanese politicians articulate the risks around Taiwan.
03:04When Prime Minister Suga met President Biden a couple of years ago, he spoke about the
03:10importance of the stability of the Taiwan Strait, the security and stability in the
03:14Taiwan Strait, which was, for Japan at the time, quite a big thing to say.
03:20Since then, you had other people, politicians from the cabinet saying Taiwan's security
03:26is Japan's security, et cetera.
03:30So Japan's, the government's now being far more forward-leaning on recognizing the importance
03:35of Taiwan's security for Japan.