Japan and U.S. Agree to Broaden Military Alliance

TOKYO — The United States and Japan agreed on Thursday to broaden their security alliance, expanding Japan’s role while maintaining an American military presence. The deal underscored the two countries’ efforts to respond to growing challenges from China and North Korea in a time of budget constraints.

The agreement calls for construction of a new missile-defense radar system in Japan, deployment of American drone aircraft here for the first time and joint efforts to combat cyberattack threats, among other steps. It was signed during a visit here by the secretaries of state and defense, John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, who are meeting with their Japanese counterparts.

Both Tokyo and Washington are working to revamp a security alliance that dates back to the cold war. The United States hopes to signal that its increased military, economic and diplomatic focus on Asia will go on despite the possibility of deep cuts in Pentagon budgets. For Japan, the agreement appeared to give American approval to its still modest expansion of its military capabilities, as Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, seeks to put his country on a more equal footing with its longtime military protector.

“Our bilateral defense cooperation, including America’s commitment to the security of Japan, is a critical component of our overall relationship,” Mr. Hagel told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday afternoon, “and to the Obama administration’s rebalance to Asia-Pacific.”

A key issue during the talks was how to respond to China, which has been sending Coast Guard ships to contest Japan’s control of a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. The agreement announced on Thursday says the United States and Japan should be ready to deal with “coercive and destabilizing behaviors,” and called on China to adhere to international norms. While the United States has refused to take sides in the dispute, Mr. Hagel repeated American assurances that the islands are covered by the security treaty, which obligates the United States to help Japan defend itself if attacked.

Another significant step was the decision to allow the United States to place a new X-band radar system in Kyogamisaki, near the city of Kyoto, to better protect both countries against military threats from North Korea. The powerful new radar will also save the Pentagon money by freeing up American Aegis radar ships that now patrol the waters near North Korea for use elsewhere in the world.

“We’d like to share views on the security environment surrounding Japan, including the issue of North Korea,” Japan’s defense minister, Itsunori Onodera, told Mr. Hagel as the meeting began.

American secretaries of state and defense have been holding joint meetings with their Japanese counterparts since 1990, but Thursday was the first time they did so in Japan. Japanese and American officials said the choice of location showed the United States’s renewed commitment to the Asia-Pacific region. Thursday was also the first of the so-called two-plus-two meetings to include an agreement to work on specific cybersecurity projects.

The United States said it would deploy surveillance drones in Japan, and also P-8 aircraft, which are highly advanced manned reconnaissance airplanes. Together they are intended to monitor the Western Pacific. Addressing a long-festering issue, the two sides agreed that 9,000 American Marines would be relocated from bases in Okinawa to locations outside Japan, with 5,000 of them sent to Guam. Japan agreed to pay part of the cost of the transfer.

For its part, Japan said it would bolster its security capabilities by creating a new American-style National Security Council, and would expand assistance to Southeast Asian countries to help them resist Chinese territorial claims. Japan also pledged to increase military spending over all, despite the country’s need to pare down its huge national debt. Japan said it might also change its current interpretation of its pacifist Constitution, drafted by American occupiers after World War II, to allow its military to come to the aid of American forces under attack, something it cannot now legally do.

“Our relationship has never been stronger or better than it is today,” Mr. Kerry said. “We are continuing to adapt, however, to confront the different challenges of the 21st century.”

Even so, the efforts by Japan to enhance its military capabilities present the United States with a conundrum. While American officials have welcomed Japan’s willingness to shoulder a larger share of the region’s security burden, those moves have been watched warily in South Korea, another key American defense partner. In particular, past denials by Japanese leaders, like the current prime minister, Mr. Abe, that Korean women were forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese military during the war have angered many Koreans, who still harbor bitter memories of Japan’s brutal early 20th-century colonization of their peninsula.

As a result, the United States has struggled to get its two closest Asian allies to conduct even low-level military cooperation. In a nod to those problems, the agreement Thursday called specifically for trilateral cooperation between the United States, South Korea and Japan to face common threats, like North Korea’s nuclear program.

“Today we have seen a meeting of minds between Japan and the United States with respect to this situation,” said Fumio Kishida, the Japanese foreign minister. “We are decidedly opposed to the attempt to change the status quo through coercion.”

Mr. Kerry also sought to allay Chinese fears about a closer United States-Japan alliance, saying that the United States desires a cooperative relationship with China on the issue of North Korea and other areas of common ground.

“We also seek to find the things we can cooperate on,” he said, but he added that the United States has been “very clear about our interests and those things that we think represent lines that we think should not be crossed,” including on the matter of the islands dispute with Japan. While the United States is not weighing in on that matter, he said “we do recognize Japan’s administration of those islands.”

He added, “A rising China is welcome as long as that China wants to engage according to international standards.”

Chinese officials were unavailable for comment on the agreement Thursday, which was a national holiday in China.

Japan and U.S. Agree to Broaden Military Alliance

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and MARTIN FACKLER

Published: October 3, 2013