To allow the Self-Defense Forces to act in wider areas of the Pacific Ocean, the government intends to mention the need to build or improve ports, runways and networks of warning and surveillance radar.
Prior to the revision of the three documents, the Defense Ministry newly established an office for the Pacific Ocean defense initiative, to begin full-fledged consideration of practical measures for enhancing defense capabilities in the Pacific Ocean.
The ministry will launch such measures as research for building a port next fiscal year on Tokyo’s Ioto island, also known as Iwo Jima in the United States.
Ioto island is located midway between the Izu Islands and Guam, where U.S. forces have bases, and on the Second Island Chain, which China regards as a strategic military defense line. Members of the Maritime Self-Defense Force and some other government officials are permanently stationed on the island.
On Kita-Daitojima island in Okinawa Prefecture, the government will accelerate a plan to deploy the Air Self-Defense Force’s mobile warning and surveillance radar units.
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/defense-security/20260111-303472/