U.S. to announce military command revamp in Japan, official says

The United States will unveil a major revamp of its military command structure in Japan and other measures to deepen defense ties with its Asian ally at high-level security talks in Tokyo on Sunday, a U.S. official said.

The overhaul comes as Tokyo looks to establish a new joint headquarters to oversee its armed forces by March to coordinate better with Washington on growing regional threats they see emanating from China and North Korea.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will hold talks with their Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara later on Sunday.

"Secretary Austin plans to announce that the United States intends to reconstitute U.S. Forces Japan as a Joint Force Headquarters, reporting to the commander of U.S. INDOPACOM," the U.S. official told a briefing ahead of the talks.

The command will be headed by a three-star general, the official said, not the four-star rank that Japan had requested.

For the first time, the ministerial talks between the U.S. and Japan will also cover "extended deterrence", a term used to describe the U.S. commitment to use its nuclear forces to deter attacks on allies.

Japan provides a base for the U.S. to project its military power in Asia, hosting 54,000 American troops, hundreds of U.S. aircraft and Washington's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier strike group.

Prompted by China's growing military might and regular missile tests by nuclear-armed North Korea, Japan is stepping back from decades of postwar pacifism. In 2022 it unveiled a plan to double defense spending to 2% of gross domestic product.

Austin and Kihara also met their South Korean counterpart, Shin Won-sik, for talks in Tokyo on Sunday where they