US nears ‘win-win’ deal to use Japan shipyards to keep warships battle-ready amid rising tensions

Japan and the United States are close to reaching an agreement to allow privately operated Japanese shipyards to carry out major repairs on warships of the US Seventh Fleet, a move analysts say will benefit Japan financially while also strengthening US military readiness in the region.

US Ambassador to Tokyo Rahm Emanuel announced on Friday that a working group had been set up by the two governments to fine-tune the details of the agreement, which analysts suggest would offer significant benefits to both nations, including a financial windfall for Japanese shipyards and the ability to keep more US assets close to areas where they may be needed in the event tensions in the region continue to worsen.

Emanuel revealed the initiative during a visit to the Yokosuka naval base southwest of Tokyo, which is the forward base of the US Seventh Fleet, comprised of as many as 70 warships and submarines and 150 aircraft, with the USS Ronald Reagan serving as the fleet’s aircraft carrier.

The ambassador noted that the first warship to enter a Japanese dock for repairs is likely to be the USS New Orleans, an amphibious transport dock vessel based at the US Navy’s facility in Sasebo in Nagasaki prefecture.

“It makes complete political and strategic sense for standard repairs and upgrades to be carried out at Japanese docks instead of sending these ships all the way across the Pacific for the work to be done,” said Go Ito, a professor of international relations at Tokyo’s Meiji University.

“Tokyo is keen to cooperate with the US on security issues as it wants to tighten the alliance as tensions continue to rise,” he said.

Japan’s security outlook had shifted in the last 12 months, Ito said, from an almost entirely defensive posture to a