Japan's top officer says Keen Sword will go ahead unchanged despite Okinawa Marine murder case

Japan's top uniformed officer said on Friday, 9 October, that Tokyo is not considering cancelling or changing Keen Sword, this month's large Japan-US joint field exercise, after a US Marine based in Okinawa was arrested on suspicion of robbery and murder. Gen. Hiroaki Uchikura, chief of the Joint Staff, made the remarks at his regular press conference at the Defence Ministry, Jiji Press, Nihonkai Shimbun and Ryukyu Shimpo reported.

Uchikura said he personally felt the case was serious and took it gravely, but he stressed the importance of the Japan-US alliance and said the need for the training should be judged separately from the response to the incident, according to Jiji and Ryukyu Shimpo.

The US side has taken the same line. III Marine Expeditionary Force told Ryukyu Shimpo on 8 October that there would be no change to the exercise, even though it falls within the month-long period of reflection imposed on US personnel on Okinawa after the arrest.

The suspect, a 20-year-old lance corporal assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, was arrested on suspicion of killing and robbing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha, and police say he has denied the allegations. A 48-hour period of training that barred off-base liberty and alcohol gave way on Friday to the 30-day period of reflection, which confines all US service members on Okinawa to their quarters or off-base homes between midnight and 5 a.m. Okinawa Governor Genta Koja delivered protest letters to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in Tokyo on Wednesday and has called for a review of the status of forces agreement, Stars and Stripes reported.

Missiles on the islands nearest Taiwan

Keen Sword 27 is scheduled for 19 to 29 October. Japan's Joint Staff said on 29 September that about 45,000 Japanese troops, 6,100 vehicles, around 40 ships and 260 aircraft will take part, alongside US Indo-Pacific Command forces and contingents from Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Philippines.

The exercise carries particular weight for Taiwan. Defence Ministry planning documents show the US Marine Corps will deploy its NMESIS anti-ship missile launchers and MADIS air-defence vehicles to Yonaguni, Japan's westernmost island about 110 km from Taiwan, for the first time, with about 60 troops from the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment and the US Army, Stars and Stripes reported. Japan's Type-25 surface-to-ship missile will also leave its home base at Camp Kengun for the first time, though none of the systems will be fired.

Taken together, the Japanese and US statements indicate that both governments intend to keep the alliance's largest field exercise, including its first missile deployments to the islands closest to Taiwan, on schedule while handling the Okinawa case as a separate question of discipline and status-of-forces rules.