Photo/Illutration Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, right, meets on Sept. 25 with Gen. Chance Saltzman, the U.S. Space Force's chief of space operations. (Nobuhiko Tajima)

The United States Space Force is aiming high to counter aggression from China and North Korea by opening a base in Japan that would allow for greater cooperation with the Self-Defense Forces. 

In a meeting on Sept. 25 in Tokyo, visiting Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations in the U.S. Space Force, and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara agreed on the importance of cooperation in space defense.

At a news conference that day, Saltzman said that establishing a base in Japan would be the “next step” in cooperative efforts designed to bolster defense of space over the Indo-Pacific region.

A U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific base was established in Hawaii in November 2022 and operations of a Space Force base in South Korea began the following month.

Having a base in Japan would not only bolster the SDF’s space defense capabilities, but would provide another avenue for strengthening trilateral defense cooperation with the United States and South Korea.

Saltzman said that discussions had begun with officers of U.S. Forces Japan over such issues as when the Japan base would be established, what its duties would be and the scale of the base.

He added that space was becoming an increasingly important area of modern warfare and that the Space Force had to deal with threats such as directed-energy weapons, which do not fire solid projectiles but direct lasers, microwaves and various beams at their targets, as well as anti-satellite missile technology.

Saltzman said that China was an adversarial threat in various areas, including space. The Chinese military has made active moves in space, including conducting ballistic missile tests to destroy satellites.

Closer cooperation with the SDF would help address not only this, but also North Korea’s ballistic missile launches.

Saltzman said the U.S. Space Force would provide support to the SDF by sharing intelligence that would help Japan develop strike capabilities against enemy bases that are preparing to launch missiles at Japan. Obtaining accurate intelligence on the location of the enemy launch site would be vital to carrying out such a counterstrike.

The SDF has set up its own units for space defense in recent years and greater cooperation with the U.S. Space Force would bolster its efforts.

In 2020, the Space Operations Squadron was established at Fuchu Air Base in Tokyo as the SDF’s first unit specialized in space. In 2022, the Defense Ministry set up the Space Operations Group as a higher organization to command the squadron.

(This article was written by Taketsugu Sato, a senior staff writer, and Nobuhiko Tajima.)

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