Self-Defense Forces members conduct a training exercise using an F-2 fighter jet at the commercial Oita Airport as local citizens protest. (Video footage by Takayuki Kozaki)

Photo/Illutration Two Self-Defense Force F-2 fighter jets prepare to take off from commercial Oita Airport on Nov. 13. (Ryuta Kuratomi)

OITA--Set against a backdrop of military fighter jets and passenger airliners sharing the runways, the Self-Defense Forces used a commercial airport for the first time in a training exercise simulating an attack on Japan. 

Four F-2 fighter jets based at Tsuiki Air Base in Fukuoka Prefecture landed at Oita Airport about 70 kilometers away on Nov. 13 under a simulation that the Tsuiki base had come under enemy attack, rendering it impossible for them to return there.

The exercise was a manifestation of the call included in national security documents compiled late in 2022 for greater use of public infrastructure by the SDF.

During the simulation, SDF members refueled the F-2 jets and inspected the planes before they flew back to the Tsuiki base about two hours later.

In the meantime, commercial jets landed and took off from the airport that had never been used in the past for such SDF training.

Civilian airports are considered an important backup base because should fighting break out, SDF bases would more than likely be among the first enemy targets.

However, along with fighter jet buffs who turned up at Oita Airport to photograph the planes, local citizens and prefectural assembly members gathered at a nearby park to protest the use of the commercial airport.

The massive joint training exercise began on Nov. 10 and will continue until Nov. 20. It will involve a total of about 30,000 SDF members from all three branches as well as about 10,000 U.S. military personnel.

Three other commercial airports--Amami and Tokunoshima in Kagoshima Prefecture as well as Okayama Momotaro Airport--will be used for similar training exercises. The Air Self-Defense Force does not have a facility at any of those three airports as well.

According to Defense Ministry sources, the training exercise is intended to deal with a potential Chinese attack on Taiwan.

Both Japan and the United States envisage Okinawa Prefecture playing a key role for rear-line support to respond to an attack on Taiwan.

But in the event of such an attack, SDF forces are to be posted to Kyushu, but SDF and U.S. military bases in the region are insufficient to receive such a large influx of personnel.

A SDF source said that in such a crisis, the more available bases there were the better.

(This article was written by Takayuki Kozaki, Ryuta Kuratomi and Kaigo Narisawa.)