Photo/Illutration Maj. Gen. Hajime Kitajima, right, commander of the GSDF Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, and Brig. Gen. Trevor Hall, commanding general of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade in Okinawa, speak to reporters in Kin, Okinawa Prefecture, on March 12. (Takashi Watanabe)

Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force and the U.S. Marine Corps are conducting joint exercises designed to practice recapturing remote Japanese islands that will continue through March 17.

On March 12, the Iron Fist exercise was held at the Kin Blue Beach Training Area in Kin, Okinawa Prefecture.

“We will show to the world that any attempt to invade Japan will end in failure in the face of the Japan-U.S. alliance,” said Maj. Gen. Hajime Kitajima, commander of the GSDF Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, at a joint news conference on March 12.

The landing exercise was initially scheduled to be open to the media. However, due to poor weather, the drill was delayed until conditions improved, and then carried out without media presence.

The Iron Fist drills, which date to fiscal 2005, were all held in the United States until fiscal 2022.

Since then, the drills have been conducted in Kyushu and around the Nansei island chain, which includes Okinawa.

Okinoerabujima island in Kagoshima Prefecture and the U.S. Marine Corps Northern Training Area in Okinawa Prefecture are hosting the three-week drills for the first time this fiscal year.

Some residents have raised concerns about the recent series of large-scale joint exercises between Japanese and U.S. forces.

Roughly 800 personnel from the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the GSDF Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, which is tasked with defending remote islands, are participating in the drills, along with around 1,300 members of the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy.

The U.S. military has used helicopters instead of Osprey aircraft, which were grounded following a crash that killed eight service members off Yakushima island in Kagoshima Prefecture in November last year.

Brig. Gen. Trevor Hall, commanding general of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade in Okinawa, said, “Skills are perishable.”

He emphasized the importance of conducting regularly scheduled exercises with allies “to sustain proficiency.”

Britain, Germany, France and Australia joined as observer participants as they had in the last fiscal year.

The Philippines and the Netherlands also observed this fiscal year for the first time to strengthen cooperation with like-minded nations.

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