The drill, due to run through March 25, is "the first large-scale" exercise in the Indo-Pacific region between the GSDF's amphibious brigade and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit
A Marine Corps video describes the combined U.S.-Japanese maritime warfare unit as a “stand-in-force” ready to engage in high-intensity maritime warfare at any time.
A recently completed six-month deployment of U.S. and Japanese Marines was not a training exercise but rather a decided effort to replicate and rehearse actual combat scenarios the forces would likely encounter in island areas near Japan and Taiwan.
January 25, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo
A secret 2015 agreement reached between the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) and the U.S. Marine Corps has come to light. The deal agrees to station the JGSDF’s remote island defense unit, the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB), at U.S. Camp Schwab in Henoko, Nago City. The matter was not decided on by the entire Ministry of Defense and is a significant issue that violates civilian control, a major principle underlying democracies in which politics prevail over military affairs.
The JGSDF and the U.S. Marine Corps’ top leaders in Okinawa had come to an agreement, coordinated, and presented a joint JGSDF-facility proposal to the parties concerned.