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U.S.-Japan Security Relationship Fact sheet released by the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs U.S. Department of State, June 26, 2000

The United States and Japan have maintained a strong security relationship for nearly half a century. During the American occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952, the U.S. assumed full responsibility for Japan's defense, stationing thousands of military personnel in Japan and taking control of all Japanese land, sea and air bases.

On January 19, 1960, the two governments signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, which provides the basis for a close relationship between the two governments and their defense establishments. There are approximately 100,000 U.S. military personnel deployed in the Asia-Pacific region today, and almost 50,000 are in Japan. Under the terms of the Security Treaty, these troops contribute to the defense of Japan and to the maintenance of international peace and security in the region.

Japan's Self Defense Forces (SDF) have gradually expanded capabilities and assumed primary responsibility for immediate conventional national defense. The SDF mission, which the United States supports, is to defend Japan's homeland, territorial seas and skies. As a matter of policy, Japan has forsworn nuclear armaments and forbids arms sales abroad. A bilateral agreement signed in 1983, however, allows the export of Japanese defense and dual-use technology to the United States.

Despite changes in the post-Cold War strategic landscape, the U.S.-Japan alliance continues to be based on shared vital interests: stability in the Asia-Pacific region; the preservation and promotion of political and economic freedoms; support for human rights and democratic institutions; and the securing of prosperity for our two peoples and the other peoples of the region.

On April 17, 1996, President Clinton and Prime Minister Hashimoto signed the U.S.-Japan Joint Declaration on Security, which reaffirmed both countries' continuing commitment to our security alliance. The security relationship between the two countries covers a broad range of cooperation, including close and frequent consultations by senior officials on key security issues; the development and production of defense equipment and armaments; Japan's Host Nation Support, which helps defray the costs of maintaining U.S. forces in Japan; and bilateral planning, training, and exercises.

In September 1997, the U.S. and Japan issued the Guidelines for U.S.-Japan Defense Cooperation. The aim of these Guidelines is to create a solid basis for more effective and credible defense cooperation between our two countries under normal circumstances, in case of an armed attack against Japan, and in situations in areas surrounding Japan. The Guidelines also provide a general framework and policy direction for the roles and missions of the two countries and ways of defense cooperation and coordination, both under normal circumstances and during contingencies.

Japan and the U.S. are working through the Special Action Committee on Okinawa (SACO), established in 1995, to minimize the burdens on the people of resulting from the activities of U.S. forces there. The SACO Final Report, issued in 1996, contains recommendations to realign, consolidate, and reduce U.S. facilities and areas, and adjust operational and administrative procedures of U.S. forces in Okinawa, consistent with their obligations under the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security and other related agreements. The U.S. and Japan are working together on the implementation of the SACO Final Report.

Japan has been engaged in a ballistic missile defense dialogue with the U.S. since 1987, when the two countries signed an agreement on Japanese participation in research for the Strategic Defense Initiative. The U.S. and Japan founded a Theater Missile Defense (TMD) Working Group in 1993 to study the possibility of U.S.-Government of Japan technological cooperation. In December 1998, the Japan Security Council approved a plan for joint TMD technical research with the U.S. focusing on a sea-based TMD system. The plan requested $8.4 million in Japanese research funding for 1999. In 1999, the U.S. and Japan signed an agreement to cooperate on TMD research. Later that year, both sides also signed an agreement under which the U.S. will cooperate in Japan's development of an indigenous satellite capability, further strengthening bilateral security cooperation.

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