In Japan, joint military exercises with France against a backdrop of regional tensions

This September, men from the French Army’s 6th Light Armored Brigade were at the Japanese military base of Ojihara, near the city of Sendai in the northeast of the country, for exercises with the 9th Division of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces. The aim was to coordinate the two forces in a simulated urban guerrilla warfare.

These exercises, called “Brunet-Takamori”, are the first conducted on Japanese soil. And, given Japan’s constitutional restrictions that prohibit it from projecting forces abroad in the context of an armed conflict, they mainly present a defensive advantage: “The French army is significantly engaged in theaters of operation, which is not the case for the Japanese self-defense forces. We can actually imagine operational scenarios that would be in a defensive mode in the face of a possible aggression on Japanese territory.”confirms French General Valentin Seiler.

These exercises could have been conducted in secret, but the media were warned. Commander Fumio Fujioka justifies it by the current tensions in the region: “Currently, with the increase in military capabilities in the region, we consider that our country is facing the most difficult situation since the war. To significantly strengthen our defense, we believe that it is essential to get closer to countries that share our vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. Increasing our cooperation with France and making this known publicly at home and abroad helps strengthen deterrence.”

Japan’s primary goal is therefore to warn China, Russia and North Korea, without naming them, that Tokyo has many allies, and not just the United States. But in doing so, Japan, whose pacifist constitution is a symbol, is returning to military tones, even if it means that diplomatic messages become rarer and less audible, and at the risk of fueling escalation. Which obviously worries a part of the Japanese population.