Gen Nakatani

Another point that might have gone unnoticed in this Hanguang exercise was that while Taiwan was conducting its exercise, Japan, the United States, and the Philippines were also carrying out corresponding military exercises.

This shows that exercises and drills in the Indo-Pacific region are gradually taking shape into something similar to the one-theater concept proposed by former Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani.

General Yu noted that while Taiwan was running Hong Kong, its neighbors weren't just sitting on the sidelines.

Right before Hong Kong 42 kicked off in early August, Japan, the U.S., and the Philippines had just wrapped up back-to-back drills of their own.

And then, even more pointedly, just two weeks before Hong Kong started, those same three countries, Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S., ran a smaller trilateral drill right in the Philippines' waters, practicing things like anti-submarine warfare and just generally making sure their navies can actually work together.

So you've basically got this rolling wave of drills, Hawaii, then the Philippines, then Taiwan, all stacked up in the same six-week window.

That's exactly the kind of thing General Yu was pointing to when he brought up this idea from former Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, that the whole Indo-Pacific is basically becoming one giant connected battle space or one theater instead of a bunch of separate regional drills that don't talk to each other.

Nakatani proposed the one-theater concept to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Haxes at their March 30, 2025 meeting in Tokyo, according to reports that trace back to Japan's Asahi Shimbun.

The nonpartisan Parliamentary Association for Reconsidering Human Rights Diplomacy said Japan's reaction, despite being a state party to the court, was far weaker than those of other countries.

The association is co-chaired by former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, and former Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is a member.

It called on the government to clearly protest the sanctions and demand their immediate withdrawal.

The criticism was directed at the Japanese government's response to the sanctions, which has so far been limited to describing them as very unfortunate in remarks by Prime Minister Sunay Takaichi and a statement from the Foreign Ministry press secretary.

Another point that might have gone unnoticed in this Hanguang exercise was that while Taiwan was conducting its exercise, Japan, the United States, and the Philippines were also carrying out corresponding military exercises.

This shows that exercises and drills in the Indo-Pacific region are gradually taking shape into something similar to the one-theater concept proposed by former Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani.

General Yu noted that while Taiwan was running Hong Kong, its neighbors weren't just sitting on the sidelines.

Right before Hong Kong 42 kicked off in early August, Japan, the U.S., and the Philippines had just wrapped up back-to-back drills of their own.

And then, even more pointedly, just two weeks before Hong Kong started, those same three countries, Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S., ran a smaller trilateral drill right in the Philippines' waters, practicing things like anti-submarine warfare and just generally making sure their navies can actually work together.

So you've basically got this rolling wave of drills, Hawaii, then the Philippines, then Taiwan, all stacked up in the same six-week window.

That's exactly the kind of thing General Yu was pointing to when he brought up this idea from former Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, that the whole Indo-Pacific is basically becoming one giant connected battle space or one theater instead of a bunch of separate regional drills that don't talk to each other.

Nakatani proposed the one-theater concept to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Haxes at their March 30, 2025 meeting in Tokyo, according to reports that trace back to Japan's Asahi Shimbun.

Although the two cases are fundamentally different in nature, the government's response to the US sanctions is exceptionally cautious.

Former Defense Minister Gen Nakatani spoke with less restraint.

"I condemn this in strong terms as a grave infringement of the rule of law," he said.

Nakatani is from Takaichi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.