Shinjirō Koizumi

French fighter jets are scheduled to arrive in Japan in mid-September to take part in joint exercises.

At his September eighth news conference, Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the latest dispatch would symbolize the deepening of Japan-India defense cooperation.

He added that efforts would be made to share tactics and improve flying skills, noting it would be an important endeavor to lay the foundation for future cooperation.

With first come logistical issues.

Foundation suggests hiring foreigners for shrinking SDF an influential private research institution called on the Defense Ministry to consider recruiting foreign nationals to fill the depleting ranks of the self-defense forces.

A study team at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation submitted the proposal to Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi on September 2.

The team included former defense officials, such as Tetsuro Kuro, a former vice defense minister, and Koji Yamazaki, a former chief of staff of the Joint Staff.

The proposal said an expansion of SDF recruitment should be included in the three key national security-related documents that will be revised this year.

So last year, last December 2025, there was, you know, somebody in the Takachi administration had said something about possibility that this is under discussion.

Recently in July, the defense minister Shinjiro Koizumi stated to like a news broadcast that the discussion about nuclear weapons is unavoidable.

You know, We're basically potentially entering a world where we're going to have multiple nuclear-powered states.

And I don't think that the Trump administration is really thinking about that right now.

Well, the Defence Ministers of Japan, Australia and Indonesia held their first ever trilateral talks this week.

And last week, when Japan's Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi was in Canberra, he and Richard Marles announced a new dimension of the increasing defence cooperation between Australia and Japan, the potential use of Australian testing ranges to trial Japanese hypersonic missiles.

The Woomera Range Complex in South Australia is the largest land-based test range in the world, and America reportedly tested an advanced hypersonic weapon there in March this year.

Joining us to discuss these developments is Dr Donna Weeks, Emeritus Professor at Musashino University, Tokyo.

Here is the news.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi announced at a press conference on the 28th that he had signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense to acquire land in the Japanese Railway Station in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture.

The target is the Japanese Railway Station Setouchi Railway Station Kure District, which was closed in September 2023, with an area of ​​about 140 hectares.

The Ministry of Defense plans to build a multi-functional complex defense base on this land.

At the same time, at the same time, our Industry and Commerce Minister, Piyush Goyal, is in Japan.

And you know what? That is almost on the heels of the Japanese defense minister, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, who was in India, and he had come to India after conversations with New Zealand and Australia.

After New Zealand and Australia, he came to India.

He visited an Indian naval warship, INS Chennai, and then came into Delhi, and there was also a defense dialogue, the India-Japan Defense Dialogue.

That you can't say for Australia or Japan or Taiwan or South Korea or the Philippines today.

That is the difference, and that is why India becomes a very important player for these other powers in the Indo-Pacific who are now worried about where the Americans might be the next time push comes to the shove.

And that is the reason the Japanese Defense Minister was here, the Indian, the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister has gone following up into Japan, the Indian National Security Advisor is in China, and Indian External Affairs Minister is in Moscow.

Now, once again, if you go back to these spheres of insecurity, what is each sphere doing? Everybody who's feeling scared, one, one, they're trying to come together.

Australia is very concerned about, uh, North Korea's nuclear program as well as its, uh, missile program.

Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi stressed the importance of cooperation among Japan, the United States, and South Korea as indispensable for regional peace and stability.

I'm Karen Schemas.

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