Japan and U.S. defense chiefs discuss munitions production and ‘denial’ strategy

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi met with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) defense chiefs’ summit Wednesday in the Philippines, with the two discussing munitions production and their “deterrence through denial” strategy.

In a sign of the two defense chiefs’ close ties, the talks were their sixth in-person meeting.

Writing on X, Hegseth said the talks had focused on advancing a “shared vision of peace through strength.” 

“Our strategic alignment is essential to building a credible denial defense — supported by increased investment, greater access, more realistic training, and stronger production of the munitions our forces need,” Hegseth wrote.

U.S. and Japanese officials have said that the allies’ denial strategy is intended to make aggression physically infeasible or unacceptably costly, thereby deterring any attack.

Japan and the U.S. are also looking to further deepen defense-industrial cooperation and accelerate joint production of advanced missile systems. 

Koizumi is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with his U.S., Philippine, Indian and South Korean counterparts, as well as a quadrilateral meeting with the U.S., Philippine and Australian defense chiefs later Wednesday.

A meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun was, however, not in the cards. Beijing’s Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that Dong would be skipping this year’s expanded ASEAN defense ministerial meetings after attending in 2024 and 2025. China had, instead, sent its defense attache in the Philippines.

Dong and Koizumi held their one and only meeting at the event last year, just days before remarks by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in parliament about the possibility of Japanese military intervention over a Taiwan crisis plunged Tokyo’s relations with Beijing into their worst downturn in recent memory.

Koizumi said Tuesday that he would attend the summit through Friday as Japan looks to bolster defense cooperation with its regional partners in ASEAN and elsewhere.

Koizumi spoke with Hegseth over the phone last month, expressing a “strong sense of urgency” in boosting Japan’s defense capabilities as  Takaichi’s administration gears up to revise Japan’s three key national security documents by the end of this year.

It was not immediately clear if the two had on Wednesday discussed a push by Washington to get Tokyo to spend more on defense.

Tokyo is reportedly considering a new midterm defense spending target of 3.5% of gross domestic product, a figure that would match that of NATO, South Korea and other U.S. allies.

The Defense Ministry’s budget request in August hit nearly ¥9 trillion ($57.7 billion) for the next fiscal year — a figure likely to top ¥10 trillion once additions are made by the year-end following the security document revisions.

Any defense spending plan is expected to be included in the country’s revised National Security Strategy.

Japan is also in the middle of negotiations over host nation support for U.S. forces stationed in the country. During his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump is believed to have initially urged Tokyo to quadruple its support. Japan is concerned that the U.S. will again ask for a significant increase.