Hegseth to meet Japan counterpart Wednesday as Tokyo bolsters defence

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, after a meeting of NATO defence ministers at the alliances headquarters, in Brussels, Belgium October 15, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman

TOKYO - U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is set to hold talks with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi in Tokyo on Wednesday, as Japan strives to fortify its defence posture and strengthen its decades-old alliance with the United States.

The meeting comes a day after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told visiting U.S. President Donald Trump that she was determined to bolster Japans defence capabilities and expressed her desire to realise a new golden age of the alliance.

Japan already hosts the largest concentration of U.S. forces overseas, including an aircraft carrier, a Marine expeditionary unit and dozens of fighter jets.

Takaichi said in her policy speech last week that the government plans to raise Japans defence spending to 2% of gross domestic product in the current fiscal year to March 2026, from about 1.8% currently.

That would be two years earlier than originally planned, but the level falls short of NATOs new defence investment pledge of 5% of GDP by 2035.

Japan regards the security environment surrounding the country as the gravest since the end of World War Two due to destabilising factors in the region including Chinas military expansion and North Koreas missile and nuclear programmes.

Koizumi, son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, ran in the