Japan and the United States released an interim report Wednesday on revising their bilateral defense cooperation guidelines by the year's end, in which they call for more global military cooperation between the two countries that will "benefit the (Asia-Pacific) region and beyond."
The defense guidelines, which were last revised in 1997, set forth general roles for the U.S. military and the Self-Defense Forces to engage in joint operations. They mainly focus on the defense of Japan and emergencies in the nearby region, presumably including the Korean Peninsula, though this is not stated explicitly.
Wednesday's interim report indicates that U.S.-Japan military cooperation under the new guidelines will not be confined by geography, a major departure from the 1997 guidelines, and will emphasize the "global nature" of the Japan-U.S. military alliance.