The Defense Agency plans to update the scope of Japan-U.S. joint military exercises to reflect new threats in the post-Cold War era and to also allow the participation of other government ministries and agencies, sources close to the agency said Sunday.
The bilateral drills have until now focused on dealing with a large-scale invasion of Japan by a third party, namely, the former Soviet Union, and protecting Japan's air space and sea lanes.
The agency decided to revise the joint drills over concern that the current format hinders Japan from effectively responding to new threats, such as cyberterrorism, intrusions into Japanese waters by suspicious vessels, ballistic missile attacks, and spy attacks on nuclear power plants, the sources said.