Japanese land, sea and air forces combined to simulate the recapture of a remote island on Thursday, a small drill that nonetheless underscores the country's concerns about far-flung territory claimed by China.
Bobbing silently into a cove on rubber boats and wielding plastic training rifles, about 50 troops training for a new marine force landed on the uninhabited outcropping, the size of 30 soccer fields, 600 km (370 miles) northeast of a string of islands held by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan.
"Our amphibious warfare skills still have a way to go and our training is in its early days," said Gen. Shigeru Iwasaki, chief of the Joint Staff, Japan's top uniformed officer.