A bipartisan group of U.S. policy experts recommended Wednesday that the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military create a combined joint task force to better cope with possible contingencies with China over Taiwan, as well as the South and East China seas, as part of an effort to strengthen the bilateral alliance.
Aside from the launch of such a task force, the study group suggested in a report titled "More Important than Ever — Renewing the U.S.-Japan Alliance for the 21st Century" that Tokyo and Washington expand joint and combined use of bases in Japan and engage in more structured joint operations planning in the face of China's regional assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
Chaired by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye, a former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, the group under the nonprofit Center for Strategic and International Studies urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government to spend "more than 1 percent" of gross domestic product on defense.