The US and Japan agree to modernize their defense alliance

(Vatican Radio) There's been another move by Washington to pivot its military attention towards Asia, today announcing it'll update a defence agreement with Japan and will deploy new hardware there.

Listen to Vatican Radio's correspondent Alastair Wanklyn's report from Tokyo...


Speaking in Tokyo, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced U.S.troops will begin flying long-range observation drones from Japan and will set up a second radar station here to watch for missiles aimed at Japan and the U.S.

"Our two governments will work closely together to update the roles and responsibilities for each of our countries during peacetime and for all contingencies ."

Japan and the U.S. last updated their defence agreement 16 years ago. Since then, they've come to face a newly assertive China and North Korea has emerged with nuclear weapons.

Today's meeting was a so-called two plus two event, between the Japanese and U.S. defence and foreign secretaries. They discussed ongoing moves to rebalance the 35,000 or so U.S. troops based here to ease pressures on the local population. Japan will pay more than 3 billion dollars to upgrade facilities on the U.S. territory of Guam, so that 5,000 U.S. Marines can move there from Okinawa.

Meanwhile, Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry paid a visit to a war cemetery in Tokyo that houses the remains of unidentified Japanese soldiers. The gesture was politically sensitive, as it avoided the better-known Yasukuni Shrine, where the souls of war criminals are commemorated along with ordinary war dead.