Japan, Taiwan To Conduct Regular Joint Maritime Drills, with Other Partners Possibly Joining in the Future

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:22 JST, October 3, 2025

The coast guards of Japan and Taiwan are planning to conduct regular joint drills and intend to hold joint exercises with allied and like-minded countries in the future, according to sources.

In June, the Japan Coast Guard and Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration dispatched large patrol vessels to conduct a joint maritime exercise in the waters off the Sakishima Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. The drill follows a joint exercise last year off the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture and is the second such exercise since diplomatic relations between the two sides were severed in 1972.

The exercises represent an apparent further strengthening of cooperation in waters close to the East and South China Seas and around Taiwan, where Chinese military vessels are increasingly engaging in coercive behavior.

According to sources close to Japan-Taiwan affairs, the Nagoya Coast Guard Office’s helicopter-equipped Mizuho vessel, which weighs 6,000 gross ton and is 134 meters long, took part in the exercise. From the Taiwan side, the 5,919-gross-ton, 126-meter-long Yunlin, one of their largest patrol ships, participated.

The two vessels simulated a maritime rescue operation during a joint training session conducted on the high seas south of the Sakishima Islands. Unlike the drill that took place last July, the two vessels approached each other within visual range and strengthened their on-site collaboration abilities through information sharing and coordinating over areas that needed to be searched.

After the exercise, the Mizuho sailed to Southeast Asia for joint exercises with the Malaysian coast guard and anti-piracy patrols.

Japan and Taiwan have maintained a working relationship since ties were severed in 1972 through the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association, Japan’s liaison organization for Taiwan, and its counterpart, the Taiwan-Japan Relations Association. The Japanese government officially defines the joint drills with Taiwan as part of “exchanges” based on memorandums of understanding on maritime rescue signed by the two associations in 2017 and 2024.

In addition to these memorandums, however, the Japanese and Taiwan coast guards have in recent years deepened cooperative relations through unofficial reciprocal visits by senior officials, including the coast guard chiefs. Officials have been dispatched to Taipei and Tokyo, among other locations, and are believed to have deepened cooperative relations through opinion exchanges, consultations and study tours.

The moves come against the backdrop of China’s coercive behavior in waters around Okinawa Prefecture’s Senkaku Islands and Taiwan. In early September, ruling party lawmakers and others from Japan and Taiwan met in Taipei to discuss cooperation and personnel exchanges between coast guard authorities.

The JCG is also strengthening bilateral ties with the United States, the Philippines and India to maintain and strengthen maritime order based on the rule of law. Similar collaborations are also being made in “minilateral” partnerships between Japan, the United States and South Korea; Japan, the United States and the Philippines; and Japan, the United States, Australia and India.