Shinjiro Koizumi

Force in Play

Coordinating international messaging on Chinese pressure while overseeing Japan's air-defense response

What began with Chinese carrier fighters lighting up Japanese jets with radar near Okinawa has mushroomed into a full-spectrum crisis. After China and Russia sent bombers circling Japan, the US flew B-52s with Japanese fighters over the Sea of Japan.

Updated 5 days ago

Force in Play

Front-line manager of the radar crisis, publicly challenging Beijing’s version of events.

Chinese J-15 jets from the carrier Liaoning repeatedly locked targeting radar onto Japanese F-15s near Okinawa on December 6, forcing Japan to scramble jets and file an emergency protest. Days later, Washington publicly accused Beijing of destabilizing behavior and vowed its commitment to Japan was "unwavering."

Updated 6 days ago

Built World

Oversees Self‑Defense Forces’ disaster response deployments

On December 8, 2025, a magnitude 7.6 offshore earthquake struck off Aomori Prefecture in the Sanriku region at 23:15 JST. It shook Hachinohe at a maximum 'upper 6' intensity and triggered tsunami warnings forecasting waves up to three meters for parts of Hokkaido, Aomori, and Iwate.

Updated 6 days ago

Force in Play

Leads Japan’s military response and public framing of the radar incident

In early December 2025, China's Liaoning carrier strike group sailed through waters near Japan's southwest island chain and into the western Pacific. Over two days, between Okinawa's main island and Minamidaito and then east of Kikai Island, it conducted roughly 100 take-offs and landings of J-15 fighters and helicopters.

Updated 6 days ago

Force in Play

Leading Japan’s military and diplomatic response to the radar lock incidents

On December 6, 2025, two Chinese J-15 carrier fighters from the Liaoning locked fire-control radar on Japanese F-15s over international waters southeast of Okinawa. Japan's defense minister Shinjiro Koizumi called the lock-ons "dangerous" and "extremely regrettable," and Tokyo lodged a formal protest.

Updated 6 days ago

Rule Changes

Managing first wave of partner government responses; expected to host Philippine Defense Secretary Teodoro for bilateral talks

Japan banned the export of lethal weapons in 1967 and tightened the restriction to a near-total prohibition in 1976. On April 21, 2026, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's cabinet scrapped those limits, allowing Japanese companies to sell fighter jets, missiles, warships, and combat drones to 17 partner countries for the first time since World War II. Each sale of a lethal system must still pass a case-by-case review by Japan's National Security Council, and buyers must pledge to use the equipment consistent with the United Nations Charter. On the same day, Takaichi sent a ritual sacred-tree offering to the Yasukuni Shrine — which enshrines Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals — triggering a separate Chinese diplomatic complaint that compounded Beijing's condemnation of the arms export decision.

Updated Apr 22