Japan to deploy GSDF units on island of Miyakojima

October 9, 2017

TOKYO- Japan's Defense Ministry plans to deploy security and missile units of the Ground Self-Defense Force on the island of Miyakojima in the southernmost prefecture of Okinawa as part of efforts to strengthen the defense of Nansei southwestern remote islands, informed sources have said.

A total of some 700 GSDF personnel will be stationed on the island, the sources said. The move is apparently intended to keep a check on China, which is accelerating military buildup and maritime expansion.

The ministry will also deploy GSDF units on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa and the island of Amami Oshima in Kagoshima Prefecture, north of Okinawa.

The deployment plans are based on the government's medium-term defense program aimed mainly at better protecting the Nansei islands, also including Okinawa's Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by China.

For Miyakojima, the ministry sought 26 billion yen under the government's budget for fiscal 2018, which starts next April, to cover costs for the construction of facilities to be used by the GSDF personnel and the acquisition of a site for a shooting range, the sources said.

By the end of fiscal 2018, the ministry will deploy a security unit comprising some 380 troops, the sources said. The unit will be in charge of initial responses in the event of invasion by enemy forces and natural disasters.

The ministry will nationalize a golf course in the central part of Miyakojima and construct facilities, such as a maintenance facility for GSDF vehicles, there, the sources said.

A unit operating ground-to-ship and ground-to-air missiles against enemy ships and aircraft is planned to be deployed. It will have a total of about 270 GSDF troops, the sources said.

The deployment of the unit will not take place before fiscal 2019, due to a delay in the selection of places hosting facilities including one for ammunition storage, the sources said.

The ministry initially planned to build the ammunition storage facility at the former site for a ranch in the northern part of Miyakojima. But the plan was scrapped in September 2016 because of local concern over the possibility of groundwater under the ranch getting contaminated due to the GSDF facility.

The ministry is now considering choosing a quarry in the southern part of the island as an alternative site for the ammunition facility, the sources said.

In March 2016, the ministry opened a GSDF camp on the island of Yonaguni in Okinawa, the westernmost island of Japan. At the camp, a coastal surveillance unit has been deployed for the monitoring of ships and aircraft. Jiji Press