Japanese Submarine Conducts Exercise in South China Sea

September 17, 2018

Tokyo- A Japanese submarine conducted an exercise in the South China Sea for the first time on Thursday, the Defense Ministry's Maritime Staff Office said Monday.

The move was apparently intended to counter China's militarization of the South China Sea. It is unusual that the operation of a submarine has been made public.

The Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine Kuroshio conducted the exercise with two other MSDF vessels, including the destroyer Kaga. The exercise involved the Kuroshio's maneuver to evade detection by the other vessels.

Waters from the South China Sea to the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines are used by Chinese submarines to move to the Pacific Ocean and the East China Sea.

The waters are critically important for Japan as well, and letting China know that there are watchful eyes below the ocean surface leads to deterrence, a senior MSDF officer said.

But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied that the Kuroshio's exercise in the South China Sea was intended as a warning against China.

"The exercise was designed to raise the level of skills and did not target any specific country," Abe said on television. "Japan and China are moving toward a new stage of relations," he said.

The Kuroshio departed the MSDF's Kure base in Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, on Aug. 27. The submarine is scheduled to take part in events to promote defense cooperation and exchanges with the Vietnamese Navy until Friday after its arrival at Cam Ranh Bay on Monday.

The Kaga and two other MSDF destroyers were deployed on a mission to navigate in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean between August and late October as part of Japan's efforts to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.

On Aug. 31, the destroyers conducted a joint exercise in the South China Sea with the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and others. Jiji Press