PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. –
U.S. Space Command commander, U.S. Army Gen. James Dickinson, visited Japan March 17-18, 2022.
Dickinson met with the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel and Fifth Air Force deputy commander, Maj. Gen. Leonard Kosinski, as well as The Honorable Makoto ONIKI, State Minister of Defense, General Kōji YAMAZAKI, Chief of Staff, Joint Staff, Japan Self-Defense Forces, and General Shunji IZUTSU, Chief of Staff, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, to reaffirm the importance of space cooperation between the United States and Japan. Dickinson also met with JAXA President Hiroshi YAMAKAWA.
Dickinson spoke at the activation ceremony for Japan’s Space Operations Group and offered his congratulations to Japan on their significant progress in increasing their space situational awareness capabilities and cadre of space professionals.
The new space operations group contains a training squadron and Japan’s space operations squadron, which was established in 2020. The Space Operations Group will focus on space situational awareness operations.
In 2021, USSPACECOM and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force signed an arrangement to assign a Japanese liaison officer to the command. In order to strengthen the U.S.-Japan military partnership in the space domain from the strategic to the tactical level, the liaison officer has provided JASDF expertise and insights to USSPACECOM, facilitated communications among Japan and U.S. space units, supported U.S.- Japan space-related partnership opportunities and performed tasks that are mutually beneficial for strengthening the U.S.-Japan defense cooperation.
The U.S. – Japan Alliance has been the cornerstone of peace, prosperity, and freedom in the Indo-Pacific region for more than 60 years.
USSPACECOM conducts operations in, from, and to space to deter conflict, and if necessary, defeat aggression, deliver space combat power for the Joint and Combined force, and defend U.S. vital interests with allies and partners.