According to the Sankei Shimbun on April 7, the joint military exercise “Keen Edge” held by the U.S. military and the Japan Self-Defense Forces in February last year was a scenario in which the JSDF attacked a Chinese military ship “invading” Taiwan with missiles.
The drill assumed that the Chinese military would “invade” Taiwan and attack the Sasebo military base in Nagasaki Prefecture.
Japan believed that the conditions were in place to use force based on the “right of collective self-defense”, so when the U.S. requested an attack on a Chinese military fleet traversing the Taiwan Strait, Japan agreed to the request, with Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter jets deploying anti-ship missiles against Chinese transport vessels.
“Keen Edge” is an integrated drill held every two years between the U.S. and Japan, which
alternates between field training exercises and command post exercises. Last year, for the first time, a command drill was held to simulate an emergency scenario in Taiwan.
