Readout of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth's Meeting With Japanese Defense Minister Shinjirō Koizumi

Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell provided the following readout:

On Jan. 15, Secretary Hegseth met with Japan's defense minister, Shinjirō Koizumi, at the Pentagon. The two leaders affirmed the critical role of the U.S.-Japan alliance to deterring aggression in the Indo-Pacific and discussed Japan's efforts to increase its defense spending and rapidly strengthen its capabilities.

Secretary Hegseth and Minister Koizumi also agreed to continue upgrading alliance command-and-control architectures, make bilateral training and exercises more realistic, improve alliance force posture and presence - including in Japan's Southwest Islands - and maintain close cooperation on defense industrial base matters.