At Japan’s Naha Air Base in Okinawa, the roar of F-15 fighter jets drowns out the sound of commercial jets that share the same runway.
Three jets take off in quick succession to begin the day’s training – mostly scenarios involving combat and air-to-air interception.
At least two jets have gone on “real-life combat” or emergency calls to intercept suspected Chinese planes, people here say.
According to Lt. Col. Masatoshi Tanaka, these routine exercises have created a new sense of urgency.
“We are very worried,” he says. “We are facing airspace violations of Japanese territory every day. Chinese activities have increased in number and quality. They include UAVs [drones], bombers and spy planes. Many active in the area. There are aircraft carriers.”
Naha is part of the Okinawa island chain, which is at the forefront of any potential conflict between China and the self-governing island of Taiwan. The region, which Beijing claims and vows to seize by force if necessary, has become one of the world’s biggest flashpoints, especially as tensions between the US and China rise.
As China grows more assertive, Taiwan’s security has become a growing concern for Japan, which is hosting the G7 summit in Hiroshima this weekend. And with China expected to dominate the agenda at the summit, Japan’s role as a key player in building regional stability has only grown.
The war in Ukraine and the increasingly volatile Indo-Pacific have pushed Japan to “a critical position in the alignment of powers,” according to Yuko Iwama, a professor of international relations at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
“We are the lynchpin of the American network of alliances and partnerships in the region and I think the Americans are aware of that,” he said.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is certainly taking steps to reflect this. In March, Japan normalized diplomatic ties with South Korea after years of silence in what was hailed as a “new chapter”.
That same month, Mr Kishda met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then made a surprise visit to Ukraine and pledged $30m (£24m) in non-lethal military aid.
Under it, Japan has announced its biggest military build-up since World War II, pledging to double defense spending by 2027 – giving it the world’s third-largest defense budget. This reflects both Tokyo’s urgent need to defend itself and also support its close ally, the United States.
Any defense scenario would involve the US, and Okinawa is home to the largest number of US troops in Japan, but the country also needs to show it can put up a fight. Hopefully, this will be enough to deter Beijing and avoid conflict in the region.
But Japan is close enough to feel the ripples of a conflict it doesn’t want, but could be drawn into.
When China’s military practiced “sealing off” Taiwan during three-day military exercises in April, Japan’s defense ministry said a Chinese aircraft carrier was about 230 kilometers (145 miles) south of Miyako Island. , which is also part of the Okinawa chain.
At least five Japanese islands fell less than 100 kilometers from Unagoni when China fired missiles after a visit by former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year.
“Geographically we are very close to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, we feel the crisis,” says Yoshitaka Nakayama, the mayor of Ishigaki. The archipelago is about an hour’s flight from Naha Airbase and is a picturesque haven known for fishing and agriculture. Its white sand and crystal blue waters have long attracted vacationers and snorkeling enthusiasts.
Now, Ishigaki is also the newest military base of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF). As farmers tend to their crops in the surrounding fields, military gates and cranes and bulldozers move chunks of earth as construction continues.
