Japan Seals Kitadaito Radar Site Lease as Defense Chief Disputes China’s Training Notice

Overview

• The Okinawa Defense Bureau signed a lease with Kitadaito Village to use roughly 11 hectares for an Air Self‑Defense Force mobile warning and control radar deployment.
• Site work is expected to begin after the new year, with facilities to include a unit headquarters and radar installations.
• The deployment aims to strengthen detection of Chinese carrier and aircraft movements into the Pacific via waters between Okinawa and Miyako.
• China’s Defense Ministry said it had notified Japan that carrier-based aircraft would conduct about six hours of training from 3 p.m. mainly south of the carrier.
• Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi countered that the notice lacked precise coordinates, scale, and specific airspace details and stressed that JSDF aircraft faced intermittent radar illumination for about 30 minutes.