Japan to begin amphibious combat training in US
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-10 08:49

Around 200 Japanese troops launched a simulated beach landing in the face of a hostile enemy force as part of an amphibious training exercise with the US military, officials said.

The soldiers from the Japanese Self-Defense Force were undergoing the intense training with the US Marine Corps under an exercise code-named "Iron Fist," which is unfolding on the California coast near the city of San Diego.

"This is the first amphibious training exercise the Japanese have requested from us and we are flattered that they asked us. We take pride in training our Marines in amphibious operations," US Marine Captain Kent Robbins told AFP.

The amphibious assault ship USS Dubuque seen here in 2003 being deployed from the San Diego Naval Station.[AFP/file]

"We do bilateral training with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces all the time, but the amphibious landing exercises are a first," he said.

The training drills will last about three weeks and the Japanese troops will return home between January 27 and January 29, Robbins said.

The drills come as Tokyo's ties with its giant neighbour and regional superpower China plunge to their lowest point in decades over bitter wartime memories and tensions over exploitation over gas reserves in a disputed area of the East China Sea.

The latest tensions were notably stirred up by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in defiance of protests by China and other Asian neighbors.

The shrine honours the Japanese war dead, including World War II leaders condemned by the US-led allies as top war criminals.