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Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
May 20, 2026 | 1:39pm
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he wants to clarify Japan's new defense posture in his meeting with Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae, as both nations face “coercive acts” in waters where China has ramped up its activities.
Marcos, in a May 18 roundtable with Japanese media outlets ahead of his Tokyo visit, said security cooperation would be a major part of his agenda with the Japanese prime minister.
The president cited the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) and the Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA), signed in January, as defense pacts both sides want to fully implement.
"Japan and the Philippines have experienced the same difficulties in terms of coercive acts, in terms of different gray zone, shall we say, tactics that are being exercised in the South China Sea," Marcos said.
Both Manila and Tokyo are contending with an increasingly assertive China at sea. China's coast guard and maritime militia have repeatedly harassed Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea, defying a 2016 ruling that invalidated its nine-dash line claim.
Chinese vessels have likewise pressed into waters around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which Japan administers and Beijing also claims.
Marcos arrives in Tokyo next week for a visit centered on security and economic cooperation. It will be the first visit by a Philippine president to Japan since former President Benigno Aquino III in 2015.
Japan's changing defense strategy
Marcos noted Japan's expanded role in this year's Balikatan exercises, after it became an active participant for the first time following years of being an observer.
He tied the shift to Japan's broader change in defense policy.
"This is all in the context of Japan's new posture in terms of defense and security, and that Japan is now allowing itself to participate in those ... exercises," the president said.
Marcos said Tokyo's more active role in the drills "changes the playing field."
This, the president added, makes it necessary to pin down what Tokyo was now willing to do security-wise, both with Manila and with other partners in the region.
"For Japan now, I suppose you could say it is imperative that those — that new posture of Japan, we have to define it now in terms," Marcos said.
"[This] is what I will seek to clarify — we have to define it in terms of how it's going to work for Japan and the Philippines bilaterally, and together, multilaterally, together with our other friends and allies in the region," he said.
He said this would come in phases. "Since it is a new policy from Japan, we would like to hear more about how the — what exactly does Japan intend to do and what they are willing to do," Marcos said. "It's not going to happen in one phase, but I think it will be phased development of that relationship."
Takaichi, who took office on Oct. 21, 2025, as Japan's first woman prime minister, has pushed Tokyo into its most assertive defense posture in decades. In November 2025, she said a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, possibly triggering a military response. These remarks plunged Tokyo-Beijing ties to their lowest point in years.
Takaichi's government has since scrapped a long-standing ban on exporting lethal weapons and is overall accelerating its defense buildup. It is expected to roll out a new national security strategy by the end of 2026.
AFP modernization, shared values
Marcos said he would also raise Japan's assistance to the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program, and whether that support could be expanded.
He described their nations' partnership as one that adheres to international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of disputes.
"We simply define our foreign policy as the national interest and peace, which are actually conjoined," he said. "Peace is in our national interest."
The Reciprocal Access Agreement, signed in Manila in July 2024 and ratified by the Japanese Diet, allows troops from both countries to enter each other's territory for joint training and disaster response — the first such pact Japan signed in Asia.
