Exercise together, build together: Japan should train in northern Australia
Northern Australia holds the key to unlocking a new era of defence cooperation and regional development. Just as Singapore has successfully established a long-term training presence in Queensland backed by a $2.25 billion infrastructure investment, Japan can now follow a similar path. Policymakers in Canberra and Tokyo should take the next step and Defence and Northern Territory leaders should turn this strategic opportunity into a lasting partnership on the ground.
The logic is simple. The Japan Self-Defense Forces need space to train, operate and grow as a regional security contributor. Australia has space in abundance, as well as political will, a mature alliance framework and some of the Indo-Pacific’s most challenging and realistic training environments. The potential benefits are profound. For Japan, it offers access to world-class training areas and the opportunity to deepen interoperability with trusted partners. For Australia, and especially the Northern Territory, it offers a new source of economic development, regional infrastructure investment and strategic uplift.
This isn’t an abstract idea; it builds on a proven and remarkably successful model. Since the early 1990s, Singapore has been conducting military training in Australia, growing from occasional exercises into a long-term commitment under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership signed in 2016. That agreement saw Singapore commit more than $2.25 billion to upgrade and expand training areas in Queensland, enabling up to 14,000 Singapore Armed Forces personnel to train for up to 18 weeks per year. It created jobs, improved infrastructure and brought predictable annual activity to regional areas. It was never about bases or sovereignty; it was about partnership, planning and mutually beneficial outcomes. There’s no reason Japan could not walk the same path, and every reason it should.
Japan is undergoing a historic rebalancing of its defence posture. Facing intensifying regional challenges and increasing expectations from allies, Tokyo is boosting its defence spending to 2 percent of GDP by 2027, modernising its forces and expanding its operational reach. But Japan is geographically constrained. Domestic space, political sensitivities and operational restrictions limit its ability to conduct large-scale training. Australia can help fill this gap. The 2022 Reciprocal Access Agreement, ratified in 2023, provides a robust legal and diplomatic framework to support just this sort of collaboration.
Momentum is already building. In May 2025, Japanese, US and Australian forces conducted the largest iteration of Exercise Southern Jackaroo to date, with Japan tripling its contribution. Over four weeks, Japanese troops trained shoulder-to-shoulder with US Marines and Australian soldiers in live-fire exercises, urban clearance operations and long-range manoeuvres across northern Queensland. Colonel Morita Yuya, a commander of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, highlighted the high tactical standards and fieldcraft advantages of Australia’s environment. ‘Australia has a very high level of tactics, and we have already learnt many things,’ he said. As Major General Ash Collingburn bluntly reminded those on parade, ‘Interoperability is not a buzzword—it is the difference between confusion and cohesion, between surviving and winning.’
This growing integration took another significant step forward during trilateral defence talks held in Darwin in 2024. Defence Minister Richard Marles hosted his US and Japanese counterparts—Lloyd Austin and Nakatani Gen—for strategic discussions that culminated in the announcement that Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade will begin regular deployments to northern Australia. These rotations are scheduled to commence alongside the next iteration of the US Marine Rotational Force–Darwin (MRF-D) this year. As Marles stated, ‘The trilateral partnership between Australia, Japan and the United States is built upon our shared values, deep trust, and unbreakable commitment to the stability and security of the Indo-Pacific region.’
For Australia, and particularly the Northern Territory, this announcement is transformative. The NT already hosts around 2,500 US personnel annually under the MRF-D agreement, and substantial infrastructure investments are underway to support long-term presence. Including Japan in this posture builds resilience and increases the NT’s role in the region’s strategic architecture. It also sends a clear message that Australia remains an active participant in shaping regional stability—not a passive location but a platform for partnership.
From a military capability perspective, the value of Australia’s northern training areas is unparalleled. The tropical terrain, wide-open spaces and complex littoral environments offer the kind of rigorous training that cannot be replicated in Japan. Training in northern Australia forges not just soldiers but cohesive, adaptive fighting teams. Japan’s forces would benefit enormously from this environment, and the Australian Defence Force would gain a sharper, more interoperable partner for regional contingencies.
The economic benefits are equally compelling. Northern Australia continues to struggle with uneven development and investment volatility. Defence partnerships can provide stable, long-term capital injection to break those cycles. Co-investment in training facilities, logistics hubs, accommodation and transportation infrastructure creates local jobs, supports Indigenous businesses and helps anchor regional populations. The US Force Posture Initiative has already demonstrated this with tangible results in Darwin. Adding Japan to the equation only strengthens this momentum.
Some critics may try to reframe this as a return to Cold War bloc dynamics or question the wisdom of provoking Beijing. However, strategic autonomy requires strategic clarity. Australia’s security relationships are built on shared interests and mutual respect. They’re not about antagonising others; instead, they’re about deterring coercion and ensuring peace. Japan’s training presence in northern Australia should be viewed not as a provocation but as a powerful symbol of reconciliation and partnership. In 2018, then prime minister Shinzo Abe made a historic visit to Darwin, 75 years after Japanese bombers attacked the city. His presence was a testament to how far our countries have come. The next logical step is for our forces to train together here, in the interest of regional peace.
This is no longer a hypothetical scenario; it’s a plan already in motion. With Japan’s Rapid Deployment Brigade set to integrate into the next MRF–D cycle, now is the time to embed this cooperation into a broader strategic framework. That begins with structured dialogue—between Defence and the Japan Self-Defense Forces, between Canberra and Tokyo, and with the NT government and its communities. The NT must be viewed as a strategic partner, not just a training backdrop. Its people, economy and institutions are central to the partnership’s success.
The move towards a permanent and structured Japanese training presence in northern Australia is no longer about making a case; it’s about executing a shared vision. This initiative reinforces Australia’s strategic alignment with Japan and the US, delivers concrete economic outcomes to one of the country’s most underleveraged regions and strengthens deterrence in a contested Indo-Pacific. It’s a practical, scalable contribution to regional stability and national resilience.
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