There have been stories around for a while about Japan’s plans to set up an amphibious infantry force – i.e. Marines. The general assumption is that this will be modeled on the US Marine Corps, as reflected in headlines like this:
Defense Ministry preparing Japanese version of U.S. Marines
Now I have a lot of time for the USMC, but wouldn’t the UK-Japan security relationship be missing a trick if it didn’t at least explore the potential rewards of cooperation with the UK’s Royal Marine Commandos?
The naval flavour of defence cooperation remarked on in the recent RUSI conference would seem to offer a natural connection. Unlike the USMC, the RM are part of the Royal Navy. Indeed, as the Duke of York’s attendance at the RUSI conference reminded some of us, the RN-RM combination has a respectable record on re-taking small islands.
And who else has ‘Asia’ on their cap badge?
「新日英同盟」 Anglo-Japan Alliance 