JAPAN, U.S. CONDUCT JOINT MILITARY DRILLS TO COUNTER CHINA

Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and the US military invited the media to view a large-scale joint drill in southwestern Japan while launching another exercise northwest of Tokyo amid China's growing assertiveness in the East and South China seas.

The two exercises -- "Yama Sakura" (mountain cherry blossom) in Kumamoto Prefecture and "Forest Light" in Niigata and Gunma prefectures -- focus on scenarios in which Japan and the United States take countermeasures against attacks on remote islands by adversaries, the Defense Ministry said, Reiko Kaneko reported for Kyodo news agency.

The tabletop drill through Dec. 15 will involve some 4,000 Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) members and about 1,000 American troops including members of units located remotely who will join the exercise online. Held since 1982, it is one of the largest-scale exercises conducted by the GSDF and the U.S. Army.

In Forest Light, due to run through Dec. 18, the GSDF and the U.S. Marine Corps deployed CH-47 helicopters and MV-22s, which are the Marine variant of the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. "We're engaging in a variety of training in our interoperability," Lt. Col. Neil Berry, the commanding officer of the Marines' 3rd Battalion, 8th Regiment, told Kyodo News before the start of the drill. "We're really working on the ability to seize and defend key maritime terrain."