Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to increase defence co-operation between the United Kingdom and Japan.

The UK’s defence relationship with Japan is the closest it has ever been. The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) allows our forces to deploy to one another’s countries for large-scale exercises and operations, such as Exercise VIGILANT ISLES which saw more than 100 UK troops deploy to Japan’s island of Kyushu in January 2025. The Carrier Strike Group will conduct training alongside the Japanese Self Defence Forces and HMS PRINCE OF WALES will conduct a port visit in Tokyo later this year. We have stepped up industrial collaboration through the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) to build the next generation of fighter jet by 2035.