The Philippines and Japan are set to sign on Monday, July 8, the Philippines-Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) which will allow both countries to send military forces to each other's territory for joint drills.

According to Malacañang, President Marcos will witness the signing of the Philippines-Japan RAA after the joint courtesy call of Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko and Defense Minister Kihara Minoru in the Palace.

In April this year, Marcos said there was no stopping both countries from signing the RAA and that they were only ironing out the language to be used in the agreement.

The RAA with Japan is a commitment made at the inaugural PH-Japan Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting or 2+2 in April 2022. The 2+2 is the highest consultative mechanism to deepen security and defense policy coordination and security cooperation between the two countries.

The first formal negotiations on the RAA were held in Tokyo on November 29-30, 2023. It was led by the Department of National Defense (DND) along with the other delegations from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ).

A virtual line-by-line reading of the RAA main text, the Agreed Minutes, and two records of discussions were held on June 11.

Foreign Minister Kamikawa and Defense Minister Kihara are in the Philippines for the second 2+2.

The Philippines and Japan will mark 68 years of normalized relations on July 23. The two countries have been strategic partners since 2011. Japan is one of the Philippines’ four Strategic Partners with 264 bilateral agreements.

In 2023, Japan ranked as the Philippines’ second largest trading partner, with total trade amounting to $20.71 billion. In the same year, 305,580 Japanese tourists arrived in the Philippines, a figure higher than the 99,557 tourist arrivals recorded in 2022.

Japan serves as the second home to an estimated 314,428 Filipinos.