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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider PH operationalizes Japan's 'one-theater' concept for Indo-Pacific

PH operationalizes Japan's 'one-theater' concept for Indo-Pacific

Published Jul 1, 2025 12:54 am  |  Updated Jul 1, 2025 01:03 am
Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani hold a bilateral defense ministerial meeting in Makati City Feb. 24, 2025. (Photo: Martin A. Sadongdong / MANILA BULLETIN)
Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani hold a bilateral defense ministerial meeting in Makati City Feb. 24, 2025. (Photo: Martin A. Sadongdong / MANILA BULLETIN)
The Philippines is now operationalizing Japan’s proposed “one-theater” concept which envisions the South China Sea, East China Sea, and the Korean Peninsula as a single and integrated theater of operations in wartime.
Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the “one-theater” concept will involve synergy in operations, domain awareness, intelligence exchange, and mutual reinforcement of each country's strengths among the Philippines, Japan, United States, South Korea, and Australia.
“Since the threats to Japan, the Philippines, and other like-minded countries are principally maritime, even in geography Japan being an archipelagic nation and us, and in the aerial domain, it is reasonable since there is no land border involved to treat the area as one theater,” he told reporters on Monday, June 30.
“That is being operationalized now by the Japanese Joint Operations Command,” he added, referring to a new unit within Japan’s Self-Defense Force.
For the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Teodoro said the concept is being supervised by the Chief of Staff, General Romeo Brawner Jr. 
However, in the coming years, he said it may be delegated to the newly created AFP Strategic Defense Command, which oversees the centralized and coordinated strategic operations of the AFP, especially its joint military exercises and deterrence activities with allied nations.
“The operationalization will be on the military end and the first product of this will be the Combined Coordinating Center (CCC) which will come up this December,” he revealed, although details about the CCC were withheld for now for security reasons.
Teodoro said the ratified Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) between Manila and Tokyo will increase the level of interoperability between the two nations, as well as multilaterally with “like-minded” countries. 
“So it [one-theater concept] is already an operating concept. It does not need any other agreement. It is a military construct and an operating concept which has been approved by the different military hierarchies concerned,” he added.
Earlier reports said that Japanese Defense Minster Gen Nakatani proposed to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth the one-theater concept in light of shared concerns in the Indo-Pacific region due to China’s expansionist claims. 
Japan and China are locked in a series of heightened clashes in the East China Sea over contested exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundaries and the Senkaku Islands.
Meanwhile, the Philippines and China also have overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea, as Beijing tightens its grip on features in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) despite a 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated its assertions.

Related Tags

PH-Japan one-theater concept DND Gilberto Teodoro Jr. Gen Nakatani US South Korea Australia China South China Sea East China Sea Korean Peninsula
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