# US-Japan-Philippines Alliance

Breaking the Eighty-Year Silence: Japan’s Military Return to the Philippines

Japan has deployed 420 Ground Self-Defense Force personnel to the Philippines for the Balikatan 2026 exercises, marking its first full-scale military participation on Philippine soil since WWII. This move, facilitated by the recently enacted Reciprocal Access Agreement, underscores a burgeoning trilateral security alignment between Washington, Tokyo, and Manila.