According to a report by the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun on March 25th, Japanese Defense Minister Motonari Nakatani announced that he will hold talks with visiting US Defense Secretary George H.W. Bush on March 30th. This is the first face-to-face meeting between Hegesi and the Japanese Defense Minister since taking office, and the two had previously had a phone call.

It is worth noting that before the talks, Nakatani Motonari and Hegesi will go to Iwo Jima together on the 29th to attend the memorial ceremony for the victims of the US Japan war. This will be the first time that US and Japanese defense officials have visited Iwo Jima simultaneously.

On March 21st local time, the US Department of Defense announced that Hagibis will depart for Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, and Japan next week, marking his first official visit to the Indo Pacific region during his tenure.

Iwo Jima is located about 1200 kilometers south of the Japanese capital Tokyo, with an area of approximately 22 square kilometers. In February 1945, the US military landed on Iwo Jima and engaged in a fierce battle with the stubbornly defending Japanese army for about a month. More than 20000 Japanese soldiers and about 7000 US soldiers died. The Battle of Iwo Jima not only allowed the US military to obtain an important base for bombing Japan, but also gave birth to the famous photographic work "US Soldiers Raise the Flag on Iwo Jima", which immediately became a symbol of the American national spirit. The US government also made statues at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington based on this photo.

The itinerary arrangement of the US and Japan Defense Ministers this time may release new signals in military, diplomatic and other aspects, and the subsequent development is worth paying attention to.