Tokyo Purchases Island for $146 Million for US Air Force Exercises

The Japanese Ministry of Defense has reached an agreement to purchase the uninhabited Mage Island, located in Kagoshima Prefecture in the southwest of the country, for 16 billion yen (approximately $146 million). This island will serve as a location for massive military exercises involving aircraft from US Navy carriers.

This information was officially announced on December 2 during a press conference in Tokyo by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, as reported by TASS. The agreement for the island's purchase was made with a private company in Tokyo that owns the land.

The air force exercises, which include testing takeoffs and landings of aircraft from carrier decks, are accompanied by significant noise and have consistently prompted complaints from the local population and municipal authorities in Japan. As a result, these exercises have been moved to the nearly uninhabited Iwo Jima island. However, Iwo Jima is over 1,200 kilometers away from Tokyo, making it quite distant for operational needs.