Joint military exercises between the United States and Japan in the Northern Mariana Islands have been announced for September.
A platoon of Japanese troops and United States Marines will hold live fire military exercises on Tinian starting September the 10th.
Professor Ron Huisken of the Strategic and Defence Centre at Australia National University says the joint operations show the change in Japan's collaboration with the United States.
"The Marianas looks like a signal that there is a wider degree of coincidence, or a strengthening coincidence between US and Japanese security interests."
The island of Tinian was the scene of an intense battle between the two nations towards the end of the Second World War.
Allied forces used the island to launch nuclear strikes and incendiary bombing raids on Japan.
The US Department of Defence leases two thirds of Tinian lands.
