Japanese Defense Minister Visits Black Eagles Unit After Cemetery Tribute

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi arrived in Korea on Thursday to carry out official engagements, including talks with his Korean counterpart.

It marks the first time in 11 years, since 2015, that a Japanese defense minister has visited Korea solely for a bilateral meeting rather than to attend a multilateral conference. The previous visit, by then-Defense Minister Gen Nakatani last September, took place on the occasion of the "2025 Seoul Defense Dialogue."

Koizumi, who entered the country for a two-day visit, made his first stop at the Seoul National Cemetery in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, where he paid his respects. Shortly after arriving in Korea, he shared his thoughts on the visit through his social media account on X (formerly Twitter), saying, "I will approach my work so that today's and tomorrow's schedule serves as an opportunity to further deepen Korea-Japan defense cooperation."

In the afternoon, Koizumi visited the Air Force base in Wonju, Gangwon Province, together with Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back, and encouraged members of the special flight team "Black Eagles." The Defense Ministry added that the joint unit visit was arranged to elevate defense exchange and cooperation between the two countries to a higher level. After receiving a briefing on the unit's operations on site, Koizumi personally boarded the cockpit of the T-50B, the domestically produced supersonic aircraft that serves as the Black Eagles' main jet.

Earlier, in January, while the Black Eagles were deploying to participate in the "World Defense Show (WDS) 2026" held in Saudi Arabia, they stopped at the Naha base in Okinawa Prefecture, operated by Japan's Air Self-Defense Force, where they received aviation fuel support. It was the first time that Japan's Self-Defense Forces had provided refueling support to a Korean Air Force aircraft.

In connection with this, Japanese local media recently reported that, prompted by that support, the Korean and Japanese defense authorities are discussing ways to make the Self-Defense Forces' refueling support a regular arrangement. However, a Korean Defense Ministry official drew a line, saying, "Regarding making the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' refueling support for Korea's Black Eagles a regular arrangement, nothing has been reviewed between the two countries' authorities at all."

Meanwhile, Minister Ahn and Koizumi will hold official talks on the morning of the following day, Friday, at the Defense Ministry building in Yongsan, Seoul. It will be the first time the two ministers have sat face to face in about a month, since their bilateral meeting on the occasion of the Asia Security Summit (Shangri-La Dialogue) held in Singapore on the 30th of last month.

After the talks, the two ministers plan to travel together to the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses (KIDA) in Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, where they will meet and hold a conversation with the younger generation of both Korea and Japan.