Japan’s Ground, Maritime and Air Self-Defense Forces will participate in a combined drill with the U.S. to prepare for a contingency in which China occupies a disputed group of islands in the East China Sea, known as "Diaoyu” in Chinese and “Senkaku” in Japanese.

Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported that Washington and Tokyo are in the final stage of talks about having all three branches of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces simultaneously participate in an island re-seizure exercise to be held at Camp Pendleton in California in June.

Only the Ground Self-Defense Force has participated in the drill with the U.S. up until now.

The Sankei Shimbun said that the move is aimed at boosting the U.S. and Japan’s capabilities to jointly address the possibility China will attempt to occupy the islands.