The US has agreed to return 40 percent of the airspace controlled by Yokota AB, Japan, to Japan. A US Forces Japan spokesman told Stars and Stripes that the deal would not impact either US or Japanese military operations. The US agreed to “redesign” Yokota airspace to aid commercial air traffic around Tokyo and the planned expansion of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in 2009. The agreement, reached Friday after months of negotiation and speculation, would have the turnover take place by September 2008. Yokota is home to USAF’s only tactical airlift unit in the Pacific region.
The Space Force may establish a combatant component in Japan soon, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Saltzman said in a news conference in Tokyo on Sept. 25. According to multiple media reports, Saltzman said setting up a new unit in Japan represents the "next phase" in joint initiatives aimed at…