Japan, US discuss revision of defence guidelines

Japan and the US Thursday began discussing the revision of bilateral defence guidelines in a meeting involving their senior defence officials and diplomats, media reported.

Responding to cyber-attacks and cooperation in using outer space are believed to have been covered in a director-general level meeting, but it was the first time that the two sides work on revising the defence guidelines, Xinhua reported citing Japan's Kyodo News.

Japan and the US agreed last month in their "two-plus-two" meeting involving their defence and foreign chiefs to revise the guidelines by the end of 2014.

The guidelines specify role-sharing between the Japanese Self-Defence Forces and the US military forces in defending Japan.

Koji Tomita, director general of Japan's foreign ministry's North American affairs bureau, and Hideshi Tokuchi, director general of the defence ministry's policy bureau attended the meeting on the Japanese side.

James Zumwalt, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, and Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, represented the US side, said Kyodo, citing government officials.