The joint coast guard exercises held off Japan's southwest shore follow a warning from the three countries about Chinese activity in disputed regional waters.
Tensions between China and other claimants to parts of the East and South China Seas have pushed Japan to deepen ties with the Philippines and the United States.
This week marked the second time the countries' coast guards have held training drills together, and the first in Japan.
They took place over five days off the coast of Kagoshima, where Sakurajima volcano dominates the skyline, quietly puffing out smoke and ash.
Dozens of personnel took part, with Friday's final exercises featuring one vessel from each of the three countries' coast guards.
They included the BRP Teresa Magbanua, which was provided to the Philippines by Japan through a loan agreement.
The 2,265-ton vessel, named after a schoolteacher and revolutionary, usually monitors Chinese boats in the South China Sea.
China and the Philippines have engaged in months of confrontations in the contested waters, which Beijing claims almost entirely, despite an international ruling that the assertion has no legal basis.
Chinese and Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea also routinely face off around disputed islands.
On Friday, Manila accused China of using a water cannon on two of its fisheries department boats as they attempted to resupply Philippine fishermen near the disputed Scarborough Shoal.
- Man overboard! -
The US Coast Guard was represented in the exercises by the cutter Stratton, which can carry up to 170 personnel, and Japan by the 6,000-ton Asanagi.
Friday's drills began with a simulation of a person falling overboard.
Once the dummy, wearing a bright red lifejacket, was in the water, a US drone was launched from the Stratton, circling high above as it scanned the area.
A small Philippine rescue boat then emerged from the Teresa Magbanua, zipping across the water before coast guard personnel fished the dummy out of the water.
Other rescue scenarios enacted included a Japanese helicopter racing from shore to pull a human subject from the sea.
The helicopter's rotor blades whipped up the calm blue waters, where the occasional small hammerhead shark could be seen idly swimming alongside the Asanagi.
The exercises concluded with a simulated collision and fire, with all three coast guards blasting the stricken vessel with their water cannons.
- Trust-building -
Japan Coast Guard official Naofumi Tsumura said the joint exercises had "built mutual understanding and trust".
"More than anything, we have strengthened coordination and cooperation between us," he said.
In 2024, the three countries issued a joint statement that included strong language aimed at Beijing.
"We express our serious concerns about the People's Republic of China's (PRC) dangerous and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea," it said, describing "dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels".
They also expressed "strong opposition to any attempts by the PRC to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea".
This week's joint exercises were the first since the statement was released.
Tsumura said there were small details that could have worked better and vowed to improve in future collaborations.
He said the three countries' coast guards had "come to understand each other better, or as the Japanese often say, to know each other by face".
"I believe we are now able to conduct maritime rescue operations more effectively," he said.
China criticises UK navy ship transit of Taiwan Strait
Beijing (AFP) June 20, 2025 -
China condemned Britain on Friday for sending a navy ship through the Taiwan Strait, saying the move had "undermined peace and stability" in the sensitive waterway.
Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory and claims jurisdiction over the body of water that separates the self-ruled island from the Chinese mainland.
Taiwan's foreign ministry said on Thursday that the British Royal Navy patrol vessel HMS Spey sailed through the strait the day before, as part of a freedom of navigation exercise.
China's navy hit back on Friday, accusing London of "publicly hyping up" the move.
Beijing "organised troops to track and warn (the ship) throughout the entire journey, and effectively dealt with it", Liu Runke, a spokesman for the People's Liberation Army Navy's Eastern Theatre Command, said in an online statement.
He said British statements on the transit had "distorted legal principles and confused the public".
"Its actions deliberately disrupted the situation and undermined peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," Liu said.
China has repeatedly refused to rule out using force to seize control of democratic Taiwan.
The HMS Spey was the first British navy ship to sail through the strait since the HMS Richmond, a frigate deployed with Britain's aircraft carrier strike group, in 2021.
Taiwan's defence ministry said Friday it had detected 50 Chinese military aircraft around the island.
"China respects the right of all countries to navigate the waters of the Taiwan Strait in accordance with the law," Beijing's foreign ministry said on Friday.
"But we resolutely oppose any country conducting provocations and threatening Chinese sovereignty and security under the pretext of freedom of navigation," spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a regular news briefing.
Beijing has ramped up deployment of fighter jets and naval vessels around Taiwan in recent years to press its sovereignty claim, which Taipei rejects.
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