Deployed on a months-long mission to deepen ties among South Pacific nations, two Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JSMDF) ships docked in Wellington in August 2025, marking the first time Japanese naval vessels have made port in New Zealand’s capital in almost 90 years.
The destroyers JS Ise and JS Suzunami sailed into Wellington harbor accompanied by the Royal New Zealand Navy multipurpose ship HMNZS Canterbury. The JMSDF vessels, with more than 500 crew members, arrived from Sydney, Australia, where Japanese and New Zealand forces were among the participants in the multilateral exercise Talisman Sabre.
The ceremonial Wellington visit came as Japan, whose only treaty ally is the United States, has increasingly sought to enhance military cooperation amid Indo-Pacific tensions.
“Our defense force [is] developing cooperative work, not only with New Zealand and Australia but also many Pacific Island Countries,” Japanese Ambassador to New Zealand Makoto Osawa said. “Our main goal is the Free and Open Indo-Pacific.”
Earlier in August, Canberra announced that Japanese firm Mitsubishi Heavy Industries won a contract to build Royal Australian Navy ships, in what officials hailed as the nations’ largest defense industry agreement.
Tokyo, meanwhile, recently deployed three F-35B stealth fighter jets to Nyutabaru Air Base in Miyazaki prefecture in southern Japan. The aircraft, which have short takeoff and vertical landing capabilities, will operate from two JMSDF helicopter carriers. Tokyo plans to deploy 42 of the U.S.-made fighters.
Wellington, too, is enhancing its strategic and military relations in the region, including intensifying Pacific cooperation and security. Officials announced recently that work is underway on a defense logistics agreement with Japan to help the countries’ forces work together.
JMSDF vessels seldom deploy so far south in the Pacific Ocean — the previous visit to New Zealand was a 2016 port call to the nation’s largest city, Auckland. But the resource-rich and strategically important waters around Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Countries are increasingly contested.
Although remote, New Zealand has recently been exposed to security tensions. In February 2025, China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy conducted unprecedented live-fire exercises in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, drawing complaints from Canberra and Wellington after commercial flights were forced to divert abruptly.
