US, Japan fire rocket artillery on Hokkaido amid tensions with Russia

U.S. and Japanese forces fired mobile rocket artillery during training on Hokkaido this week as their annual Orient Shield exercise unfolded amid tensions between Japan and Russia over disputed islands farther north.

The U.S. Army’s HIMARS — the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System — and the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s MLRS — the Multiple Launch Rocket System — fired Tuesday at Yausubetsu Training Area, U.S. Army Japan spokeswoman Maj. LeeAnn Sagucio said by phone Wednesday from Chitose, Hokkaido.

The live fire was part of Orient Shield, an annual exercise involving 3,700 soldiers from the United States, Japan and Australia that began Sept. 8 and concludes Thursday, according to U.S. and Japanese officials.

The Ground Self-Defense Force has said Orient Shield is not directed at a specific country or region. However, this year’s exercise coincides with tensions between Japan and Russia over Etorofu, Kunashiri and Shikotan islands and the Habomai islet group.

The Soviet Union seized the territory, just north of Hokkaido, at the end of World War II. The dispute has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a formal peace treaty ending their wartime hostilities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Etorofu for the first time on Aug. 13, drawing protests from Tokyo.

Russia objected to Orient Shield before the exercise began.

Soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division train with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force’s 1st Airborne Brigade at Kikyougahara Drop Zone in Hokkaido, Japan, Sept. 15, 2026. (Teresa Cantero/U.S. Army)

“The Japanese side was firmly informed that provocative military activity near our country’s far eastern borders is categorically unacceptable,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters during a Sept. 1 briefing in Vladivostok, according to Reuters.

Russia separately protested the deployment of U.S. Army Typhon missile systems to Kyushu for training, according to comments by Zakharova posted Sept. 18 on the ministry’s website.

Meanwhile, the Russian navy sent two destroyers and an oiler through the Tsugaru Strait, which separates Hokkaido from Japan’s main island of Honshu, on Sept. 11 and 12, according to a Japan Joint Staff news release on Sept. 18.

Orient Shield includes field training, live fire and sustainment operations, according to a Sept. 17 news release from U.S. Army Japan.

Participating units include the 11th Airborne Division from Alaska; the Ground Self-Defense Force’s Northern Army, based on Hokkaido, and 1st Airborne Brigade; and Australia’s 1st Division, according to U.S. Army Japan.

The exercise also included its first joint airborne operation, which took place Sept. 15 at Hokkaido’s Kikyougahara Drop Zone.

About 260 U.S. soldiers parachuted from five C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 36th Airlift Squadron at Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo, Lt. Col. Brandon Davis, commander of 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said by phone Wednesday from Chitose.

The U.S. Army fires a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, during the Orient Shield exercise at Yausubetsu Training Area in Hokkaido, Japan, Sept. 22, 2026. (Steve Asfall/U.S. Army)

About 120 Japanese paratroopers jumped from two Kawasaki C-2 transport aircraft during the same operation, he said.

On the ground, the paratroopers carried out force-on-force training alongside armored troops from Japan’s Northern Army, Davis said.

Wildlife briefly interrupted the exercise.

“We had a two-hour bear pause” two nights earlier after troops spotted a bear in the training area, Davis said.

It was not the first time bears have disturbed U.S. paratroopers this year in Japan. Bears also interrupted training at Ojojibara Maneuver Area in Miyagi prefecture in January.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Spc. Ned Gilleland, a 3rd Battalion paratrooper, said of the Hokkaido jump in the Army release. “This is my first time ever being in Asia; I’m sure it’s the first time for a lot of my friends as well. To be able to jump in on day one was pretty neat.”