WASHINGTON: Japan’s vice defense minister, Hideo Jinpu, is to visit the Pentagon tomorrow to get a detailed briefing on the April 11 crash in Morocco of a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey that killed two Marines. Jinpu’s visit is the next step in a kabuki dance that began a few weeks ago in response to Japanese protests against a Marine Corps plan to base Ospreys on Okinawa.

Japan’s government is bending over backward to prove to its public that it won’t let the Marines replace the 1960s-era CH-46E Sea Knight tandem-rotor helicopters it has on Okinawa now with the tiltrotor Osprey unless Japanese experts are satisfied the troop and cargo transport is safe. Japanese Defense Minister Satoshi Morimoto rode in an Osprey from the Pentagon to Quantico Marine Base and back during a visit Aug. 3, during which he reportedly did a lot of smiling and got home safely. Keep reading →