Russia has demanded that Japan remove U.S. Typhon missile systems that are currently deployed on the island of Kyushu as part of the ongoing multinational Orient Shield military exercises. After the exercises end later this month, the launchers are expected to leave Japan’s Kanoya Air Base but to remain in the country. Beginning around mid-October, they are due to be moved for storage to a U.S. military facility in Japan, according to a statement by the Chief of Staff of Japan’s Joint Staff.
On Sept. 3, Moscow sent Tokyo a formal note of protest over the deployment, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced earlier today. The ministry called the deployment of the systems in Japan “unacceptable under any pretext” and demanded their removal from the country regardless of how long they are stationed there or the terms of their deployment.
The Typhon systems have been at the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kanoya Air Base in Kagoshima Prefecture since June, when the U.S. military deployed them there in advance of the Valiant Shield 2026 exercises which ran from June 22 to July 1. The systems are also being used in the Orient Shield 26 exercises running from Sept. 8 to 24, which involve ground forces from Japan, the United States, and Australia. Japanese military officials have described this year’s Orient Shield as the largest in the exercise’s history.
This is the first time Typhon has been deployed directly at a facility of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. The system was temporarily stationed in Japan in September 2025, but at that time it was deployed at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. This year also marks the first deployment of Typhon to Kyushu.
The ground-based Typhon system can launch Tomahawk cruise missiles and SM-6 multipurpose missiles. Tomahawks have a range of about 1,600 kilometers, which would allow them to strike targets along a large portion of China’s eastern coast if fired from southern Japan. The U.S. and Japanese militaries have not disclosed how many launchers were moved to Kanoya Air Base.
Japan has stressed that the deployment is temporary. The country’s defense minister said in June that after the September exercises wrap up, the launchers are expected to leave Kanoya for storage at a U.S. military facility elsewhere in Japan. He said the United States had assured Tokyo that Typhon was not being permanently deployed in the country.
Moscow had objected to the deployment even before the system arrived. In May, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the presence of Typhon in Japan posed a “direct threat” to Russia’s Far Eastern borders.
In late August, a week before Orient Shield began, Russia’s Foreign Ministry protested the exercises once again. Relations between Moscow and Tokyo deteriorated further in August after Vladimir Putin visited Iturup, one of the disputed southern Kuril Islands.
Japan lodged a protest with Russia, calling the trip to the island “utterly unacceptable.” Tokyo considers the southern Kuril Islands (which it calls the Northern Territories) to be Japanese territory. Russia controls the islands and disputes Japan’s claim to sovereignty.
The Insider previously reported that in August 2025, Russia formally abandoned a voluntary moratorium on the deployment of ground-based intermediate- and shorter-range missiles. Russia’s Foreign Ministry cited the appearance of U.S. Typhon systems in the Asia-Pacific region among the reasons for the decision.
