The Japan–Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement
What it does
The Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) is a status-of-forces-type treaty that makes it administratively straightforward for the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to visit each other's territory for joint exercises, training, and disaster relief — the same legal category as similar agreements Japan has signed with Australia and the UK. It is widely read as formalizing the deepening security relationship between the two countries amid tension in the South China Sea.
The timeline, precisely
Getting RAA dates right matters because the agreement went through an unusually long multi-stage ratification process on both sides:
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 8 July 2024 | Signed in Manila by Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. |
| 5 November 2024 | Ratified by President Marcos Jr. |
| 16 December 2024 | Concurred in by the Philippine Senate |
| 6 June 2025 | Approved by Japan's National Diet |
| 11 September 2025 | Entered into force |
Sources reporting only a single date for "when the RAA was signed/approved" are usually referring to just one of these five milestones — check which one before citing a date.
Why it took so long
Ratification on the Philippine side required Senate concurrence (a two-thirds vote under the 1987 Constitution's treaty-ratification clause), which added months between presidential ratification and entry into force. On the Japanese side, Diet approval followed normal legislative scheduling. The roughly 14-month gap between signing and entry into force is not unusual for this class of agreement, but it means claims that the RAA was "signed and in effect" the same year (2024) are inaccurate — it did not take effect until September 2025.
Context: not the first agreement of its kind for the Philippines
The RAA sits alongside the longer-standing Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States (signed 1998) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (2014, with base-access sites expanded from five in 2016 to nine as of 2023). Japan's agreement is newer and narrower in scope than the US arrangements, but represents Japan's first RAA-type treaty with a Southeast Asian nation.
Primary sources: Embassy of Japan in the Philippines, official announcement of entry into force; Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs press releases; Philippine News Agency reporting on Senate concurrence and Diet approval (2024–2025).
日本語の詳細版: 分野「外交・安全保障・南シナ海」の記事群（本サイト日本語版）。