Japan deploys equipment to Indonesia’s Borneo to help fight wildfires causing toxic haze

A Japanese military transport ship carrying 300 crew, three CH-47 Chinook helicopters and landing ship JS Kunisaki docked in Kalimantan on Borneo, marking Japan's first known overseas firefighting deployment. The mission targets wildfires that have sent toxic haze as far as the Philippines, breached Malaysia's emergency air-quality threshold, and disrupted schooling for more than 1.4 million students in Indonesia.

Indonesia's Forestry Ministry recorded over 202,000 hectares burned between January and July, nearly three times Singapore's size, with an intensifying El Niño and prolonged dry season blamed for the scale. The Chinooks will reach fire zones ground crews can't, joining aircraft already sent by the US, Russia, Australia, Canada and Ukraine.

Japan and Indonesia are also deepening military ties separately, including talks over Japan selling used destroyers to Jakarta, a detail that sits alongside the humanitarian framing without anyone pretending the two tracks are unrelated.

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