Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to meet Sunday with U.S. military personnel aboard the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, a government source said Saturday.
It will be the first time a serving Japanese prime minister has boarded a U.S. flattop.
The visit is seen as aimed at demonstrating the countries' enhanced alliance, but it may draw flak from opposition parties opposed to the deployment of a nuclear-powered U.S. vessel in Japanese waters.
The Ronald Reagan arrived in its new home port of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, this month, where it is the only U.S. aircraft carrier based overseas.
Abe will board the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Izumo escort ship as well as the Ronald Reagan after attending a MSDF fleet review in Sagami Bay, southwest of Yokosuka.
Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander of U.S. 3rd Fleet in San Diego, and Rear Adm. Matthew Carter, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Japan, are among the military officials Abe plans to meet.
He will be accompanied by Taro Aso, who is both deputy prime minister and finance minister, and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, the source said.
The Ronald Reagan arrived Oct. 1 at Yokosuka Naval Base, replacing the George Washington, another Nimitz class nuclear-powered carrier, which departed in May after a seven-year deployment at Yokosuka.
Commissioned in 2003, the Ronald Reagan took part in Operation Tomodachi, a relief mission mounted by the U.S. military after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku.
Abe welcomed the aircraft carrier as a vessel "to contribute to regional security" when he met Thursday at his office with Adm. John Richardson, chief of Naval Operations.