Japan may deploy a large contingent to observe this year's 39th Balikatan exercise between the Philippine and United States forces in April.

In an interview with reporters, Balikatan executive agent Col. Michael Logico also said the Japan Self Defense Force (JSDF) said they will only be joining as observers.

"Unfortunately, the JSDF confirmed that at this point in time they only will be sending observers for now but I think it will be more observers than the usual that we normally get during the (International Observers Program) IOP. So maybe now its a large contingent of observers that we are expecting," he said.

Logico said there are 14 countries that will join as observers.

"Right now, for observers we have about 14 countries that are included in the IOP so the normal observers that we have since last year are 12 plus two more... so all in all there are 14 countries that are included, most of them from ASEAN but also countries from the region but not from ASEAN like Japan, India...," he said.

Logico said aside from the Philippines, United States, the Australian Defense Force and France will also participate in other activities in this year's exercises.

"As of our total, the running total that we have as of the moment is 16,000 participants. That means 11,000 US personnel as opposed to 5,000 AFP personnel. It might seem like a disparity but the 11,000 also includes the support so when they come in they also have the support group," he said.

"The running total for Australian Defense Force is 150, for France it is still undetermined but they will be sending a frigate to take part in the group sail," he added.

Logico said US troops that will participate in the exercises have started to arrive in the country while the Humanitarian Civic Assistance projects in different parts of the country are set to start next week. Robina Asido/DMS