. >>> earlier i spoke to nhk world's senior commentator hisashi sua. so, hisashi, is it unusual to have two aircraft carriers in this region at the same time? >> no, it's not that unusual. u.s. navy policy says there should be a presence of twoiers in the region. but this is not always the case because of demands elsewhere, so "uss george washington" has its home base in japan. the "uss john c. stennis" is based on the u.s. west coast but is on its way to the persian gulf to join the fleet. it arrived in the western pacific in mid-september. >> so is there anything unusual about what's happening right now? >> yes. the fact that the u.s. navy made the announcement in the first place. usually, it doesn't announce details about ships' movements except for port visits. this could possibly be due to the dispute surrounding the senkaku islands. the show of force could be for the -- for both china and japan. the implicit message could be for china to refrain from taking any provocative action and to give japan a sense of security. it remains unclear how long

. >>> earlier i spoke to nhk world's senior commentator hisashi tsuya. so, hisashi, is it unusual to have two aircraft carriers in this region at the same time? >> no, it's not that unusual. u.s. navy policy says there should be a presence of two carriers in the region. but this is not always the case because of demands elsewhere, so "uss george washington" has its home base in japan. the "uss john c. stennis" is based on the u.s. west coast but is on its way to the persian gulf to join the fleet. it arrived in the western pacific in mid-september. >> so is there anything unusual about what's happening right now? >> yes. the fact that the u.s. navy made the announcement in the first place. usually, it doesn't announce details about ships' movements except for port visits. this could possibly be due to the dispute surrounding the senkaku islands. the show of force could be for the -- for both china and japan. the implicit message could be for china to refrain from taking any provocative action and to give japan a sense of security. it remains unclear how