The "One" staff, in military parlance, refers to the directorates within a headquarters that handle human resources, personnel, manpower, and administration. These directorates, such as the Army's G1 or the Air Force's A1, are responsible for managing personnel assignments, providing support services, and ensuring that the command has the right people in the right place at the right time to accomplish its mission.

The symposium focused on “One” staff directorates and plans for USFJ’s command and control upgrade, an initiative to transform and operationalize USFJ to enhance its ability to respond to evolving security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region.

“The symposium was an opportunity for all components of USFJ to meet and have some good face time and network that are related to human resource management,” said U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Ricardo Medal, Marine Forces Japan G1 Director. “A key goal was to plan out USFJ’s upgrade and the full capabilities of USFJ when it is fully operational capable over the foreseeable future".

Participants included representatives from the personnel directorates of USFJ's sub-components: U.S. Army Japan, Marine Forces Japan, Commander Naval Forces Japan, Fifth Air Force, and Space Forces Japan.

“The goal is to have each service component understand the operating picture of the other branches in Japan and then understand what USFJ’s responsibilities are so they can see the whole footprint,” said U.S. Army Col. Frank Cenkner, USFJ J1 Director. “We are setting conditions here to set up for a successful future for U.S. and ally forces.”

The symposium also provided a platform for addressing specific concerns of the different services.

“Part of the briefing includes service components discussing their way forward, what they were doing well, and where they need assistance on,” said Cenkner, “It was eye-opening to see some of the improvements that some of the components are inputting.”

The symposium aligned with priorities established by U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen F. Jost, USFJ and Fifth Air Forces commander, drive deep interoperability by creating a common operating picture of personnel data for the command and ensuring all components are familiar with each other’s capabilities.

By improving communications, ensuring that all services are aligned with the USFJ growth plan, solving benefits problems for personnel, and addressing concerns of the command, the symposium aims to improve the efficiency of the J1 directorate.

"The intent of the symposium was to have a conversation with the components of what operationalizing USFJ looked like and create a bottom-up plan for how we all want to work together,” said Cenkner.

By moving forward with greater integration and open communication, the “One” directorate personnel are hoping to set the conditions to strengthen the U.S-Japan alliance, expand operational cooperation and bolster bilateral capabilities with Japan.