These include modernizing their alliance's command structure and enabling the co-production of weapons. As a gift, Japan will offer more cherry trees to line the Tidal Basin in Washington.
"This is probably the largest set of substantial significant deliverables that we've seen of its kind," the official said, noting that typically, the agreements at a bilateral summit range from 12 to 20.
The official said that preparations for the state-level visit have been in the making for years and that it would be "the fundamental validation of President Biden's Indo-Pacific strategy," which seeks to maintain an open and secure Indo-Pacific together with allies.
"It is undeniable that at the conclusion of this visit, we will judge it to be a remarkable and historic summit," the official said.
Many of the agreements will be on the defense side.
"For the first time ever, we're going to change the force structure that we have in Japan," another official said, explaining that the U.S. military in Japan will restructure to a joint-operational command overseeing the forces from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army that are forward-deployed there. Currently each service has separate chains of command and is not equipped for joint operations that will be crucial in future wars.
This new U.S. structure will coordinate with the Japanese side, which will set up a new Japan Joint Operations Command (J-JOC) of its own by next March.
The two leaders will direct their respective foreign and defense ministers to flesh out the details at the next two-plus-two meeting, according to the officials.
They will also launch a "military industrial council" that will evaluate sites in Japan where the two sides can co-develop and co-produce weapons. The idea is to tap Japan's industrial capacity in order to fill in "one of the weak points" on the U.S. side, which is the bandwidth of defense production capacity, the senior official said.
On the economic front, two tracks of artificial intelligence research will be announced, the officials said. One project will be conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and Keio University and be funded by Microsoft and some Japanese companies. The other will be conducted by the University of Washington and Tsukuba University, funded by Amazon and Nvidia.
Nippon Steel's acquisition of U.S. Steel will not be discussed, the officials emphasized.
All in all, one official said, there is a "major shift" happening on the Japanese side, a country that previously "only worried about the parameters of their island" but is now "a full global partner on whatever happens in Europe, the Mideast and also the Indo-Pacific."
The relationship is shifting to a "higher and different level," the official said, adding that the specific deliverables serve as building blocks for a more integrated alliance.
The gifting of the sakura trees is a response to the planned removal of 158 of the beloved trees later this spring as part of a project to rebuild and raise the seawalls around the Tidal Basin.
"The two most important gifts that countries have given the United States over the course of our existence, one would be the Statue of Liberty and the second might be the gift 110 years ago from Japan of the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin," an official said.
"Sadly, several hundreds of those trees would have to be felled in order to do some work around the basin, and the Japanese immediately understood the significance of that and offered us to help provide saplings, when the time is right, to replace these felled trees," the official continued. He said that the move will symbolize the continuing friendship and partnership and that Kishida will plant a tree on the Washington Mall on Wednesday.
Kishida earlier planted a tree at a memorial to Japanese-Americans in Washington on Tuesday.
Biden and Kishida had a private dinner on Tuesday night with their first ladies. They visited BlackSalt, a seafood restaurant on the outskirts of Washington, where they enjoyed crab cakes.
Part of the state-level visit is an exchange of gifts. The Bidens presented a three-legged table that was handmade by a Japanese-American owned company in Pennsylvania using American black walnut -- one of the most precious woods native to North America.
The president also gifted Kishida a custom framed lithograph and a two-volume LP set signed by music legend Billy Joel.