Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Forces Take to the Waves

The Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARBD) is set up to conduct landing operations to retake Japanese territory.

Japan's Military Has Some Serious Problems (As China's Military Gets Stronger)

Can Tokyo overcome some big challenges with Beijing increasing its own capabilities quickly?

Is Japan’s Army Ready for Battle?

Japanese cruise missiles and nuclear weapons are some way off. The more pressing issue is the battle-readiness of the SDF. For decades it was deemed legitimate only so long as it maintained the minimum necessary force to protect the nation. America shouldered the burden of Japan’s defence. For most people, the SDF’s primary role was in providing disaster relief. Military experts still consider it a hollow force. How would it perform if put to the test? 

Japan’s Defense Industry Continues to Grow. But is it in for Rough Seas?

Japan’s homegrown defense industry continues to secure significant amounts of contracts from the U.S. government, but concerns linger over the high level of spending on big-ticket items acquired via the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, and the outlook for Japan’s push into the global arms market remains cloudy.

How Capable are Japan’s Self-Defense Forces? Let’s Just Say, Hi-Tech

It is true that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces do not have autonomous defense capability against a major threat, especially one with a nuclear weapons capability. It is incorrect, however, to say that Japan’s SDF are incapable. To the contrary, Japan possesses a high technology anti-invasion, anti-submarine, and air defense capability. From 2001 to 2009 they operated professionally and impressively in the Indian Ocean, have contributed to and commanded anti-piracy patrols in the waters off Somalia and the horn of Africa. 

Married to the Army: Japanese Women Recruit Husbands from Self-Defense Forces

Women in Japan are increasingly interested in finding a future partner from the ranks of the SDF, apparently because the men are good at cooking, washing, cleaning and repairing things. The SDF’s public image also got a huge boost in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku disaster, where thousands of soldiers were dispatched to take part in rescue and recovery operations.

Japan to Raise Maximum Age for New Recruits to Boost Dwindling Military Ranks

Japan’s military plans to raise the maximum age for new recruits in a bid to cope with a shrinking pool of potential soldiers due to the country’s low birth rate and fast-ageing population.

Japan Aegis BMD (JFTM-1) Stellar Kiji Success, B-Roll

Japan Scraps X-2 “Shinshin” 5th Gen Stealth Fighter Jet Due to Budget

X-2 “Shinshin” Japanese Fifth Generation Fighter

Protecting our Peaceful Sky

Japanese Military Power | Japan Self-Defense Forces 2017 - 2018

Japan-U.S. Friendship and Grassroots Exchanges 2016

PKO Cooperation Japan and Thailand

Promotion of Active Engagement of Female SDF Personnel

2016 Japanese and United States Military Parade

Japanese Motorcycle Special Teams Training with Kawasaki KLX250

JMSDF Icebreaker "Shirase"

The Flying Cabinet Office: Japanese Air Force One

Japan Self-Defense Forces Fleet Review 2015

Japan's Ministry of Defense- 2016 Year in Review

2016 JSDF Military Parade [English subtitles]

JMSDF DD-117 JS Suzutsuki - July 2015

(JFTM-4) Japan Aegis BMD (JMSDF) 2010 10 日本語版

Chinese Type 052D Destroyer vs. Japanese Atago-Class Destroyer and F-2 Fighters

Battle of the Aegis: Type 052D vs Atago Movie Trailer

Japan Aegis BMD JFTM-1 (日本 ナレーション)

Japan Aegis BMD (JFTM-2) Stellar Hayabusa, B-Roll

Japan Aegis BMD (JFTM-3) Stellar Raicho Quicklook

Japan Aegis BMD (JFTM-1) Stellar Kiji Quicklook

Aegis Missile Defense System: U.S. and Japan Make Successful Missile Interception Test

Hyuga : The Destroyer of Japan Maritime Self Defense Force

Japan's Kongō-Class Aegis Missile Destroyer Phalanx CIWS Demonstration JMSDF DDG-175 Myoko

Japan Aegis BMD (JFTM-4) Stellar Taka Flight Mission Success Quicklook

JMSDF AEGIS BMD (Ballistic Missile Defense) Video Clip

Could China invade Japan?

How Powerful Is Japan?

Japan’s Military Space Force

CNN's Jim Sciutto Explains Why Japan's Military is Restricted, and Why Leadership is Pushing for Increased Military Power

Japanese H-IIA Rocket Launches DSN-2 Military Satellite

Japanese Self Defense Force- "Apache" and "Omega" Helicopter Landing

Japan's Fuji AH-64DJP Apache Longbow M230

AH-64D Apache Longbow Aerobatics

Lockheed Martin Rolls Out the First F-35 Fighter Jet Built for Japan

Japan Secretly Designed Destroyers as F-35-Loaded Aircraft Carriers - Report

Why China Is Worried About Japan's Purchase of the F-35

Japan's First Built F-35 Stealth Fighter- Airshow World

Japan's Special Forces

Japan's New Smart Tank: A High-Tech Defense Against Godzilla

Japan's Mitsubishi Type 10 Main Battle Tank Live Fire

China's Worst Nightmare?

Japan Is Rebuilding Its Military For The First Time Since WWII

F-2 Demonstration Flight at Tsuiki Base Air Show in 2017

The F-2 Fighter

Japan’s Elite Amphibious Force Trains with U.S. Marines

2049- A Future Where Japan, and Not China, is the Dominant Asian Power

Why is Japan Building Up Its Navy?

How Japan Could Sink China's Navy in a War

Special Forces of Japan

Why China Fears Japan’s Military | China Uncensored

Spherical Flying Machine Developed by Japan's Ministry Of Defense

North Korea vs Japan - Military Power Comparison 2018

Japan vs North Korea - Who Would Win - Military Comparison

Why Is Japan Rearming?

Meet the Robots Powering Japan's New Tech Movement

Japan- Innovative Technology

Japan’s Future Defense Equipment Policy

What are Japan’s future national security policies for dealing with these challenges? One of the most significant challenges for Japan’s Ministry of Defense (MOD) is the acquisition of defense equipment because it has structural problems in terms of limited budget and long lead time. Japan has altered its defense equipment policies to relax its self-imposed ban on arms exports and established a new MOD acquisition agency that has consolidated numerous acquisition-related branches in MOD.

Japanese QZSS Satellite Orbit Visualisation

The Japanese Military Is Building a Robotic Exoskeleton

If anyone can craft Iron Man style robotic armor, it’s Japan, right? Don’t hold your breath. As the U.S. military has learned, exoskeletons are still a long way from the battlefield.

How Japan May Have American Northrop Grumman’s YF-23 Black Widow In Its Air Force?

In what could be a major development, Japan may have one of the most lethal fighter jet in near future through the F 3 program.Japan’s F-3  program is aimed at developing an indigenous 5th generation fighter.

The Meaning of Japan's New Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade Launch

On March 27, 2018, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) underwent its most significant structural reform since its formation in 1954 with the creation of a unified command and the launch of an Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB) tasked with defending Japan’s remote islands. However, manufacturing delays and local opposition to stationing the V-22 Osprey will cause major setbacks to the new amphibious capability becoming operational.

Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force Appoints First Woman to Command Warship Squadron

The Self-Defense Forces, like the wider economy, is turning to women to make up a shortfall in personnel as the nation’s working age population shrinks amid a drop in birthrates. The number of people aged between 18 and 26 is forecast by the government to shrink to 7 million people by 2065 from 11 million last year.

Japan’s Courts Are Being Asked to Define the Role of the SDF

There have been indications the SDF wants to be the conventional military that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has in mind, but that doesn’t mean the entire organization agrees with this direction.  After the Cabinet decided in 2015 to allow the SDF to participate in collective self-defense overseas, an active Ground SDF member brought a suit against the government demanding that it clarify if he would have to go abroad if the SDF was ordered to do so.

Japan Intercepts Chinese Spy Plane in East China Sea

The Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) scrambled fighter jets to intercept a People’s Liberation Army Navy Air Force (PLANAF) Shaanxi Y-9JB (GX-8) electronic warfare and surveillance aircraft traversing the Sea of Japan and East China Sea on July 27, the Japanese Ministry of Defense (MOD) said in a statement.

Will Japan and the UK Collaborate on Sixth-Generation Tempest Future Fighter Aircraft?

Japan and the United Kingdom (UK) may collaborate in some capacity on the latter’s Tempest Future Fighter Aircraft project, which aims to field a sixth-generation stealth fighter for the Royal Air Force (RAF) by 2035. A full-sized mockup of the Tempest fighter jet was first publicly revealed at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow in mid-July.

Japan's SDF Missile Unit Holds Drill With US

Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is taking part in the US-led Rim of the Pacific Exercise, or RIMPAC, off Hawaii along with navies of other countries. RIMPAC is held every 2 years. The surface-to-ship missile unit of the Ground Self-Defense Force held a drill with the US Army for the first time.

Anime Recruitment for the Japanese Self Defense Forces

Okayama Prefecture’s JSDF branch was the first, apparently, to try this strategy, introducing three cute anime girl characters on posters, recruitment flyers and calendars. The campaign apparently defied all expectations, leading to “skyrocketing” new enrollments and calendars flying off store shelves.

Japan's Self-Defense Forces recruitment from John H. LaDue jr on Vimeo.

Incorporating Unmanned Aerial Systems Into The Japan Air Self-Defense Force

This paper seeks to provide military policy makers and planners with constructive suggestions for the acquisition of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) given the regional strategic environment in East Asia and Japanese military culture. The strategic environment around Japan in particular has grown more complicated with the rapid expansion of military activity in the sea and airspace surrounding Japan, including incursions into Japanese territory.

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to Jointly Operate the Global Hawk Drone

The government plans to have all three branches of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces jointly operate the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft set to be introduced from fiscal 2021, in a bid to monitor security situations, including military moves by China and North Korea, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned. 

"Strength and Readiness"- Japan Maritime Self Defense Force Promotional Video

Japan: The Price of Normalcy

In the early 1990s, the Japanese military adopted a cute mascot by the name of Prince Pickles. He’s a little guy with a big head and big eyes who lives in a tranquil country bordering on some pretty dangerous territory. In three action-packed comic books aimed at young people, Prince Pickles overcomes his naïve belief that a land at peace needs no army. He enlists in his own country’s forces to defend against the predations of the neighboring Evil Empire. He endures intensive training. He helps with disaster relief. He goes on peacekeeping missions. And of course, after these mini-heroic efforts, Prince Pickles gets the girl, his comrade-in-arms Miss Parsley.

Weapons of the JGSDF

The transformation of the JGSDF has revolved around the ability to quickly move units around the country to respond to any threat, especially in the southwestern islands. That requires brigades that are mobile and readily deployable. Japan has an extensive defense industry and it is able to cater to most of the JGSDF’s needs in terms of small arms. Some weapons are designed and manufactured locally, whereas others are foreign designs that Japan has chosen to produce under license. The following article outline the main small arms used by regular infantry units of the JGSDF.

The Empire of Japan 2.0?

Inside ​Japan's Controversial Military Expansion

2018 Japan Military Strength

Current military capabilities and available firepower for the nation of Japan.

The Untold Story of Japan's Secret Spy Agency

Known only as “C1,” the office building is located inside a high-security compound that houses Japan’s Ministry of Defense. But it is not an ordinary military facility – it is a secret spy agency headquarters for the Directorate for Signals Intelligence, Japan’s version of the National Security Agency.

China vs Japan - Who Would Win? - Army / Military Comparison

Why Japan’s Soryu-Class Submarines Are So Good

Japan’s postwar submarine fleet is one of the best in the world. With an authorized total of twenty-two submarines, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force’s submarine fleet is also one of the largest. Japan builds its own submarines, with the work split between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, both based in the port city of Kobe.

Japan Looks to Greece for First Major Defense Export

Japan will begin negotiations with Greece to export the US-2 rescue aircraft in a deal that would mark the nation's first sale of finished defense equipment, sources have told Nikkei. Greece is modernizing its aging fleet of firefighting planes and plans to replace several dozen. The European country has expressed interest in buying the amphibious craft produced by ShinMaywa Industries.

The Japanese Military Recruits With Anime Girls

In the past, there was a tradition in the U.S. military to paint pin-ups on aircraft. Today, that tradition lives on in Japan. But there’s an important difference: they’re not cheesecake pin-ups. They’re anime girls, and they’re not only on aircraft, but also recruitment posters. 

Japan's Cute Army

But it’s fascinating to watch how Japan’s armed forces have endeared themselves to the Japanese public. The militaries of many nations harness mass media and pop culture for promotional purposes: the United States cooperates with Hollywood; Russia ostentatiously unveils a three-tiered “war center” seemingly modeled on a Bond villain’s lair. Japan is no different. But what makes their military unusual is that the image being projected isn’t one of might or machismo but of cuteness.

Shield of the Pacific: Japan as a Giant Aegis Destroyer

Several decades ago, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone once described his country as a “big aircraft carrier” from which to defend against Soviet aircraft. Although such an analogy fails to capture the richness and depth of the U.S-Japan alliance, it did say something important about Japan’s unique geographic and strategic position.

Japan Is Building Out Its Own Satellite Network That Could Replace GPS

Japan is targeting independence in space-based information. In doing so, the country certainly has an eye on security at home and the wider East Asia-Oceania region. It also has one eye on the future standing of its formal ally, the United States.

Mitsubishi X-2 Shinshin - Future Japanese Fighter

Japanese Armed Forces 2017

The Whale of Iron: Inside the JMSDF Akishio submarine and the Kure Maritime Museum

Japan's Akishio submarine was decommissioned in 2004 and now sits on dry land just outside Hiroshima. The Kure museum next door has a scale model of the largest battleship ever built. Here's what they're like inside.

Is Japan Breaking With Pacifism to Increase Defense Spending?

Facing multiple security challenges, Japan has begun exploring legislation to lift a spending cap on defense. The move reflects a new strategic reality but also risks antagonizing neighbors. DW's Julian Ryall reports.

The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force's Helicopter Carrier "Izumo"

Japan's Future Combat System Prototype

Japan's Military Expansion