Table Of ContentThe Japanese Ground
Self-Defense Force
Search for Legitimacy
Edited by Robert D. Eldridge
and Paul Midford
The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force
Robert D. Eldridge • Paul Midford
Editors
The Japanese Ground
Self-Defense Force
Search for Legitimacy
Editors
Robert D. Eldridge Paul Midford
Institute for International Policy Norwegian University for Science
Studies and Technology
Tokyo, Japan Trondheim, Norway
ISBN 978-1-137-56531-0 ISBN 978-1-137-55194-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55194-8
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P
reface
This project began more than a decade ago. Eldridge initially intended to
do a single-authored study surveying the history of the Japan Ground Self-
Defense Force (GSDF or Rikujo ̄Jieitai or Rikuji for short), and brought
boxes upon boxes of the necessary documents and materials with him on
a one-year working sabbatical to Hawaii’s Camp Smith, where he served
as the first-ever Scholar-in-Residence at the headquarters of US Marine
Corps Forces, Pacific. The sabbatical began in the summer of 2004, which
corresponded to the fiftieth anniversary of the official establishment of
the Self-Defense Forces (SDF). While there, one of the key aspects of
his work was interfacing with the GSDF. A couple of months into the
sabbatical, however, he became more and more involved in policy work
and was not able to do all the research and writing on the GSDF that he
hoped to do when he set out for Honolulu. Upon returning to Japan and
Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy, where he was a
tenured associate professor at the time, he decided to organize a group
project to look at the history of the GSDF and expand it to include dis-
cussions of how the SDF/GSDF has come to interact with domestic soci-
ety (citizens, public opinion, and politics) and with international society
through an examination of the issues of civilian control, public opinion,
and operations, such as those in response to domestic natural disasters
and/or peace-keeping operations.
During this time, Eldridge was in the process of completing a co-edited
book with Midford on Japanese public opinion toward the war on ter-
rorism, and he asked him to join the new project about the GSDF as
a chapter contributor and co-editor of the eventual book. Eldridge also
v
vi PREFACE
invited Ayako Kusunoki, an expert on Japan’s early postwar defense pol-
icy, Tomoaki Murakami, a specialist on the SDF’s involvement in peace-
keeping operations, disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance, Katsuhiro
Musashi, an expert on the legislation relating to the practice of civilian
control, and Giuseppe A. Stavale, a career US military officer and a Foreign
Area Officer specializing in Japanese defense issues. With this team of six
academic and professional experts in place, Eldridge decided to apply for
a Suntory Foundation grant, and upon successfully receiving it, officially
began the project in the fall of 2008, and following a successful first year,
applied for a second year of the grant in 2009.
The name of the project was nearly the same as this book title: “A
History of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force and its Search for
Legitimacy.” It employs both a political science and a historical approach,
and includes much public opinion data specifically about security issues
and the GSDF. Beyond these data, much of the research is based on inter-
views and access that some of the contributors had not only to members
of the GSDF, but also to officials from the other services as well of the
civilian governments of both Japan and the United States.
The reason Eldridge began this study and proposed the project had
to do with the fact that despite its being the numerically largest of the
three services, most heavily tasked, and operating primarily on Japanese
soil throughout much of the archipelago (being thus more visible to the
Japanese public than its sister services, which might be at sea or in the air),
the GSDF was probably the least discussed of the three services. This has,
of course, changed since the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake
and Tsunami, but fundamentally the GSDF remains little known domesti-
cally as well as internationally. This lack of knowledge, in fact, applies to
the SDF as a whole. One Japanese writer even went so far as to lament
“there are about 240,000 personnel making up the SDF, which is about
the same number of employees at Japan’s top companies like Toyota
Motors, or Panasonic Electric. It is also the largest group in Japan’s civil
service. Yet, we would venture to say the public does not really know who
makes up the SDF. At least, we do not know the men and women of the
SDF as well as we know those who work for Toyota or Panasonic.”1
A personal experience of one of the editors, Eldridge, found this to
be very much the case. Waiting at the arrival gate at Osaka International
Airport in Itami City in the early 2000s for a friend from the US Marine
Corps to land, he happened to be with an acquaintance from the GSDF
who worked in one of the many provincial liaison cooperation offices
PREFACE vii
around the country.2 While we were talking, a lady in her fifties walked up
and interrupted our conversation to ask him where such-and-such a gate
was within the airport building. Somewhat confused, he looked at her
without responding. She repeated her question again, and then, finally,
said in exasperation, “Well, you do work here, don’t you? You have a uni-
form on, after all.”
Some have believed that the public’s view has been even harsher.
Writing a few decades ago about perceptions in Japan, the late veteran
Japan scholar and journalist Frank Gibney wrote, “The Self-Defense
Forces in Japan are barely past the status of public embarrassment. Most
Japanese continue to think that a strong economy and a unified society are
worth more than numerous divisions. The need for armed forces may be
understood by some, but not by many.”3
While this book is not necessarily intended to help readers get to know
the individuals making up the SDF, or the GSDF in particular, it is the
first published book-length study of the GSDF with chapters written in
an interdisciplinary manner by individuals with intimate knowledge of the
GSDF and issues of public opinion and policy. This book also offers an
international perspective, with three of the authors being non-Japanese.
One of the reasons for this lack of understanding has to do with the
lack of scholarly books about the GSDF, particularly in English. This issue,
along with a review of the existing literature and an overview of the com-
position of this book, is discussed more in the Introduction.
Domestically, other reasons include the generally low defense conscious-
ness of the Japanese public due in part to decades of peace and prosperity,
and the lack of contiguous land borders with other countries that one
typically associates land forces. Moreover, with the SDF being the post-
war successors of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Imperial Japanese
Navy (IJN), which wreaked havoc in much of Asia and the Pacific during
World War II, including within Japan in the process, citizens wanted to
limit the role, public or otherwise, the military would ever have in politics
and national decision-making. (The debate on the constitutionality of the
SDF and issues like civilian control is taken up in several chapters of the
book.)
The reasons for the lack of domestic attention toward the SDF may
be the same reasons, when inversed, as to why international attention
has not focused as much on the GSDF as it has on, for example, the
Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF).4 Namely, Japan’s GSDF has been
little involved in international security issues, at least before the 1990s.
viii PREFACE
Moreover, due to the legacies of World War II, the role of the SDF in
postwar defense policy-making has been limited politically, institutionally,
and structurally, and thus has been of little interest to outside observers.
Although this is changing, uniformed officials often do not have a seat at
the table when important issues are discussed, and in some cases, senior
SDF officers are not known by their political leaders. The late Dr. Inoki
Masamichi, a professor emeritus of Kyōto University, former President of
the National Defense Academy (Boē i Daigakko)̄ , and the founding presi-
dent of the Research Institute for Peace and Security (Heiwa Anzen Hoshō
Kenkyūsho), sadly noted in his memoirs that it was he who had to intro-
duce the prime minister to his own military deputy.5 The SDF continues
to be less-than-fully embraced both by the Ministry of Defense (MOD or
Boē isho)̄ and bureaucrats.
The change in government brought about by voters for the first time
in 2009 also posed challenges for the SDF and GSDF. As in many other
policy areas, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), by virtue of the Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP)’s almost unbroken fifty-year-plus monopoly on
power, came to power with few leaders experienced in governing and a
lack of deep contacts with the bureaucracy. Defense and the SDF were
no exception. The DPJ’s promise to the public to reduce the role of
bureaucrats in governing further exacerbated this situation,6 as did the
presence of the Social Democratic Party in the ruling coalition and among
the Cabinet members. DPJ Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio’s handling
of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma issue, namely his calling for
the air station’s relocation outside of Okinawa Prefecture against previous
government- to-government bilateral agreements, also invited serious con-
cern among alliance managers, including those within the SDF. On the
other hand, even as a left-of-center party, the DPJ was very different from
the old Japan Socialist Party of the Cold War era. It accepted the existence
of the SDF and its role in national defense and disaster relief. In con-
trast to the 1995 Kobe earthquake, in the wake of the 3/11 earthquake
and tsunami, DPJ-affiliated governors quickly requested SDF mobili-
zation, and Prime Minister Kan Naoto and Defense Minister Kitazawa
Toshimi quickly ordered the mobilization of the SDF, a mobilization
that grew into the largest in GSDF and SDF history. It was symbolic of
the GSDF’s and SDF’s integration into, and acceptance by, larger society
that the DPJ’s third Prime Minister, Noda Yoshihiko, was the son of a
GSDF member. Another indicator was that Noda’s final Defense Minister,
Morimoto Satoshi, was only the second former SDF member to have
PREFACE ix
served as defense minister.7 Expectations for an SDF-friendly government
were raised in late December 2012 when another change in government
brought the LDP back to power. However, Prime Minister Abe Shinzō’s
reinterpretation of the constitution and subsequent security legislation
that allows the SDF to engage in combat overseas in support of allies
under some circumstances was greeted with mixed reactions in the GSDF
and SDF, just as it was in society overall. Some SDF members were even
quoted as stating they did not join the SDF to do combat missions outside
of Japan, while a retired officer wore his uniform at a public demonstra-
tion and expressed his opposition to the legislation.
What comes of these moves remains to be seen, but the Abe adminis-
tration, which this book covers to some extent, is certainly promoting a
more robust defense posture and proactive security stance. We are happy
to be able to publish this book at this juncture of great security debate in
Japan.
Before we turn to the Introduction, the editors would like to
acknowledge the above-mentioned generous grant (“Jinbun Kagaku,
Shakai Kagaku ni Kansuru Gakusaiteki Guruupu Kenkyū Josei” or
Interdisciplinary Group Research in Humanities and Social Sciences
Grant) provided by the Suntory Foundation, one of Japan’s leading sup-
porters of research. Second, we all would like to express our appreciation
to our respective institutions and staff for their support of our project
and understanding. Third, we would like to thank the numerous men
and women within the GSDF who have participated in interviews and
provided documentation for our research. Where we could acknowledge
individuals, we have done so in the respective chapters. We would also
like to thank retired US Army Colonel Robert Loy, Dr. James Auer, Dr.
Iokibe Makoto, the late GSDF Lieutenant General (retired) Yamaguchi
Noboru, GSDF Lieutenant General (retired) Banshō Kōichirō, GSDF
Colonel (retired) Miki Hideo, GSDF Colonel Yamaguchi Kazunori, and
the public affairs staff at the Central Readiness Regiment, and many oth-
ers. Eldridge and Midford would like to thank Alisa Pulver and Palgrave
Macmillan for their generous support during the preparation of this
book. Finally, we would like to thank our families for their support.
Eldridge would like to thank his wife Emiko, daughter Ami, and son
Kennan, for all their love and support especially in our various moves
and position changes. Midford would like to thank Robert Eldridge,
Natsuyo Ishibashi, Marie Söderberg, Joe Stavale, and the Trondheim
Writers’ Circle members Jennifer Bailey, Torbjørn Knutsen, and Sabrina
x PREFACE
Ramet for their valuable comments on earlier versions of Chap. 7, and
Knutsen for his comments on the i ntroductory chapter. Midford thanks
his family, especially his mother, Carol E. Midford, and late father, Dr.
Thomas Arthur Midford, for their unwavering support of his decision
to pursue an academic career. Midford would also like to use the occa-
sion of this book to thank and pay respect to students he has taught
who have gone on to serve in the GSDF, most notably Sakita Takayoshi.
Kusunoki thanks her parents. Stavale is appreciative of his wife and chil-
dren, and the men and women of the GSDF whom he served alongside
during Operation Tomodachi, “who inspired me in countless ways to
chronicle the history of the GSDF in a transparent manner. They served
their communities with zeal, dignity, and compassion. These sons and
daughters of Japan brought courage and hope to places surrounded in
despair. They, along with their countrymen, awed me in their resilience
and strength.” Musashi thanks his wife Atsuko and Mssrs Masuda Kazuo
and Aoyanagi Hajime, both of the MOD. Murakami expresses appre-
ciation to his deceased father (Murakami Yūzō), and two friends whom
he lost in the Great Hanshin- Awaji Earthquake, Mori Wataru and Katō
Takamitsu.
Robert D. Eldridge
Paul Midford
Osaka and Trondheim
