“In the latest sign of Japan’s military breaking out of its long-time self-imposed shell, about 20 uniformed, rifle-carrying soldiers, faces smeared with camouflage paint, marched through Tokyo’s western neighborhoods of Nerima and Itabashi Tuesday morning as part of a training mission….It was the first time in 42 years that Japanese troops openly marched through the capital…”-Wall Street Journal Japan, 12 June 2012
“Japan slipped to 5th position in the 2012 GPI [Global Peace Index], as a result of an increase in the number of heavy weapons and a slight rise in military spending as a proportion of GDP. There was also a rise in the Political Terror
Scale for the first time since 2004 from a very low level—the result of concerns raised in Amnesty International’s 2010 annual report. Despite the ban on maintaining war potential that was enshrined in Japan’s 1946 constitution, the country’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are sophisticated and capable and in
late 2010 the government unveiled plans to boost its southern forces over the next decade to counter China’s military rise.”-Global Peace Index 2012
“Satoshi Morimoto, a prominent national security analyst and government adviser who served in both the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry, was named to the defense post on Monday. He becomes Japan’s third defense minister since September; his predecessors, career politicians, were fired for incompetence.”-Time.com
“Japan is swinging its ground forces south to face China, and debating fundamental changes in the roles, missions and operations of its self-defense forces.“-Time.com
“Morimoto….is the first defense minister since the Second World War who is not a member of the Diet. That’s a big deal in a country that still nurses a deep distrust of the military and where renunciation of war is written – right there in black and white — into Japan’s constitution.”-Time.com
“He [Morimoto] is also a strong supporter of the U.S.-Japan alliance and of keeping Marines on Okinawa, despite the noise, crime and danger that have sparked decades of protest.”-Time.com
“A recent image posted on the top page of the official website for the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) High Technical School conspicuously features the Zaku mobile suit from the Gundam [Anime/cartoon] series, with two students looking at a toy of the suit while imagining themselves as one…..The JGSDF High Technical School is a three-year high school that offers specialized technical training as well as officer training to its students……”-Animenewsnetwork.com
“The two big challenges Japan faces today are social security and national security. The latter is related to the SDF [Self Defense Forces] and the Defense Academy….The role to be played by the SDF will grow greater in the future.”-Ryosei Kokubun, current president of the National Defense Academy of Japan, interview with The Daily Yomiuri
“The situation in Japan today is similar to that of Britain and France after World War I. As the cruel war killed so many young people, the public’s prevailing opinion during the postwar period was that they should never go to war again. As a result, Britain and France tended toward appeasement against the rise of Germany, only to allow another cruel war to break out. Similarly, after the end of World War II, Japan came to believe it should be committed to pacifism. It has managed to maintain its security by taking full advantage of the Japan-U.S. alliance in combination with its own limited arms. Today, however, the surrounding region has become one of the most dangerous in the world. Since the 1991 Gulf War, China has realized the necessity of modernizing its forces, and as a result it continues to build up its military…”-Makoto Iokibe, former president of the National Defense Academy of Japan, interview with The Daily Yomiuri