This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0002978818 Reproduction Date:
The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF; Japanese: 陸上自衛隊;, Rikujō Jieitai), is the main branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the de facto army of Japan. The JGSDF was created on July 1, 1954. Up until the end of the Cold War, its primary concern was maintaining internal security in Japan and countering a possible Soviet invasion of Hokkaido. The largest of the three services of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force is tasked with maintaining internal security in Japan and operates under the command of the chief of the ground staff, based in the city of Ichigaya, Tokyo. The present chief of the ground staff is General Eiji Kimizuka (Japanese: 君塚 栄治).
The JGSDF numbered around 170,000 soldiers in 2014.[1]
Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration in 1945, and, in compliance with Article 9, the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy were dismantled. Both were replaced by the United States Armed Forces occupation force, which assumed responsibility for the defense of Japan.
On the outbreak of the Korean War, many U.S. units were transferred to Korea, and Japan was perceived as lacking defenses. Encouraged by the American occupation authorities, in July 1950 the Japanese government authorized the establishment of a National Police Reserve, consisting of 75,000 men equipped with light infantry weapons. Under the terms of Japan's various peace treaties and the Mutual Security Assistance Pact (ratified in 1952), American forces stationed in Japan were responsible for confronting external aggression against Japan while Japanese forces, both ground and maritime, would deal with internal threats and natural disasters. Accordingly, in mid-1952 the National Police Reserve was expanded to 110,000 men and renamed the National Safety Forces.
Japan continued to improve its defensive capabilities. On July 1, 1954, the National Security Board was reorganized as the Defense Agency, and the National Security Force was reorganized afterwards as the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The enabling legislation for this was the 1954 Self-Defense Forces Act [Act No. 165 of 1954].
For a long period, the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force possessed a dubious ability to hold off a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido. Zbigniew Brzezinski observed in 1972 that it seemed optimized to fight ‘a Soviet invasion conducted on American patterns of a quarter of a century ago.’[2] While the force is now an efficient army of around 148,000,[3] its apparent importance had, until recently, seemingly declined with the end of the Cold War, and attempts to reorient the forces as a whole to new post Cold War missions have been tangled in a series of internal political disputes.
In 1989, basic training for lower-secondary and upper-secondary academy graduates began in the training brigade and lasted approximately three months. Specialized enlisted and non-commissioned officer (NCO) candidate courses were available in branch schools and qualified NCOs could enter an eight-to-twelve-week officer candidate program. Senior NCOs and graduates of an eighty-week NCO pilot course were eligible to enter officer candidate schools, as were graduates of the National Defense Academy at Yokosuka and graduates of all four-year universities. Advanced technical, flight, medical and command and staff officer courses were also run by the JGSDF. Like the maritime and air forces, the JGSDF ran a youth cadet program offering technical training to lower-secondary school graduates below military age in return for a promise of enlistment.
Because of population density and urbanization on the Japanese islands, only limited areas are available for large-scale training, and, even in these areas, noise restrictions are extensive. The JGSDF has adapted to these conditions by conducting command post exercises, map maneuvers, investing in simulators and other training programs, as well as conducting live fire exercises overseas at locations such as the Yakima Training Center in the United States.
The JGSDF has two reserve components: the rapid-reaction reserve component (即応予備自衛官制度) and the main reserve component (一般予備自衛官制度). Members of the rapid-reaction component train 30 days a year. Members of the main reserve train five days a year. As of December 2007, there were 8,425 members of the rapid-reaction reserve component and 22,404 members of the main reserve component.[4]
JGSDF Type 10 MBT
JGSDF Type 90 MBT
Maneuver Combat Vehicle
Type 87 self-propelled anti-aircraft gun
Type 96 Armored Personnel Carrier
Regionally the JGSDF is organised into five armies, the Northern Army, North Eastern Army, Eastern Army, Central Army, and Western Army.
The GSDF consists of the following tactical units:
JGSDF divisions and brigades are combined arms units with infantry, armored, and artillery units, combat support units and logistical support units. They are regionally independent and permanent entities. The divisions strength varies from 6,000 to 9,000 personnel. The brigades are smaller with 3,000 to 4,000 personnel.
Special Purpose units consist of the following:
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, World War II, Japan, Japan Air Self-Defense Force
South Korea, Tokyo, Hokkaido, Australia, China
Imperial Japanese Navy, Japan Self-Defense Forces, Submarine, Cold War, Saddam Hussein
Hiragana, Katakana, Ryukyuan languages, World War II, Altaic languages
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Japan, Funabashi, Chiba, Iraq, World War II
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Japan Self-Defense Forces, Iraq War, Chūbu region, Japan
United States Army, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Bell P-39 Airacobra, Bell UH-1 Iroquois, Pakistan
Japan Self-Defense Forces, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Japan, University, Japan Air Self-Defense Force