Imperial Japanese Armed Forces
"To
protect the sovereignty and territorial indivisibility of the Greater Japanese
Empire, and to ensure its economic and informational security are the most important
functions of the State and a matter of concern for all the Japanese people.
The
defence of the Greater Japanese Empire and the protection of its sovereignty,
territorial indivisibility and inviolability, are entrusted to the Imperial
Japanese Armed Forces..."
THE
IMPERIAL CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 17
The Imperial Japanese Armed Forces (IJAF)
are primarily responsible for external defense of Japan and its allies in East
Asia. The IJAF is capable of defending - against all existing and foreseeable
military threats - the archipelagoes that compose Japan: the Imperial Homeland,
Chishima-retto, Nan-yo Gunto, Ogasawara-gunto, Daito-shoto,
Minami-jima, Okino-tori-shima, Nansei-shoto, and Kazan-retto. It is capable of
protection of sea lanes out to 2,000 miles against existing and foreseeable
naval threats.
Since the Great Reform (1950), the IJAF generally
maintain a low profile, but with the world's fourth largest defense budget,
they have built an impressive arsenal of state-of-the-art weapons and
platforms. These include more than 1,200 main battle tanks, a fleet of 30
submarines including 16 Iruka anti-ship missile equipped SSN submarines,
a substantial surface fleet including new improved destroyers, 80 Q-4D
anti-submarine maritime reconnaissance aircraft and some 1230 combat aircraft
including NK-51s and NK-54s. Japan also has a sizeable defense industry with
sophisticated capabilities in areas such as radar and air-to-air missiles.
Tokyo has an active role in regional and
global security. This is done through closer co-operation with its allies,
Taiwan and Indonesia, as stated in the new East Asia Defense Treaty of
1999 as well as greater involvement in peacekeeping efforts in Africa. Prompted
by concerns about growing U.S. naval presence in Asia and frequent Korean
incursion into Japanese waters since 1996, Tokyo's new defense plans show a
shift in emphasis from training, personnel and maintenance costs, expansion of
intelligence capabilities and contingency measures towards spending more on
equipment procurement. There are also plans to improve maritime surveillance by
setting up a new net of intelligence satellites and expansion of the
substantial surface fleet with additional submarines as well as the expansion
of amphibious capability.
To enhance interoperability with its
allies forces as stipulated by the new Defense Treaty, the IJAF will expand its
production capacity of replenishment ship to sell them to the Allied forces in
addition to mid-air refueling tanker planes, airborne warning and control
aircraft and upgrading of older Kongo destroyers. Japan has also
allocated several billion yen for research on the joint theatre missile defense (TMD)
program with Taiwan.
The Defense Guidelines call for
comprehensive trilateral defense planning cooperation in areas such as
humanitarian relief activities, search and rescue, noncombatant evacuation
operations, enforcement of economic sanctions and logistic support for Allied
forces in international waters away from actual combat operations.
The most worrisome problem of the IJAF is,
surprisingly, an internal one. The almost eradication of the Imperial Japanese
Army after the Soviet-Japanese War and its reconstitution
after the 1950 Great Reform let the Imperial Japanese Navy
in position of take for itself the control of the entire military
establishment. So, the Imperial Japanese Air Army is, today, almost an
appendice of the Navy, a very unpleasant position, specially among the younger
officers. And even worse, the resentful Army and the Navy maintains a highly
divisive dispute for budgets, defense policy, doctrine, etc.
The IJAF have five services:
The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN);
The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA),
The Imperial Japanese Air Army (IJAA),
The Imperial Japanese Naval Infantry (IJNI), and
The Imperial Japanese Air Defense (IJAD).
These forces are entirely under the control of the Ministry of Defense. This ministry is in
charge of setting the parameters for the military doctrine and the recruitment and conditions of service. This
Ministry is also responsible of the Military Intelligence Corps (also known as Nakano) and the Japanese nuclear deterrence, but the
Ministry has delegated the effective control to the Navy.
The budget approved by the Diet for the FY
2002 was 4,500 billions yen. According to the state program of the Japanese
armed forces, the percentage of the budget between the IJAF services is:
Imperial Japanese Navy – up to 34%;
Imperial Japanese Air Defense – up to 20%;
Imperial Japanese Army – up to 17%;
Imperial Japanese Air Army – up to 10%;
Imperial Japanese Naval Infantry – up to
9%.
Other formations, units and organizations
which depend of the Defense Ministry – up to 10%.
The availability of military manpower
amounts 29,644,498 men, between 18 and 49 years old.
