It has been 50 years since the Self-Defense Forces were created to protect the peace and independence of Japan and to deal with foreign acts of aggression. It is fitting, therefore, that the white paper on Japan's defense for this milestone year, released this week by the Defense Agency, takes up future roles for the SDF.
The SDF has evolved significantly over the past half century, reflecting changes in domestic and international situations. In particular, the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States have transformed the security environment in the post-Cold War world. That has posed a critical question for Japan: What kind of defense capability should the SDF develop?
The annual report specifically addresses this question on the basis of discussions conducted by an internal study group. It makes two key points: The first is that the SDF should improve its capability to deal with "new threats" to national security, such as weapons of mass destruction, missiles, guerrillas and international terrorists. The underlying belief here is that there is only a small possibility, if any, that Japan will be attacked in a conventional way involving large numbers of planes and ships.