LDP panel proposes SDF officer as aide to PM

Thursday 24th April, 11:39 AM JST

TOKYO —

A governing party panel on Defense Ministry reforms endorsed a set of proposals Thursday featuring the idea of appointing a Self-Defense Forces officer as an aide to the prime minister in a bid to strengthen the power of uniformed officers in the ministry.

The subcommittee under the Liberal Democratic Party’s Research Commission on Security also proposed to upgrade the status of the chief of the ministry’s Joint Staff Office and set up a command center under the SDF chief so the JSO chief can directly operate an SDF unit without going through the chiefs of the ground, maritime and air self-defense forces. Former vice Defense Agency chief Yasukazu Hamada who heads the subcommittee told a press conference the set of proposals is chiefly aimed at speeding up the decision-making process in a possible emergency.

5 Comments

paolo27th at 05:52 PM JST - 24th April

Wow, sounds like a really good idea to have unelected militarists sitting next to the prime minister. Talk about wishing to be born in the 1920's? Nah,the model for the true modern society is Myanmar...
teck at 05:59 PM JST - 24th April

I guess the issue is the balance between power, and checks and balances. While the military does deserve to have enough power to fulfil its role during a time of crisis, there must be enough checks and balances in place to prevent history from repeating itself.
Reciprocity at 01:33 AM JST - 25th April

This is similar to the U.S. defense department. Just last year, a Defense Ministry was created to give more decision making power to defense officials. Now they are completing some of the framework by creating a "Chairman" for the JSDF.
The_Marion at 09:07 AM JST - 25th April

Whoa! This appears to be another whack at Article 9 of the Constitution and I feel that Article 72 does about the same thing. There are 103 Articles and it behooves everyone (including the Diet) to familiarize themselves with the Constitution.

I continue to say "Japan is breeding a scab on their nose!"
Rekishika at 04:42 PM JST - 25th April

About the idea of an aide to the Prime Minister, at first glance this looks like a good idea. However, there is an important problem to it. A painful history lesson. In your previous system, the Minister of War had to be a general in active service. Likewise, the Minister of the Navy had to be an active admiral. Again, this sounds like a good idea, you get professional people on the job. It proved a big mistake, however. Both services discovered very early on that they could get powerful influence over politics, because if they wouldn´t supply a minister, no cabinet could be formed. With the increasing appetite for conquest and warlike attitudes, especially in the army (the causes of that are a story for another time), increasingly found their way into dominating the government through the instrument described above, overriding the voices for a more peaceful course. The eventual results are well known. Germany, during WWI, also has had similar problems (interestingly, your army officers were taught their job by those imperial German officers). Many of the most serious mistakes, the invasion of Belgium, the unrestricted submarine warfare and so on, were decisions where the military arguments won the day over the political ones. The famous German military theorist Clausewitz is very clear on this. He states that when it comes to matters of defence, the government should be in the lead. The military can be consulted, they can offer professional advice in their own field, but they should never be allowed to dictate policy, because that is a recipe for disaster. Coming back to the idea of appointing an aide, it is possibly a good idea, but great thought should be given to the problem of how to arrange for this in such a way that the government (and since Japan is a democracy the Diet in their role as controlling the government and eventually the people themselves) stay in undisputed control over the SDF.