Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF)

Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), is the Japanese military of post-WW2 Japan. After the defeat in WW2, the Japanese were stripped of their rights to the building of a military, as dictated by Article 9 of the American-written, Japanese constitution:

"ARTICLE 9. Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized."

This, however, changes when communist China prevailed in the the Chinese Civil War. The subsequent rise of communism and the Korean War made America realised the need for a strong ally in the Far East, capable of containing the threat of communism, and Japan was to become that ally.

This marks the start of the JSDF. However, due to the nature of the pacifist constitution of post-war Japan, the JSDF was not allowed to become a powerful military capable of strategic offense (invasion). This defensive nature is today prevalent in the JSDF's lack of Aircraft Carriers, Strategic Bombers and Ballistic Missiles. Besides that, a cap was placed on the number of troops that each arm of the JSDF can maintain. This leads to the JSDF becoming a high-tech military with heavy emphasis on technological and organizational edge. Below are two videos of the JSDF in action, the top one is the earlier version, with clips that was possibly taken in around 4 years ago. The next one is pretty recent, I could guess a year ago. Sorry for the quality, you know how Youtube is.....anyway, ENJOY!

Japan Self-Defense Forces v.1



Japan Self-Defense Forces v.2



Oh ya, btw, thanks to dynabook2001 for providing the videos.