Ministry of Defense (Japan)

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Ministry of Defense
Japan

防衛省

Bōei-shō

Ministry of Defense Headquarters

Agency overview

Formed January 9, 2007; 11 years ago

 Defense Agency
Preceding agency
 Jurisdiction Japan

Headquarters 5-1 Ichigaya-honmuracho, Ichigaya, Shinjuku-

ku, Tokyo, Japan

Employees 22,721 civilian staff (2010)

Annual budget 4.7 trillion yen

Ministers  Itsunori Onodera, Minister of Defense

responsible  Tomohiro Yamamoto, State Minister of Defense
 Tatsuo Fukuda, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of
Defense

 Keitaro Ohno, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of

Defense

 Katashi Toyota, Administrative Vice-Minister of

Defense

Parent agency Government of Japan

Child agencies  Japan Self-Defense Forces

 Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency

Website http://www.mod.go.jp/e/index.html

The Ministry of Defense (防衛省 Bōei-shō) is a cabinet-level ministry of the Government of Japan.
It is headquartered in Ichigaya, Shinjuku, Tokyo, and is the largest organ of the Japanese
government. Headed by the Minister of Defense, the ministry is required by Article 66 of
the Constitution of Japan to be completely subordinate to civilian authority. Before its transition to a
cabinet-level ministry, it was named the Defense Agency (防衛庁 Bōei-chō), an agency of
the Cabinet Office.

Contents
[hide]

 1History
o 1.1Defense Agency
o 1.2Ministry of Defense
 2Ministers
 3Senior officials
o 3.1Senior Advisers
o 3.2Special Advisers
o 3.3Vice Minister and other officials
 o 3.4Military Commanders
 4Organization
 5See also
 6References
 7External links

History[edit]

The Imperial Japanese Army Academy in Ichigaya, Tokyo(市ヶ谷陸軍士官学校), built by the second French
Military Mission to Japan, on the ground of today's Ministry of Defense (1874 photograph).

The Ministry of Defense is headquartered in Ichigaya, Shinjuku, Tokyo, on a site which housed
the Imperial Japanese Army Academy (陸軍士官学校), built in 1874, the GHQ of the Imperial
Japanese Army before and during World War II, and of the Japan Ground Self-Defense
Force following the war. The Japanese Defense Agency was established on July 1, 1954. Until May
2000, it was based in Akasaka (currently occupied by Tokyo Midtown).
The Ministry of Defense is required by Article 66 of the Constitution to be completely subordinate to
civilian authority. Its head has the rank of Minister of State. He is assisted by two vice ministers, one
parliamentary and one administrative; the Defense Facilities Bureau; and the internal bureaus. The
highest figure in the command structure is the Prime Minister, who is responsible directly to
the National Diet. In a national emergency, the Prime Minister is authorized to order the various
components of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) into action, subject to the consent of the Diet.
In times of extreme emergency, that approval might be obtained after the fact.[1]
Defense Agency[edit]
In July 1986, the Security Council was established. The council is presided over by the Prime
Minister and includes the Ministers of State specified in advance in Article 9 of the Cabinet Law; the
Foreign Minister, the Finance Minister, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, the chairman of the National
Public Safety Commission, the director general of the Defense Agency, and the director general of
the Economic Planning Agency. The chairman of the Security Council also can invite the chairman
of the Joint Staff Council and any other relevant state minister or official to attend. Replacing the
National Defense Council, which had acted as an advisory group on defense-related matters since
1956, the Security Council addresses a wider range of military and nonmilitary security issues,
including basic national defense policy, the National Defense Program Outline, the outline on
coordinating industrial production and other matters related to the National Defense Program
Outline, and decisions on diplomatic initiatives and defense operations.[1]
The internal bureaus, especially the Bureau of Defense Policy, Bureau of Finance, and the Bureau
of Equipment, are often headed by officials from other ministries and are the main centers of power
and instruments of civilian control in the Defense Agency. The Bureau of Defense Policy is
responsible for drafting defense policy and programs, for determining day-to-day operational
activities, and for information gathering and analysis in the JSDF. The Bureau of Finance is
instrumental in developing the Defense Agency budget and in establishing spending priorities for the
Defense Agency and the JSDF. The Bureau of Equipment, organized into subunits for each of the
military services, focuses on equipment procurement. Before any major purchase is recommended
to the Diet by the Defense Agency, it has to be reviewed by each of these bureaus.[1]
Below these civilian groups are the uniformed JSDF personals. Its senior officer is the chairman of
the Joint Staff Council, a body that included the chiefs of staff of the ground, maritime, and air arms
of the Self-Defense Forces. Its principal functions are to advise the director general and to plan and
execute joint exercises. The three branches maintain staff offices to manage operations in their
branches. Although rank establishes echelons of command within the JSDF, all three branches are
immediately responsible to the director general and are coequal bodies with the Joint Staff Council
and the three staff offices.[1]
This structure precludes the concentration of power of the pre-1945 Imperial General Staff (and
the Supreme War Council) general staffs, but it impedes interservice coordination, and there are few
formal exchanges among commanders from various branches. Moreover, some dissatisfaction has
been reported by highranking officers who feel they have little power compared with younger civilian
officials in the bureaus, who most often have no military experience. To rectify this situation and to
increase input by the JSDF in policy matters, in the early 1980s the Joint Staff Council was enlarged
to establish better lines of communication between the internal bureaus and the three staff offices. A
computerized central command and communications system and various tactical command and
communications systems were established, linking service and field headquarters with general
headquarters at the Defense Agency and with one another.[1]