While the world has faced the most severe and complex security environment since the end of the Second World War, Japan now has a new joint operations commander who has the power to unify the three branches of Japanese self -defense forces (JSDF) of the Hour of Peace in Emergency Times – in particular with a condition of Taiwan in mind.
During a meeting of the cabinet on March 11, the Japanese government appointed the lieutenant-general Nagumo KenichiroVice-chief of the joint staff of the JSDF joint personnel, as the first head of the joint operations command.
This new command of joint operations should be launched on March 24 at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo with staff of around 240 people, a spokesperson for joint staff in Japan said on March 12.
The appointment occurred after the National Defense Strategy and the Defense Construction Program, both approved by the National Security Council and the Cabinet in December 2022, called to strengthen the efficiency of the joint operational posture of the three JSDF services.
“A permanent deputy headquarters will be established in order to build a system capable of transparent intermediate operations in all stages of the time of peace to contingency, in order to strengthen the efficiency of joint operations among each homeless service,” said the defense construction program.
“In this regard, in the light of the growing severity of the security environment surrounding Japan, the MOD / SDF will do everything possible to continue the creation of a permanent joint headquarters as soon as possible,” he added.
NAGUMO, 59 In northern Japan, the Tohoku region. He graduated from the National Defense Academy and joined the air self -defense force in 1989.
He was Director General of the Department of Defense Planning and Policy at the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Commander of the Western Air Defense Force, among other positions.
More recently, he served Vice-chief of the joint staff office since March 2023. The post is an officer in uniform 2 of Japan, just behind the chief of staff of the JSDF-currently Yoshida Yoshihide, 62.
During the period of about a month when Yoshida was hospitalized from the end of February 2024, due to the fatigue of the response to the earthquake of the peninsula and other events, Nagumo acted in the Place de Yoshida.
Nagumo had been largely considered to be a leading candidate for the new joint operations commander.
According to the main Japanese news columns which follow the activities of the Prime Minister, Nagumo, as a chief of staff of joint personnel, frequently visited the office of the Prime Minister and published reports directly to the previous Prime Minister Kishida Fumio and the current Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru. For this reason, Nagumo is considered very reliable by Ishiba and other higher members of the administration.
The government has also decided to appoint the vice-admiral of Maritime Japan Auto-Defense Force (JMSDF), Tawara Tateki, commander of the Sasebo district of JMSDF, 58, as deputy commander of the new joint operations command, said the spokesperson.
As the diplomat previously pointed outThere is a bitter lesson behind this reorganization of the JSDF command structures. In the aftermath of the triple catastrophe of the East Grand Japan of March 11, 2011 (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident), it became obvious that General Oriki Ryoichi, then the chief of staff of the JSDF of joint staff, was overloaded with a huge amount of work. He was forced to command the entire JSDF in the rescue mission in the event of a disaster, in addition to being responsible for providing explanations to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense, and to coordinate with the US military.
Since then, national legislators and defense officials have had strong opinions that the chief of joint personnel should distribute some of these roles to others.
The new head office will also play a coordination role in close cooperation with the American army. The existing Japan system did not have the capacity to coordinate with the American Indo-Pacific command (Indopacom). Indeed, the counterpart of the joint personnel chief of Japan is the president of chiefs of the US army’s joint staff, which means that Japan does not have a natural point to engage with Indopacom.
Meanwhile, in July 2024, the US government announced that it would reconstruct the US forces of Japan (USFJ) as a headquarters of the joint force, falling under the commander of Indopacom in Hawai’i, in order to at the same time the new Tokyo force structure.
The current USFJ commander, a three -star general based in Yokota in the west of Tokyo, has no dominant authority and must take orders from Indopacom, which is about 6,500 km.
Japan asked that The four-star rank, not a three-star general, directs the headquarters of the United States, as in South Korea.
Asked if the US military had excluded this possibility at a press conference held in July 2024, The defense secretary of the time, Lloyd Austin, said“No, we didn’t exclude this.”
Regarding the coordination of command and control between Japan and the United States, the US military has much more information and equipment than the JSDF, so the biggest concern about Tokyo is to ensure the independence of the operational command of Japan. The Japanese government stressed that the JSDF will not be under the command of the USFJ.