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Japan The Ground Self-Defense Force
The largest of the three services, the Ground
Self-Defense
Force (GSDF), operates under the command of the chief of
the ground
staff, based in the city of Ichikawa, east of Tokyo.
Although
allotted 180,000 slots for uniformed personnel, in 1992
the force
was maintained at about 86 percent of that level (with
approximately 156,000 personnel) because of funding
constraints.
The GSDF consists of one armored division, twelve infantry
divisions, one airborne brigade, two combined brigades,
four
training brigades, one artillery brigade with two groups,
two air
defense brigades with three groups, one helicopter brigade
with
twenty-four squadrons, and two antitank helicopter
platoons (see
table 39, Appendix).
The GSDF is divided into five regional armies, each
containing
two to four divisions, antiaircraft artillery units, and
support
units
(see
fig. 13). The largest, the Northern Army, is
headquartered on Hokkaido, where population and geographic
constraints are less limiting than elsewhere. It has four
divisions
and artillery, antiaircraft artillery, and engineering
brigades.
The Northeastern Army and the Eastern Army, headquartered
in Sendai
and Ichikawa, respectively, each has two divisions. The
Central
Army, headquartered in Itami, has three divisions in
addition to a
combined brigade located on Shikoku. The Western Army,
with two
divisions, is headquartered at Kengun and maintains a
combined
brigade on Okinawa.
Intended to deter attack, repulse a small invasion, or
provide
a holding action until reinforced by United States armed
forces,
the ground element is neither equipped nor staffed to
offer more
than a show of conventional defense by itself. Antitank
artillery,
ground-to-sea firepower, and mobility were improved and
surface-to-
ship missiles were acquired in the Mid-Term Defense
Estimate
completed in FY 1990 (see
table 40, Appendix). The number
of
uniformed personnel is insufficient to enable an immediate
shift
onto emergency footing. Instead, the ratio of officers to
enlisted
personnel is high, requiring augmentation by reserves or
volunteers
in times of crisis. In 1992, however, GSDF reserve
personnel,
numbering 46,000, had received little professional
training.
In 1989 basic training for lower-secondary and
upper-secondary
school graduates began in the training brigade and lasted
approximately three months. Specialized enlisted and
noncommissioned officer (NCO) candidate courses were
available in
branch schools, and qualified NCOs could enter an
eight-to-twelve-
week second lieutenant candidate program. Senior NCOs and
graduates
of an eighty-week NCO pilot course were eligible to enter
officer
candidate schools, as were graduates of the National
Defense
Academy at Yokosuka and graduates of four-year
universities.
Advanced technical, flight, medical, and command staff
officer
courses were also run by the GSDF. Like the maritime and
air
forces, the GSDF ran a youth cadet program offering
technical
training to lower-secondary school graduates below
military age in
return for a promise of enlistment.
Because of population density on the Japanese islands,
only
limited areas were available for large-scale training,
and, even in
these areas, noise restrictions were a problem
(see Population
, ch.
2). The GSDF tried to adapt to these conditions by
conducting
command post exercises and map maneuvers and by using
simulators
and other training devices. In live firing during
training,
propellants were reduced to shorten shell ranges. Such
restrictions
diminished the value of combat training and troop morale.
Data as of January 1994
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