The ambassador also mentioned the participation of the Japan Ground
Self-Defense Force in 'Kamandag '18' last October to strengthen its interoperability with Philippine forces in humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
The Japan Ground
Self-Defense Force, also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land-warfare branch of the Japan
Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and the de facto army of Japan.
The Japan Maritime
Self-Defense Force will serve as an observer.
The Maritime
Self-Defense Force has sent a ship to the Sea of Japan.
"I think in about 10 months, they (the Japanese
Self-Defense Force) could have a good ad hoc capability.
Japan may not reveal details about the kind and amount of equipment to be acquired for its
Self-Defense Forces in new defense guidelines defining the country's longer-term defense policy, government sources said Thursday.
An advance team of
Self-Defense Forces personnel preparing for patrol aircraft operations off Somalia left Japan on Monday for Djibouti, where two P-3C surveillance planes will be based for an antipiracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.
When I had first begun to cover the
Self-Defense Forces, their 'tip of the spear' was generally pointed north--toward Sakhalin, the Kuriles and Siberia.
In November, Japan approved legislation allowing its vessels to fire on suspicious ships in its waters, and in late December, the vessels and aircraft of the Japanese Maritime
Self-Defense Force and Maritime Safety Agency sank a suspected North Korean spy ship in the South China Sea, about 250 miles northwest of the Japanese island of Amami-Oshima.
In addition, 10,000 members from the Maritime
Self-Defense Force viewed an awesome combined live-fire exercise demonstrating the lethality of Japan's military forces.
About 1,300 members of the Ground
Self-Defense Force (GSDF) and the Maritime
Self-Defense Force (MSDF), five warships and six helicopters took part in the exercise under an amendment to the SDF Law made in May last year.