The Expanding Role of Sociology at Japan National Defense Academy

Bōeidaigakkō 10 Nen-shi [National Defense Academy: 10 Years of History] (Tokyo: Kyogakusha , 1965), 29; A. Hanami , "Japan," in The Political Role of the Military, ed. C. Danopoulus and C. Watson (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press , 1996), 237.

Bōeidaigakkō 10 Nen-shi, 38-41.

Ibid., 43.

One credit means fifteen weeks of one-hour lectures per week. However, "one hour" is actually "fifty minutes." Usually, two nominal hours, that is a one-hundred-minute lecture, counts as one class, and a half-year (single semester) course offers two credits, whereas a one-year (double-semester) course offers four credits.

Bōeidaigakkō 10 Nen-shi, 35-36.

The Self-Defense Force Law, The Defense Agency Establishment Law took effect on June 9, 1954.

"International Law" replaced "Sociology" due to a strong demand of uniformed professors. Akira Matsuda, Bōeidaigakkō [The National Defense Academy] (Tokyo: Origin Shuppan Center, 1989): 20-21.

Bōeidaigakkō 10 Nen-shi, 8.

Ibid., 128. The consultants include Cols. Picket, Dilworth, and Kramer; Lt. Col. Fisken, U.S. Army; Com. Cameron, U.S. Navy; and Lt. Col. Brake, U.S. Air Force.

In December 1960, the JDA asked the President of NDA to improve (1) humanities and social sciences education, (2) engineering major system, (3) defense science, (4) discipline and training, and (5) study hours for students; Bōeidaigakkō 20 Nen-shi [National Defense Academy: 20 Years of History] (Tokyo: Kyogakusha , 1973), v.

Ibid., xi.

There were only seven graduate students: three at Tohoku University, two at Osaka University, and two at Kyushu University. In 1969 and 1970, no academy graduate studied at a civilian graduate school. And there were only two, one each in 1971 and 1972, at Kumamoto University.

Bōeidaigakkō 20 Nen-shi, xi-xii.

The first committee was to discuss current undergraduate curriculum reform, the second for graduate curriculum reform, and the third for humanities and social science education reform. Bōeidaigakkō 50 Nenshi [National Defense Academy: 50 Years of History] (Tokyo: Kyogakusha, 2004), 117.

Ibid., 120.

Ibid., 959.

NDA, "On Enhancement of Humanities and Social Sciences Subjects at NDA," The 5th Department, Ground Staff Office, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, July 12, 1971.

Bōeidaigakkō 20 Nen-shi, appendix. Among eighty-nine Command and General Staff College officer-students, the 16th Class, 51.4 percent answered that "Economics" needs to be taught more, followed by "Logic" (43.1 percent), "Political Science" (40.3 percent), and "History" (31.9 percent), while among sixty-nine GSO officers, "Economics" (42.5 percent), "History" (33.8 percent), and "Logic" (28.8 percent) were thought in need of more teaching.

Bōeidaigakkō 50 Nen-shi, 119.

NDA , "On Enhancement of Humanities and Social Sciences Subjects at NDA," The 1st Education Department, Ground Staff Office, JMSDF, July 13, 1971.

NDA , "On Enhancement of Humanities and Social Sciences Subjects at NDA," Command and General Staff College, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, October 13, 1971.

Morris Janowitz , The Professional Soldier (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1960), 426.

NDA , "On Enhancement of Humanities and Social Sciences Subjects at NDA," CGSC, JGSDF, October 13, 1971.

NDA , "On Enhancement of Humanities and Social Sciences Subjects at NDA," Ground Staff Office 1st Dep., JMSDF, February 26, 1971.

Bōeidaigakkō 50 Nen-shi, 587.

The time-unit for one credit-hour class was reduced from fifty minutes to forty-five minutes, and thus, one lecture lasts for ninety minutes instead of one hundred minutes, in 1991. Bōeidaigakkō 50 Nen-shi, 194.

Rishū-Yōran [NDA Schooling Guide] ( Tokyo: Kyogakusha, 1975), 157-58.

Literally, the precise translation of "independent study" is "graduation study (sostugyo-kenkyu)."

A seminar credit equals two lecture credits.

Bōeidaigakkō 50 Nen-shi.

One hundred and seventeen female cadets among 1,673 total cadets as of 1996.

Bōeidaigakkō [National Defense Academy] ( Tokyo : Kyogakusha, 1995).

Bouei Handbook [Defense Handbook] (Tokyo: Kyogakusha, 2001), "Opinion Poll," 748.

Bōeidaigakkō 50 Nen-shi, 587.

Ibid., 266-67.

The number of civilian graduate programs focusing on security issues is increasing recently. For instance, Takushoku University (Graduate School of Institute for International Cooperation Studies, International Security Studies) set up a graduate-level (MA 2004 and PhD 2006) Security Studies Program in 2004. In the same year, the graduate program on human security at the University of Tokyo and peace and conflict studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, offering MAs and PhDs, were also established. Doshisha University Graduate School of Policy and Management also has the "human security" course and offers MAs and PhDs. The program was established in 2005.

More or less, the same subjects in military sociology are covered in the newly created "Armed Forces and Society" class for the senior-year social science majors.

The "Armed Forces and Society" class has invited some graduate students (e.g., SDF officers who have been to U.N. peacekeeping operations such as East Timor and Golan Heights).

This is due to a change in the teaching staff. Both courses are taught by a sociology faculty. Thus, the faculty has a substantial freedom in teaching contents. No fieldwork method was taught before 1997 in "Organization Studies I."

Bōeidaigakkō 50 Nen-shi, 251.

Ibid., 781.

The public policy and international relations major cadets studied at Annapolis from August to December 2006. Two juniors from Annapolis studied at NDA, one in the social sciences and another in the natural and engineering science departments. Credits earned during their visit will be transferred to each academy.

C.W. Mills , The Sociological Imagination (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1956).

It should be noted that several NDA professors, including the author, also teach at various JSDF staff colleges, at joint-staff colleges, and advanced courses for higher ranking officers. A "Military Sociology" guest lecture has been included to the ten-month course for advanced JSDF officers and civilian bureaucrats at the National Institute for Defense Studies since 2005. A three-hour guest lecture on "Sociology of Combat and Combat Leadership" was given at the Joint-Staff College for the first time in 2006, and it continues twice a year, as the college offers a half-year course twice a year.

In the speech at the NDA graduation ceremony on March 18, 2007, Minister Kyūma emphasized the importance of broad social scientific knowledge relevant to defense policies for SDF officers, with the prospect of their increased commitment to policy-making processes a result of recent upgrades of Defense Agency to the Ministry of Defense. Schooling for the PhD students will begin in April, 2009.

C. Moskos , J. Williams , and D. Segal , The Postmodern Military (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

S. Efflandt and B. Reed , "Developing the Warrior-Scholar," Military Review (July-August, 2001): 82-89.

J. Masland and L. Radway , Soldiers and Scholars: Military Education and National Policy ( Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press , 1957).

D. Kilcullen , "Countering Global Insurgency," The Journal of Strategic Studies 28, 4 (August 2005): 597-617. According to Kilcullen , "linguistic and cultural competence" is a critical capability in counterinsurgency operation .

Japan Defense Agency, Defense of Japan 2006 (Tokyo: Inter-Group, 2006), 527-29.

Ibid. Three C-130s and approximately 200 JASDF personnel have engaged in air transport missions since December 2003.

G. Foster , "The Postmodern Military," Harvard International Review (Summer 2001): 28.

Of course, there are some arguments regarding validity of the "postmodern military" concept; see H. Bondy , "Postmodernism and the Source of Military Strength in the Anglo West," Armed Forces & Society 31, 1 (Fall 2004): 31-61; B. Booth , M. Kestnbaum , and D. Segal , "Are Post-Cold War Militaries Postmodern," Armed Forces & Society 27, 3 (Spring 2001): 319-42. However, what the postmodern military argument calls for is the need for a new way of thinking "outside of the modernist box," as Bondy claims. As for the development of the new way of thinking within JSDF, the author recognizes two major phases: joining the U.N. peacekeeping operations in 1992 and joining the multinational coalition force in Iraq and subsequent redefinition of the JSDF major mission to include an international cooperation mission in 2007. The modernist paradigm of a passive defense policy to confine JSDF within the Japanese territory has changed. The emerging defense policy paradigm seeks proactive commitment to international security without hesitating to go beyond "the modernist box" of strategic thinking. For how and in what sense JSDF is becoming a "postmodern military," see H. Kawano, "Postmodern Guntai-ron no Shatei" [The Scope of Postmodern Military Theories], in Anzenhoshogaku no Fronteer, Risk-Shakai no Kikikanri [The Frontier of Security Studies: Crisis Management in Risk Society], ed. T. Murai and A. Mayama (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2007): 64-86.

Japan Defense Agency, Defense of Japan 2006, 103. The government has interpreted that the use of armed force is permissible under Article 9 of the Constitution when the following conditions are met: (1) there is an imminent and illegitimate act of aggression against Japan, (2) there is no appropriate means to deal with such an act of aggression other than by resorting to the right of self-defense, and (3) the use of armed strength is confined to the minimum necessary level.

Janowitz , The Professional Soldier, 418.

Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced Japan's interest in building a stronger partnership with NATO and enhancement of support for NATO's Provincial Reconstruction Teams in the areas of humanitarian assistance on January 12, 2007, at the North Atlantic Council. The visit was the first ever in the Japanese history of diplomacy (http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2007/01-january/e0112a.html ). Prime Minister Abe also made a historic move by signing the Japan-Australia Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation in Tokyo on March 13, 2007. It declares increasing practical cooperation between JSDF and other security-related agencies of Japan and Australia while strengthening strategic partnership between the two countries. Details are available from http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/australia/joint0703.html . Although Japan rejected signing a security treaty with Australia, it is the strongest security arrangement Japan has with any nation other than the United States, with whom Japan has the only security treaty. A view from the Australian side is available from the following article: G. Sheridan , "Security Treaty Rejected by Tokyo," The Australian, March 12, 2007, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21364541-601,00.html (accessed April 2, 2007).

S. Abe , "Japan and NATO: Toward Further Collaboration," http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2007/s070112b.html (accessed April 2, 2007).

On March 27, 2007, the Japanese Government made a decision to send six JSDF unarmed officers to "Unite Nations Mission in Nepal" for one year on a military monitoring mission based on the International Peace Cooperation Law. On the other hand, the government declined to participate in the U.N. peace-building mission in Sudan, despite a "strong request" by U.N. Under-Secretary General Jean-Marie Guehenno, because it was "too risky" to send GSDF units; see K. Ishizuka , "Japan's New Role in Peace-Building Missions," East Asia 23, 3 (Fall 2006): 3-21.

According to Efflandt and Reed, "[j]unior officers should apply sociological imagination to see an operation's larger social operating network and respond appropriately to their missions." This applies to both international and domestic operations such as peace building, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief operations. Efflandt and Reed, "Developing the Warrior-Scholar," 87.

60. A military officer of the twenty-first century tends to have multiple roles, such as war fighter, national servant, military professional, and leader of character. As he or she is more likely to take part in peacekeeping rather than war fighting to achieve a better peace and operations become more complex and intellectually challenging, military officership requires "creative intelligence." See P. Yinging and J. Nagl , "The Army Officer as Warfighter," Military Review (January-February 2003): 9-14.

G. Forsythe , S. Snook , P. Lewis , and P. Bartone , "Making Sense of Officership: Developing a Professional Identity for 21st Century Army Officers," in The Future of the Army Profession, ed. D. Snider and G. Watkins (Boston: McGraw-Hill , 2002): 357-78.

Retired Col. Masahisa Satō, the commander of the 1st Iraq Reconstruction Operational Support Unit (January-July, 2004, in Samawah), seems to be an archetypical "psychologically mature" officer who was able to achieve here-to-fore unthinkable mission using his creative intelligence and cultural capability. His past professional experiences include studying at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, commanding the 1st Japanese Contingent to the UNDOF operation in Golan Heights and working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when the JSDF's first U.N. peacekeeping operation in Cambodia (UNTAC) started. See M. Satō, Iraq Jieitai Sento-ki [SDF "Combat" Diary in Iraq] (Tokyo: Kodansha, 2007). As of March 2007, he is running for the Upper House election to be held in the summer of 2007, hoping to be a soldier-statesman . (He was elected in July, 2007.)

It is very interesting to note that contemporary Japanese cadets are no longer "collectivistic" compared to the supposedly "individualistic" American cadets. On the contrary, first-year NDA students valued "Self-Direction" (individualism) most, while the Annapolis counterparts gave "Benevolence" (collectivism) top priority. These data suggest that our modernist assumption needs to be reexamined in a contemporary global sociocultural context. See E.F. Malone and C.M. Paik , "Value Priorities of Japanese and American Service Academy Students," Armed Forces & Society 33, 2 (January 2007): 169-85.