What is Japan’s minimalist defense organization?

Japan’s minimalist defense orientation was increasingly challenged over the course of the 1970s and the early 1980s by series of international events, including the U.S. defeat in Vietnam, the Soviet military builds up in the Far East, and the combination of growing instability in the Middle East and increasing constraints on U.S. resources. U.S pressures mounted for greater Japanese self- defense and burden sharing efforts, so that Japanese leaders began to modify, without formally revising, their defense policies. They allowed for qualitative improvements in the Self Defense Forces to improve significantly the SDF’s capabilities, in terms of both the composition of units deployed and kinds of weapons procured. These changes in traditional Japanese policies significantly improved Japan’s military capabilities and made defense the happy part of the U.S.-Japanese relationship in the 1980s. But they should not be exaggerated because Japan continues to lack both the ability and the will to play a regional military role and remains dependent on the US for its own homeland defense, particularly in the areas of deterrence and offensive operations.

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