Japan's Military Has Some Serious Problems (As China's Military Gets Stronger)
Can Tokyo overcome some big challenges with Beijing increasing its own capabilities quickly?
The end result is that after 50 years, US and Japanese forces are – with the striking exception of the US Navy and the MSDF, that shows what is possible – nowhere near as capable of operating together as they should be.
The Fuji Firepower Demonstration is an enjoyable day in the countryside watching things ‘go bang’ in a well-choreographed show. But it is kabuki: it masks potentially fatal shortfalls in Japan Self Defense Force capabilities. The JSDF can be fixed, and in short order — if JSDF is required to fix itself and, as importantly, allowed to fix itself. The Japanese government will also need to get out its checkbook.
Perhaps one day, there might be a ‘JSDF Firepower Demonstration’ that utilizes a real island to ‘re-take’. If the three services can pull this off correctly, one will know JSDF is serious – and that they are ‘mission capable.’
But time is running out. Perhaps all too soon, the JSDF island-retaking demo will be a real combat operation. At that point, it will be too late to fix the JSDF.
This first appeared in AsiaTimes here.