NEWS

2025.04.10

【Report】 The 77th AJI Frontier Seminar was held! Dr. Masato Nakahara presented “The Postwar History of the Self-Defense Forces and Disaster Relief: Focusing on the Changing Processes of Perception.”

The 77th AJI Frontier Seminar was held online on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Dr. Masato Nakahara, an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University, Japan, gave a presentation entitled “The Postwar History of the Self-Defense Forces and Disaster Relief: Focusing on the Changing Processes of Perception.”

Dr. Nakahara presented in detail how the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF), who used to be considered social outcasts, came to regarded as heroes, and in 2018 were more trusted than the courts, the police, judges and teachers. He explained that while SDF was founded for national defense, they were most useful in disaster relief missions and their popularity greatly increased due to their contribution to relief efforts. After the Ise Bay typhoon in 1959, the JSDF participated in the largest-scale disaster relief operation since their establishment and earned the gratitude and support of the private sector. Then, the SDF’s response to the Heavy Snowfall in 1963 was widely reported on TV, increasing the publics’ disaster awareness and leading to the establishment of more JSDF support groups.

However, due to Japan’s rejection of military aggression, a growing anti-SDF movement strongly opposed the SDF’s military role and hampered their activities. In response, business leaders including Kojiro Abe and Konosuke Matsushita supported defense associations that pledged to encourage SDF personnel. Nevertheless, in the 1970s, reformist local governments ruled the SDF unconstitutional, blocking the recruitment of SDF personnel, and the governments of Tokyo and Kobe even refused to cooperate in disaster relief drills with the SDF. Consequently, after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, relief efforts did not go well, and this drew attention to the need for better cooperation with the SDF. This became the turning point when the SDF began to be integrated into local communities, eventually leading to a “JSDF boom.” Disaster relief exercises were held nationwide, and finally in Hiroshima, and even Okinawa, where anti-military ideology was strongest, the JSDF participated in local festivals and became more integrated into local communities.

In the Q&A session Dr. Nakahara fielded questions about the public’s perception of the SDFs recent international peace keeping role, about the low recruitment levels and whether young Japanese who joined the SDF under the impression that they would be supporting civilians in times of disaster and participating in local events were prepared to risk their lives in defense of their country should the need arise, and about whether the Japanese government should give more priority to the JSDF amidst the rising international tensions in the region. Dr. Nakahara answered the enthusiastic audiences’ questions fully and complimented the AJI Institute on its efforts to promote discussion on important topics in the Asian region.

Dr. Masato Nakahara delivering his presentation

Please visit the following link for previous AJI Frontier Seminars:
https://en.ritsumei.ac.jp/research/aji/young_researcher/seminar/archive/