Vital For Modern Warfare
As Beijing flex their muscles and target Taiwan, Japan has finally established their Joint Operational Command in March 2025 to ensure smoother coordination among each branch of the Self-Defense Force (SDF).
Located inside the Defense Ministry in Tokyo, the relatively small unit of 240 personnel will be responsible for coordinating and overseeing the integration between the Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense Forces (JGSDF, JMSDF, and JASDF).
The new command aims to integrates military operations across all domains—land, sea, air, space, cyber, and electromagnetic warfare—both during peacetime and wartime.
In modern warfare, where every domain is closely intertwined with each other, a joint approach is essential for maintaining operational readiness and achieving superiority on the battlefield.
If one were to gain the upper hand on sea and land, securing air superiority is a prerequisite for this objective, inevitably making joint operations necessary.
Japan well acknowledges this reality, which is why they have been striving to build their joint operation capabilities since the early 2010s. However, they always lacked a permanent headquarter for facilitating such operations.
Instead, joint task forces were formed on an ad hoc basis, mostly as a response to devastating earthquakes. These temporary joint units may have been useful during natural disasters, but are deemed insufficient for handling actual wars.
In their defense, Japan has been operating a Joint Staff Office (JSO) for some time, acting as the central coordination body among each branch. Unfortunately, the three staff offices of each SDF branch also exists in parallel to the JSO, resulting in bureaucratic inefficiencies and stove-piped administrations.
With the new Joint Operations Command, the SDF will be able to develop permanent capabilities from peacetime, enhancing overall responsiveness and effectiveness in the end.
Difference Between The JSO
Since we mentioned the existing JSO, might as well elaborate its role and some differences.
The JSO has a quite a long history, dating back to its predecessor, the Joint Staff Council in 1954, and has always tried to coordinate the three SDF branches. This effort was reflected the lessons from WW2, where the Army and Navy literally fought their own wars with few cooperation.
Nonetheless, the JSO’s Chief of Staff has always been preoccupied with serving as the both the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister’s military adviser, as well as coordinating within and outside the Ministry.
Obviously, these bureaucratic (or political) duties bear heavy responsibility, not to mention workload, leaving little room for direct supervision towards military operations.
To alleviate this burden coming from concurrent roles, the new Joint Operations Commander will handle actual joint operations, while the JSO ‘s Chief continues to focus on advisory and coordination roles.
This clear division of responsibilities is expected to ensure a more effective leadership, thereby allowing a smooth joint coordination.
Handling Ally Coordination
Another key assignment of the Joint Operations Command is their role in coordinating with the US military and other like-minded allies.
Japan’s entire defense strategy relies on the US-Japan alliance, and the Joint Operations Command will serve as the key liaison for coordinating joint military responses.
Likewise, it facilitates communication and ensures seamless battlefield cooperation when conducting multinational operations, such as those with Australia, UK, France, Canada and the Philippines.
Similarly, the United States is also restructuring its command system, with a new joint operations center expected for the units in Japan, therefore transferring operational authority from the Indo-Pacific Commando in Hawaii to those stationed in Japan.
This means Japan will require an equivalent counterpart, something that the Joint Operations Command will fulfill.
Although the US-Japan alliance remains firm, the recent development and uncertainties in US politics are clouding the alliance’s future. By institutionalizing military coordination at the operational level in advance, Japan also wishes to reduce the negative impact arising from political instability.
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