Japan Self-Defense Forces - Defense Policy

Defense Policy

Japan's Basic Policy for National Defense stipulates the following policies:

1. Maintaining an exclusive defense-oriented policy.
2. To avoid becoming a major military power that might pose a threat to the world.
3. Refraining from the development of nuclear weapons, and to refuse to allow nuclear weapons inside Japanese territory. (Three Non-Nuclear Principles)
4. Ensuring civilian control of the military.
5. Maintaining security arrangements with the United States.
6. Building up defensive capabilities within moderate limits.
7. Strict limits on arms exports.(Three Principles on Arms Exports)

Reflecting a tension concerning the Forces' legal status, the Japanese term gun (軍?, ), referring to a military or armed force, and the English terms "military", "army", "navy", and "air force" are never used in official references to the JSDF.

For example, the Japanese name of JSDF is "Jieitai"(自衛隊), but tai (隊?, ) literally means only "party" or "group" or "team" in English, and it does not contain the implication of military. For this reason, JSDF is not considered to be "military" in Japan. In addition, the people in JSDF are officially called Jieitaiin(自衛隊員) in Japanese, and in (員?, )　literally means only "members" in English. So they are just "the Self-Defense Group Members", they are not considered to be　the "soldiers" in general in Japan.