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Concerning national security, Japan is in the unusual position of being a major world economic and political power, with an aggressive military tradition, resisting the development of strong armed forces. National security is the entire scope of measures undertaken by the Governments of Nation-states in providing assurance of national Sovereignty For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. A military proscription is included as Article 9 of the 1947 constitution stating, "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes. Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is a "No War" clause The has been the founding legal document of Japan since 1947 The constitution provides for a Parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights " That article, along with the rest of the "Peace Constitution," retains strong government and citizen support and is interpreted as permitting the Self-Defense Forces (SDF), but prohibiting those forces from possessing nuclear weapons or other offensive arms or being deployed outside of Japan. The, or JSDF, are the military forces in Japan that were established after the end of the post- World War II American occupation of Japan A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion.

The SDF are under control of the civilian Defense Agency, subordinate to the prime minister. The is one of Cabinet -level ministries of the Japanese government. The is the usual English-language term used for the Head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Prime Although highly trained and fully qualified to perform the limited missions assigned to them, the SDF are small, understaffed, and underequipped for more extensive military operations. Its activities are confined to disaster relief and limited UN peacekeeping efforts. Peacekeeping, as defined by the United Nations, is "a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace

Defense policy

Japan's national defense policy has been based on maintaining the 1960 Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security with the United States, under which Japan assumed unilateral responsibility for its own internal security and the United States agreed to join in Japan's defense in the event that Japan or its territories were attacked. The was signed between the United States and Japan in Washington DC on January 19, 1960. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Although the size and capability of the SDF have always limited their role, until 1976 defense planning focused on developing forces adequate to deal with the conventional capabilities of potential regional adversaries. Beginning in 1976, government policy held that the SDF would be developed only to repel a small-scale, limited invasion and that the nation would depend on the United States to come to its aid in the event of a more serious incursion.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and the buildup of military forces in the Soviet Far East, including the Kuriles, a group of islands to the north of Hokkaidō, which were occupied by the Soviet Union but claimed by Japan, led Japan to develop a program to modernize and improve the SDF in the 1980s, especially in air defense and antisubmarine warfare. The Soviet war in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet-Afghan War or just the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, was a nine-year conflict involving The Kuril Islands (ˈkʊrɪl or /ˈkjuˈriˈl/ Кури́льские острова́ əstrʌˈva ru-Latn ''Kuril'skie ostrova'' or Kurile Islands in Russia WikipediaWikiProject Japanese prefectures for guidelines --> formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan 's In the early 1990s, the government was reevaluating its security policy based on reduced East-West tensions.

The Japanese government valued its close relations with the United States, and it remained dependent on the United States nuclear umbrella. The relationship between Japan and the United States of America is one of very close economic and military cooperation coupled with extensive cultural exchange Thus, it worked to facilitate military contacts and to support the United States diplomatically whenever possible. Both the government and the public, however, supported only limited increases in self-defense capability. National security, it is believed, is fostered by international diplomacy and economic aid as much as by military might.

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