An island nation straddled along the Pacific coast of Asia, modern Japan is home to over 126 million people. Of those, 38 million live in Japan’s capital of Tokyo (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016). Japanese people share a distinctive culture. According to the U.S. Army Doctrine Reference Publication 5-0 (2012), culture is best described as, “shared beliefs, values, norms, customs, behaviors, and artifacts members of a society use to cope with the world and each other”. Japan’s culture illustrates a complex geographical, political, social, and military environment which is unique in the modern world. Japan consists of an island chain in eastern Asia, which rests just east of the Korean Peninsula. While Japan’s land mass in total
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The Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook (2016) describes several of these ongoing disputes. First, ties with Russian are strained over several northern islands it occupied following World War II which the Japanese refer to as the northern territories. Japan also disputes the territorial rights to a group of islets occupied by the South Koreans known as Liancourt Rocks. China and Japan have grown increasingly divisive regarding the Japanese administration of the Senkaku islands which both Taiwan and China lay claim to (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016). When studying the Pacific regions of Asia, it is important to consider the climate, which varies drastically by …show more content…
The Japanese maritime component recently commissioned a new helicopter carrier, the JS Izumo, which could potentially carry the V-22 Osprey if purchased from the U.S. Continuing threat of Chinese and North Korean ballistic missiles has led Japan to spend a great deal of its self-defense budget on air defense capabilities (Marcus, 2015). Its commitment to collective defense is also evident by frequent U.S.-Japanese missile defense exercises with the purpose of defense integration (Billot, 2014). According to Japan’s Ministry of Defense (2013), Japan utilizes a multi-layered missile defense concept which involves using both lower and higher tier engagement platforms to protect itself. In order to further boost Japan’s missile defense capability, two additional Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ships are scheduled to operate within Japan’s territory by 2020, at a cost of nearly $1.5 billion each. Once completed, that will bring the total number of Japan’s Aegis capable ships to eight (Keck, 2014). According to Missile Threat, a project of the George C. Marshall Institute (2015), the Patriot Air Defense system is also heavily relied upon by Japan’s Self Defense Forces. Accordingly, Japan continues to push for the latest developments within Patriot by fielding the Patriot
The Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook (2016) describes several of these ongoing disputes. First, ties with Russian are strained over several northern islands it occupied following World War II which the Japanese refer to as the northern territories. Japan also disputes the territorial rights to a group of islets occupied by the South Koreans known as Liancourt Rocks. China and Japan have grown increasingly divisive regarding the Japanese administration of the Senkaku islands which both Taiwan and China lay claim to (Central Intelligence Agency, 2016). When studying the Pacific regions of Asia, it is important to consider the climate, which varies drastically by …show more content…
The Japanese maritime component recently commissioned a new helicopter carrier, the JS Izumo, which could potentially carry the V-22 Osprey if purchased from the U.S. Continuing threat of Chinese and North Korean ballistic missiles has led Japan to spend a great deal of its self-defense budget on air defense capabilities (Marcus, 2015). Its commitment to collective defense is also evident by frequent U.S.-Japanese missile defense exercises with the purpose of defense integration (Billot, 2014). According to Japan’s Ministry of Defense (2013), Japan utilizes a multi-layered missile defense concept which involves using both lower and higher tier engagement platforms to protect itself. In order to further boost Japan’s missile defense capability, two additional Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense ships are scheduled to operate within Japan’s territory by 2020, at a cost of nearly $1.5 billion each. Once completed, that will bring the total number of Japan’s Aegis capable ships to eight (Keck, 2014). According to Missile Threat, a project of the George C. Marshall Institute (2015), the Patriot Air Defense system is also heavily relied upon by Japan’s Self Defense Forces. Accordingly, Japan continues to push for the latest developments within Patriot by fielding the Patriot