Major General Yoshiki Adachi, Director General, C4 Systems & Intelligence Department, Ground Staff Office, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force

Major General Yoshiki Adachi, Director General, C4 Systems & Intelligence Department, Ground Staff Office, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. (Japan Ground Self-Defense Force)

Changes in Japan's security environment are prompting the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) to modernise its capabilities across cyber and electromagnetics domains.

Major General Yoshiki Adachi, Director General of the C4I Department at the JGSDF's Ground Staff Office and former military attaché to the United States – who has responsibility for shaping the JGSDF's intelligence and C4ISR capabilities – told Janes that the JGSDF is pursuing numerous new projects to advance its future capabilities in the two sectors.

“Changes in the balance of power are accelerating and becoming more complex. In addition, uncertainty over the existing order is increasing. Interstate competition occurs on a continuous basis,” said Maj Gen Adachi in reference to Japan's security environment.

“Secondly, technological progress is about to change fundamentally how security should be managed… Contemporary warfare increasingly features capabilities combined across all domains. Not only land, sea, and air, but also new domains, including space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum.”

To support advances in capabilities across the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), information and communications networks that leverage cyberspace “form a foundation for the JSDF's activities in various domains”, Maj Gen Adachi said. “The JSDF will strengthen its cyber-defence capability, including the capability to disrupt the opponent's use of cyberspace for attacks against Japan,” he added.

Maj Gen Adachi said the JSDF plans to form a new joint unit, the JSDF Cyber Defense Command, to “drastically strengthen cyber-defence capabilities”. “The JGSDF will support this effort by providing a large number of its personnel to the command,” he said.