Ground Defense Command likely to be set up to coordinate armies

TOKYO, Nov. 28 Kyodo -
The Defense Ministry has been making final adjustments toward establishing a
Ground Defense Command that will coordinate the operations of the Ground
Self-Defense Force's regional armies, sources at the ministry and the
Self-Defense Forces said Saturday.
The proposed change is likely to be included in the new National Defense
Program Guidelines the government plans to adopt at a Cabinet meeting on Dec.
10, according to the sources.
The move is aimed at boosting operational coordination within the GSDF, but the
sources said the new higher body is unlikely to be given a command authority,
although it was originally sought.
Under the current SDF command structure, the defense minister, in times of
emergencies, gives operational commands to the Air Self-Defense Force mainly
through its Air Defense Command and to the Maritime Self-Defense Force via its
Self-Defense Fleet.
Because the GSDF has no such unified command, the minister would give commands
to each of the five regional armies, a process some critics say is cumbersome
compared with the other two defense branches.
Efforts had been made within the ministry since 2004 to consider unifying the
lines of command in the regional armies at a ground command, but they fizzled
out due to opposition from the GSDF.
Under the new plan, the Eastern Army, now headquartered at Camp Asaka in and
around Tokyo's Nerima Ward and responsible for defending the Kanto region,
would be abolished and replaced by the new command.
The Eastern Army's First Division, headquartered in Nerima, would be upgraded
to a metropolitan defense force tasked with dealing with terrorism and
guerrilla attacks on the capital.
It is unclear, however, how much of the new plan will be included in the new
defense guidelines given criticism at the Finance Ministry that the Defense
Ministry is trying to quash calls for a smaller GSDF by implementing a minor
organizational reform, the sources said.
Under the plan, no restructuring is envisioned for any regional army but the
Eastern Army. The others are the Northern Army, Northeastern Army, Middle Army,
and Western Army.
Once it is established, the ground command would come under the defense
minister's command and be responsible for operational coordination among the
new metropolitan defense force and the four remaining regional armies.
The headquarters of the GSDF Central Readiness Force, whose units deal with
terrorism, guerrilla attacks and overseas dispatches, will be transferred to
the U.S. Army's Camp Zama in Kanagawa Prefecture by fiscal 2012 as agreed on
between Japan and the United States.
==Kyodo