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Japan’s Defense: Is Japan Ready to Shoot?

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Japan’s Defense: Is Japan Ready to Shoot?
A Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) Type-74 tank fires ammunition during a live-fire exercise at the JSDF's training grounds in the East Fuji Maneuver area in Gotemba, Japan, on May 22, 2021. Akio Kon/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Grant Newsham
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Commentary

When the first Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) contingent was dispatched to Iraq in 2004, a U.S. Marine officer gave its commander some parting advice: “You’d better be ready to shoot somebody.”

Grant Newsham
Grant Newsham
Author
Grant Newsham is a retired U.S. Marine officer and a former U.S. diplomat and business executive with many years in the Asia/Pacific region. He is a senior fellow with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies (Tokyo) and Center for Security Policy and the Yorktown Institute in Washington, D.C. He is the author of the best selling book “When China Attacks: A Warning to America.”
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