The Defense Agency has helped place at least 22 former and current Self-Defense Forces officers in local government positions in a bid to bolster civilian crisis management in the event of an attack on Japan, according to a Kyodo News survey released Thursday.
"The knowledge of military affairs of SDF personnel is helpful for local governments," a senior agency official said, indicating more service members may be posted at prefectural and municipal government offices.
Some of the officials, at 17 prefectures and cities, are already working on war-contingency guidelines for civilian evacuations, although most local governments have limited the officials' roles to disaster prevention.