The Defense Ministry has disclosed a plan to restructure itself. It includes various proposals ranging from establishing a Defense Equipment Agency, which will improve procurement and management of equipment bought and used by the three branches of the Self-Defense Forces, to creating an administrative vice defense minister for international affairs and assigning 56 uniformed SDF officers to the Internal Bureau, which has been dominated by civilian officials.
Among the proposals, a call for concentrating power to decide on SDF unit operations in the Joint Staff Office, which is manned by uniformed officers, is the most problematic. So far, the Joint Staff Office and the Operational Policy Bureau, which is manned by civilian officials and is part of the Internal Bureau, have been in charge of the operations of SDF units, including surveillance at peace time. The ministry said that the planned concentration of power in the Joint Staff Office is necessary because the functions of the Joint Staff Office and the Operational Policy Bureau overlap and that such concentration of the power is necessary to ensure quick and efficient operations of SDF units.
The Defense Ministry may think that the proposed change in the decision-making structure over operations of SDF units is necessary in view of China's activities near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. But the proposal carries the danger of weakening or even discarding civilian control of the SDF since the defense minister and the prime minister would make the final decisions over the actions of SDF units without receiving advice from civilian officials. The ministry should rethink this proposal from the viewpoint of maintaining civilian control of the SDF.