The Abe administration plans to abolish a legal mechanism that ensures the superiority of high-ranking civilian officials of the Defense Ministry over uniformed officers of the Self-Defense Forces by submitting a relevant bill to the Diet next month.
The revision will weaken the system of civilian officials checking uniformed SDF officers' views and decisions from different and broader perspectives and could undermine an important part of civilian control of the SDF. The administration should rethink its plan.
Civilian control of the SDF was introduced to prevent the repetition of the nation's tumultuous experience in the 1930s and 1940s. In those days, the government was unable to interfere with the Imperial armed forces over military matters, such as defense planning, military operations, and training and punishment of their members on the grounds that the supreme prerogative to command and control the military belonged to the emperor.