Description
Japan’s National Defense Strategy (NDS) 2022 declared that “the first objective is to shape a
security environment that does not tolerate unilateral changes to the status quo by force”.
How might the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) contribute to Japan’s shaping ambitions? The SDF
was tasked in the NDS to conduct joint exercises with not just its US ally, but increasingly
“multi-layered collaboration with like-minded countries and others to create a desirable
security environment”. While the SDF participates in a growing number of bilateral and
multilateral exercises, there has not yet been a systematic evaluation of the shaping rationale behind these exercises. This paper proposes that Japan’s JMEs shape regional order in support of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) vision through several overlapping inter-related mechanisms :1) operational and training utility to enhance deterrence; 2) building “presence” and trust; 3) enhancing security partnerships and networking to build strategic alignment and signalling 4) promoting and embedding desirable norms of behaviour.
