trainer Japan did not have a separate
air force before and during
World War II. Aviation operations were carried out by the
Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and the
Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (
Kōkūtai). Following
defeat in World War II, the
Imperial Japanese Army and
Navy (including their respective Air Services) were disbanded in 1945. Under the supervision of the
United States occupation authorities, a pacifist Japanese government was appointed in place of the militaristic governments that administered the
Empire of Japan during the war. The new government drafted a
postwar constitution. While the primary intent of this endeavor was to place the country's political structure on a firmly democratic footing, the constitution endorsed by the United States and ratified by the
Diet of Japan in 1947 also contained
Article 9 which strictly prohibited Japan from having a regular
military. The U.S. occupation formally ended in 1952, although a large American garrison remained in Japan, to defend the country. The victory of the
Chinese Communist Party in the
Chinese Civil War and the onset of the
Korean War led the Americans to reconsider what role the Japanese could be expected to play in, at the very least, defending their own home islands against growing Chinese, Soviet and North Korean power in the region. Under U.S. guidance, on 1 July 1954 the National Security Board was reorganized as the Defense Agency, and the National Security Force was reorganized afterwards as the
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (
de facto post-war Japanese
Army), the Coastal Safety Force was reorganized as the
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (
de facto post-war Japanese
Navy) and the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (
de facto post-war Japanese
Air Force) was established as a new branch of JSDF. General
Keizō Hayashi was appointed as the first Chairman of Joint Staff Council—professional head of the three branches. The enabling legislation for this was the 1954 Self-Defense Forces Act (Act No. 165 of 1954). The
Far East Air Force, U.S. Air Force, announced on 6 January 1955, that 85 aircraft would be turned over to the fledgling Japanese air force on about 15 January, the first equipment of the new force. The JASDF Headquarters was relocated from
Fuchu Air Base to
Yokota Air Base on March 26, 2012. The relocation is due to the 2002 Defense Policy Review Initiative. The purpose is to strengthen the
U.S.-Japan Security Alliance. The ADC Headquarters does command and control operations to defend Japanese airspace. Until 2015, women were banned from becoming fighter jet and reconnaissance aircraft pilots. The first female pilot of an F-15 joined the ranks, along with three other female pilots currently in training, in 2018. Since 2008, the number of
scrambles to intercept Chinese aircraft has increased rapidly. In 2010 there were scrambles against 31 Chinese aircraft and 193 Russian aircraft. In 2018 scrambles increased to against 638 Chinese aircraft and against 343 Russian aircraft. Chinese aircraft flight paths are mostly in the
East China Sea, around the
Ryukyu Islands and through the
Korea Strait. Russia frequently has conducted flights orbiting Japan with military aircraft. The
Ministry of Defense reported in fiscal 2018 that there were 999 scrambles by JASDF jets against mainly Chinese and Russian unidentified aircraft. That was the second highest amount of
scrambles by the JASDF since 1958. 638 (64%) were Chinese aircraft and 343 (34%) were Russian aircraft. On June 20, 2019, two Russian bombers (
Tupolev Tu-95) violated Japanese airspace twice on the same day. The
Diet of Japan approved the modification of the ships of the
Izumo-class to operate
STOVL aircraft and in 2019 ordered 42 STOVL
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning IIs. The US Marines will operate their own STOVL
F-35s from the
Izumo-class in cooperation with the ship's crew to build up a Japanese capability to operate this type. The current plan is for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force to operate the STOVL
F-35B from land bases once delivered. As of 2020, the JASDF is under increasing pressure to intercept warplanes from China's
People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) close to entering its air space. As of the last fiscal year ending in March 2020, the JASDF scrambled aircraft a record 947 times to intercept PLAAF warplanes. This has resulted in heavy wear and tear on their F-15J fighter aircraft, due to this, as of 2021, the JASDF intercepted fewer PLAAF warplane approaches and deployed F-35 fighter jets to supplement the F-15J fighter jets in this role. On 17 March 2021, the
Mitsubishi F-4EJ Phantom II was retired after 50 years of service with the JASDF, being replaced by the
F-35A. During the 9 months of fiscal year 2021, JASDF fighters scrambled against 785 inbound flights. On 22 October 2023, the JASDF conducted its first-ever trilateral exercise with the South Korean and United States air forces near the Korean Peninsula. The JASDF's
Mitsubishi F-2 fighters are slated to be replaced by a future sixth-generation stealth fighter developed under the
Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP). This aircraft would be designed by a joint venture set-up in mid-2025 with manufacturing and assembly being subcontracted to Britain's
BAE Systems, Italy's
Leonardo, and Japan's
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. As of October 2024, a trilateral organisation called the GCAP International Government Organization (GIGO) would oversee the entire project; it would be headquartered in the UK and led by former Japanese Vice Minister of Defense Masami Oka. The fighter is slated to be deployed by 2035 and would be a crewed platform which would possibly be capable of directing other autonomous aircraft. From 17th September 2025, several
Kawasaki C-2 and
Mitsubishi F-15J were deployed to
RAF Coningsby from
Chitose Air Base as part of the 'Atlantic Eagle Deployment', the first JASDF deployment to Europe. ==Organization==