A White Paper from Japan's Defense Agency says the threat of international terrorism or a ballistic missile attack is far greater than a Cold War-style invasion, signaling a rethinking in spending away from the country's traditional defensive stance. In a 1995 White Paper, the JDA acknowledged the end of the Cold War and the need to restructure Japan's forces into a smaller, more efficient power. The threat of invasion by the Soviet Union had prompted Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force, as its army is known, to deploy its elite armored vehicles and missile units on the country's northernmost island, Hokkaido, and along the country's coastline on the Sea of Japan. That defensive stance was well within the pacificism that Japan assumed following its defeat in World War Ⅱ. However, despite the implications of that post-Cold War policy shift, the JDA didn't follow up. So the basic Cold War structure of Japanese forces and the country's defense spending priorities remained intact. Japan spends about $40 billion annually on defense; the army gets half of that.
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