Making the military: the hidden curriculum at Japan’s National Defense Academy

Thesis

Recent administrations in Tokyo have significantly elevated the status, budget, and capabilities of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF), leaving behind self-imposed restraints which had come to define the country’s postwar defence posture. Government efforts to gather support for this policy departure and to frame the SDF as a trustworthy organisation rooted in the democratic postwar state, however, have been hampered by a subsequent flurry of scandals revolving around allegations of sexual harassment, power abuse, corruption, fraud, and historical revisionism. This dissertation seeks to answer the following research question: If the establishment of the SDF in postwar Japan has been marked by a sharp break from its imperial predecessor and a rigorous system of civilian control, why have recent scandals laid bare an organisational culture that appears to be sharply at odds with the rest of society? To answer this question, this dissertation relies on ethnographic data from 13 months of fieldwork at Japan’s National Defense Academy (NDA), a four-year joint military academy under civilian leadership whose graduates constitute roughly a quarter of the SDF’s officer corps but dominate its senior leadership. Following students throughout their daily life on campus, this dissertation shows how virtually all of their formative experiences occur outside of the formal classes and training provided by academy employees. Based on the theoretical framework of communities of practice, it shows how the bounded nature of student life at the academy amounts to a powerful socialising force, characterised chiefly by hierarchical and highly ritualised relationships between students. This dissertation argues that this ‘hidden curriculum’ fosters values that often directly contradict the objectives of the academy’s civilian leadership, exposing NDA students to a socialisation which has for decades evaded civilian oversight and influenced precisely those elements of the SDF’s organisational culture which recent scandals have problematised.

Authors: Moeller, B

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-8g247agp9
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: military; hidden curriculum; academy; officer; self-defense forces; Japan