Japan is an archipelago of more than 6,800 islands situated off the east coast of Asia in the North Pacific Ocean. The islands form a northeast-southwest arc that stretches over more than 2,000 km. The country is known as the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ and has a population of over 126 million people. Honshu is the largest of four principal islands and is home to the capital Tokyo. Japan is a democratic, constitutional monarchy based on the British model, with a three-tiered government structure at national, prefectural (regional) and local levels. Japan’s economy was devastated at the end of World War II however, it recovered quickly and enjoyed high economic growth up until the 1990’s when it fell into recession. Economic recovery efforts have since been hampered by the global recession in 2008 and an earthquake and resulting tsunami in 2011.

The Japanese Self Defence Force (JSDF) includes 250,000 active serving members with 55,000 in the part time reserves. Japan ranked eighth in global military spending in 2019. This was a response to growing regional security pressures from China and North Korea. In 2022, Japan and Australia signed a new bilateral security agreement to cooperate closely on defence, intelligence, and cybersecurity. The agreement included enhancing training and joint exercises to increase interoperability between Australian and Japanese forces.