1910–1945: the Imperial Army’s air service, in brief

Japanese army aviation began on 19 December 1910, when Captain Yoshitoshi Tokugawa flew a Farman III over the Yoyogi parade ground in Tokyo, the first powered flight in Japan. The Imperial Army’s air arm flew reconnaissance and bombing missions at Tsingtao in 1914, became the Army Air Corps in May 1925, and by 1941 had about 1,500 combat aircraft. Its schools trained fighter pilots at Akeno, near Ise, from 1924, and it ended the war forming about 170 special-attack units. It was dissolved in 1945. Its combat history is told on the JASDF page, which inherited most of its role; the Ground Self-Defense Force’s aviation is a separate, post-war creation that took over some of the same airfields, Akeno among them.

1952–1968: liaison planes, an aviation school and the first helicopter brigade

Army flying restarted on a small scale. Japanese Wikipedia lists the first aircraft of the National Police Reserve and National Safety Force years as L-5, L-16 and L-21 liaison planes and Bell 47 (H-13) and H-19 helicopters, all American types. A National Safety Force aviation school opened at Hamamatsu in 1952; it became the GSDF Aviation School when the Self-Defense Forces were created on 1 July 1954 and moved to Akeno between July and August 1955. Fuji signed a licence for the Bell UH-1B in 1960, regional army aviation groups were formed between 1962 and 1973, and on 1 March 1968 the 1st Helicopter Brigade was created at Kasumigaura and moved weeks later to Kisarazu, where it remains the biggest aviation formation. Kawasaki-built KV-107 tandem-rotor helicopters, 59 in two versions, gave it a heavy lift capability.

1984–2006: Cobras, Chinooks and the Apache that cost too much

In the 1980s the aviation branch became an anti-tank force. Fuji built 89 AH-1S Cobras under licence between 1984 and 2000, and the 1st Anti-Tank Helicopter Squadron was formed at Obihiro on 25 March 1986, with four more by 1992. Kawasaki began assembling CH-47J Chinooks from kits in 1985, Fuji built 130 UH-1Js from 1993, and Mitsubishi the UH-60JA. Japan also designed its own scout helicopter, the Kawasaki OH-1, which first flew on 6 August 1996; 150 to 250 were planned but only 38 were built. The Apache followed the same pattern. Japan ordered 50 AH-64Ds, licence-built by Fuji as the AH-64DJP, but stopped after 13 because of the cost.

2011–2018: Fukushima, disasters and a crash into a house

The branch’s most famous mission was not a battle. After the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, three Japanese CH-47s scooped seawater and dropped it on reactors 3 and 4 of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to Wikipedia. Disaster relief is a large part of the job: Camp Tachikawa, home of the Eastern Army Aviation Group, is also the capital’s 115-hectare disaster-preparedness base, whose underground shelters Wikipedia says were enlarged to hold up to 5,000 people for a year. The fleet’s accidents have been public too. On 5 February 2018 an AH-64D on a post-maintenance test flight from Metabaru crashed into a house in Kanzaki, Saga, killing both crew.

2014–2025: the Osprey, Kisarazu and Saga

The V-22 Osprey brought the branch into the defence of the south-western islands. Japan decided on 17 in November 2014, to carry the Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade formed at Camp Ainoura on 7 April 2018. Saga Airport, 60 km from Ainoura, was the planned base, but talks with Saga Prefecture stalled, so the Transport Aviation Squadron was formed at Kisarazu on 26 March 2020 as a temporary home. After a US Air Force CV-22 crashed off Yakushima on 29 November 2023, Japan suspended flights of its 14 V-22s until March 2024. In July and August 2025 the Ospreys finally moved to the new Camp Saga, according to the Ministry of Defense’s FY2026 budget overview.

2022–2026: the end of the attack helicopter

The biggest change is the one now under way. The Defense Buildup Program of December 2022 decided to transfer the functions of anti-tank, combat and observation helicopters to drones, and to abolish most division and brigade aviation units, concentrating helicopters in the regional armies. Wikipedia reports that 47 AH-1S and 33 OH-1 are to be replaced by unmanned aircraft; the Apache’s future was not spelt out in the documents reached. Money is going instead to the Subaru-Bell UH-2, a Bell 412 derivative to replace the UH-1J, with 150 planned: 16 in FY2025 and eight in FY2026. In March 2024 the GSDF held 8 fixed-wing aircraft, 292 helicopters and 14 tiltrotors, according to Japanese Wikipedia.

現在の保有車両と発注状況

ベル, ボーイング, 川崎, スバル, ビーチクラフト, エンストロム, ユーロコプター, 三菱

旧艦隊

アエロンカ, パイパー, シコルスキー, スティンソン