Japan Is Ditching Half Of Its Tanks.This Is What Will Replace Them.

Sebastien Roblin

Security, Asia

Is this the future or a really bad idea?

The Japanese Ground Self Defense Force has the unusual challenge of defending an archipelago of 6,852 islands that stretches over two thousand miles. Deploying powerful Type 90 and Type 11 Main Battle Tanks weighing around fifty tons to defend the smaller one would prove extremely difficult—so Tokyo has decided to eventually ditch half of its heavy tanks in favor of cannon-toting armored cars it can stuff into a cargo plane.

During World War II, Japan deployed independent light tank units to fortified island across the Pacific. However, in battles such as Peleliu, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and even the Soviet invasion of the Kuriles, Japanese tanks fared poorly in the face of superior Allied firepower. For example, in 1944 at Peleliu island, fifteen Japanese Type 95 light tanks weighing eight tons charged a beleaguered U.S. beachhead—and were blasted to pieces by thirty-five-ton M4A2 Sherman tanks in a matter of minutes.

During the Cold War, Japan perceived a Soviet invasion from the north as its primary threat, and deployed beefier fifty-ton tanks like the Type 74 and Type 90 to a relatively static defense strategy. In the twenty-first century, however, Tokyo is more concerned it may clash with China on the small islands of its southern flank. While the uninhabited Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu by China) have caused the most heated disputes with China, Beijing-backed scholars have begun arguing that the Ryukyus island chain—which host over a million Japanese citizens and includes a major U.S. military base at Okinawa—is historically Chinese territory.

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