Scholar general: Japan's ground force chief is Tokyo University grad

Yoshihide Yoshida vows to keep sword in sheath, but ready for battle

20210717NY Yoshida and vowell in uniform

Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, left, and U.S. Army Japan commander Brig. Gen. JB Vowell address the media at Camp Amami on July 1. This was the first time a U.S. Patriot Battery was deployed from Okinawa to Amami as part of Orient Shield 21. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army Japan)

JUNNOSUKE KOBARA, Security affairs editor

July 18, 2021 00:30 JST

TOKYO -- He leads a team of 150,000. He is tasked with defending Japan from foreign invasion, at a time when tensions are rising in the Indo-Pacific in unprecedented ways.