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Lieutenant General Yoshiki Adachi · Five Questions for a General

• 0:03
  Speaker A: You're listening to Five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern Morris Institute at West point. I am Dr. Charles Feint, the team lead for this podcast series which features interviews of senior military leaders conducted by specially selected and trained West Point cadet hosts. These exchanges produce timely, relevant and inspirational insights for professional development of leaders at all levels.
• 0:25
  Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Five Questions for a General Podcast. I'm Cadet Kehlani Stewart, your host, and I'm here with Cadet Orion Van Buskirk, my co host. In the booth with us today is Lieutenant General Yoshiki Adachi, the Vice president of Japan's National Defense Academy. General Adachi, welcome to the show.
• 0:44
  Speaker C: Thank you for the kind introduction. First, I'm very honored to be here because I've seen your website that many famous generals and alumni have been invited to this program. One of them is Lieutenant General Joe Berger. He is my classmate from National War College, class of 2012.
• 1:04
  Speaker B: Wow. That's incredible. General Adachi, can you please tell our audience a little about yourself, such as why you decided to join the army and your current role in the Japan Self Defense Force.
• 1:15
  Speaker C: Yeah, so honestly, I decided to enter the National Defense Academy after watching the movie and Officers and Gentlemen, Richard Gear was so cool. So at that time, after graduation by high school, I didn't have a particular focus on national defense. My main motivation was simply to train myself by entering a rigorously disciplined school. In high school, I played rugby football for three years. So I had the confidence in physical and mental strength. So I wanted to challenge the military. Sorry, I didn't have a serious reason why I joined the military, but now I believe that my decision was not wrong.
• 2:07
  Speaker B: I also played sports growing up and that team cohesion really influenced me to join the army because in the end the army is a big team. So I think that's how sports relate to the army in a big way. So that I think that is a similar sentiment among cadets here at West Point as well.
• 2:24
  Speaker C: Good. So regarding my US related work, I served as a liaison officer at the U.S. army Japan headquarters at Camp Zana from 2002 to 2003. I also served as a defense and military attache at the Japan's Embassy in Washington D.C. from 2017 to 2020. I studied English at the DLI Defense Language Institute at the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio in 2000. And in the same year, I graduated from the U.S. army Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Belize. I'm so old now. You have center of Excellence for five years or things like that. I don't know exactly. Anime and Fort Belt. You don't have Air Defense Secretary School? I'm an old school. So anyway, so I'm graduate of Captain Carrier course of U.S. army Air Defense School at the time. Class of 2000. They said the class of 200 or things like that. Yeah, in 2000. Second group.
• 3:39
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 3:40
  Speaker C: So as I mentioned earlier, I graduated from the national war College at Fort Leslie J. McNair in 2012. Okay, thank you.
• 3:51
  Speaker B: General Adachi, you're a long way from home today. What brings you to West Point?
• 3:55
  Speaker C: Yes. So the purpose of the visit to the West Point is of course to see the Sandhurst competition and to confirm how well the team dispatched from National Defense Academy is working together as one team. How quickly and accurately they are making situational assessments under physically demanding conditions, and how well they are demonstrating leadership and followership. I also wanted to observe how cadets from West Point and other countries are using the Sandhurst competition to improve their leadership skills and. And I hope to incorporate any applicable aspects at the National Defense Academy.
• 4:39
  Speaker B: I think both Cadet Van Briskirk and I have seen the Japanese team compete so far this week and they've been doing pretty well. So thank you. They just keep it up. You are now the Vice president of the Japan National Defense Academy. What is the purpose of that organization and how does it differ from an academy such as West Point?
• 5:00
  Speaker C: Yes, the National Defense Academy was established in 1952 as a joint CAD school with the aim of training future officers for Ground Self Defense Force, Maritime Self Defense Force and Air Self Defense Force. National Defense Academy NDA adheres to the three founding principles established under the first President. The first principle is to the development of well balanced character in knowledge, virtue and physical ability. Second is academic education and military training that form a foundational military officer. And third is a formation of tradition of cadet self discipline, autonomy and self reliance. Their goal is to cultivate individuals worthy of becoming future officers. Under the current President Yoshida, we are carrying on the spirit of first President while aiming to cultivate liberal arts, that is deep general education. We also aim to bring up character with nobleness of Liege, that is by taking responsibility according to one's position and disciplining oneself. Through this, we are working to train NDA cadets who will be able to face the future challenges like West Point. The National Defense Academy is also military academy and its clear mission is to cultivate future leaders who will serve as the Self Defense Force officers responsible for national defense and security. Through academic education and military training, NDA forces future Leaders with intellect, character and physical strengths. MDA is a four year higher education institution like West Point and graduates can obtain a bachelor's degree. Through Cadets Barak's life, they develop discipline, responsibility and self control. And like West Point, NDA also incorporates elements of cadets leadership where the senior cadets are responsible for guiding junior cadets. NDA cadets strive to improve themselves with the spirit of self discipline, autonomy and self reliance, endeavor to cultivate Rigola's moral character and aim to develop the expendable qualities necessary to fulfill their assigned mission. The Cadet Owner Code has been established by Khalid themselves with integrity, true courage and courtesy as its three virtues and is practiced as a spiritual foundation and code of conduct. The differences between the two is that the West Point is the Army Cadet school while the National Defense Academy is a joint cadet school for the Ground Self Defense Force, Maritime Self Defense Force and the Air Self Defense Force. NDA cadets choose their future branch of service when they advance to their second year. Therefore, commissioned officers who graduate from the NDA are expected to cooperate more smoothly and effectively in joint operations. After graduating from the NDA, cadets spend nine or 10 months at the Officer Candidate School of their respective branch of service where they acquire combat skills and learn tactics. So it is possible to cultivate cadets with a deeper liberal arts education and strategic level defense studies during their time at the National Defense Academy.
• 9:05
  Speaker B: Thank you. Yes, it seems like West Point and NDA have a lot of similarities when it comes to developing the cadets for future service as officers. And then when we get out into the world, we have to acknowledge the different conflicts going on in an increasingly complex Indo Pacific security environment. What qualities do you believe are most critical for young officers to develop beyond technical and tactical proficiency?
• 9:31
  Speaker C: Yeah. In recent years, the free and open international order has been greatly shaken and the world appears to be in a transitional period of increasing multipolarity. The order in the Indo Pacific region also presents a transitional appearance with liberal and authoritarian states competing over a free and open order based on rule of law. In 38 years since I entered the National Defense Academy in 1988, I'm too old. The international situation and order have changed dramatically. The next 40 years which today's young officers and NDA cadets will face, will bring an increasingly challenging security environment. We will likely encounter more situations that cannot be addressed with the conventional assumptions and ways of thinking. The nature of missions is diversifying, including gray zone situations, cyber space and cognitive warfare, disaster response and international peace cooperation. And the areas where field commanders must make decisions at their discretion are expanding. Technological innovation is accelerating exponentially in areas such as AI, autonomous systems and cyber. And if initial situational awareness in unforeseen situations is delayed, it will directly lead to losses at the unit and national levels. In these rapidly changing circumstances, Yang Self Defense Forces officers will need the following ability in addition to the combat skills and tactics. First, strategic thinking ability to analyze the current situation, predict the future, and formulate and execute the optimal action plan to achieve their goals. Second is critical thinking, ability to objectively and logically analyze and verify things, question what the problem is in the first place and whether the assumptions are valid and derive the optimal conclusion. And third is a meta perspective to objectively and calmly grasp the essence and overall picture of things and lead to problem solving. Specifically, the ability to grasp the overall situation structurally from fragmented information, including domains such as space, cyber and electromagnetic waves, and ability to have a broad situational awareness that encompasses its relationships to politics, diplomacy and public opinion. Such abilities will be necessary. Future battles will be based on space, cyber, unmanned systems and AI, so even those without such specialized expertise, we'll need the ability to understand the principles, strengths and limitations of these technologies and appropriately incorporate them into field operations. Young officers will need AI literacy to avoid blindly accepting AI's judgment and to ensure responsible human control of as well as cyber literacy and information literacy to apply basic defense posture against cyber attacks and cognitive attacks using cybersecurity to our organization and in the environment where the gray zone and cognitive warfare are becoming commonplace. Considering the impact on international public opinion and national sentiment, the ethical sense of Self Defense Forces officer and the sense of responsibility to make justifiable decisions are becoming even more important. Further, there is an increasing need for the coordination with local governments, private companies and relevant government ministries, as well as need for explaining things to residents and disseminating information so external communication skills are also required. Its ability to explain things clearly to people outside one's area of expertise and gain their trust. Lastly, in mission environments with a wide range of demands such as high intensity combat, prolonged states of tension, gray zone situations and humanitarian aid disaster relief operations, it is expected that young officers will face difficult situations while maintaining the psychological safety of subordinates. In such situations, the quality of psychological resilience, the ability to adapt flexibly and recover mentally, is considered crucial.
• 15:07
  Speaker B: Thank you. As Vice President of NDA Japan, how do you approach cultivating strategic thinking in cadets who will operate in a joint and multinational context?
• 15:17
  Speaker C: The strategic thinking ability required of cadets who will become future officers in Self Defence Forces is to grasp the overall picture of the Bichon purpose objectives operational environment and the means of operations. This ability constructs the most effective course of action with limited resources and flexibly modify it in response to changing circumstances. Therefore, it is important to acquire liberal arts education such as history, philosophy, law, economics, ethics and culture that cultivate a broad perspective, scientific thinking skills and rich humanity. At the National Defense Academy, in addition to their individual major and liberal arts studies, all cadets study Defense Studies. Defense Studies cover security strategy, leadership, military history and military technologies as well as joint and multinational operations. Through these subjects, all cadets are required to have strategic thinking skills and systematic knowledge of military affairs necessary for success in the military units after graduation. In addition to this knowledge education, Defense Studies utilizes small group seminars, case studies of past battles and simplified war games to develop cadets strategic thinking ability. Furthermore, to adapt to changing times, it is important for the NDA's education to incorporate a more global perspective as well as new educational programs and approaches in areas such as promoting innovation and developing AI and cybersecurity talent. Lastly, we believe it is also effective to instill in cadets the habit of thinking of their daily tasks as small strategic challenges in all aspects of their daily training, education and barracks life.
• 17:42
  Speaker B: General Adachi, thank you for your time today and for an excellent discussion about strategic leadership, team building and the security challenges of the Indo Pacific. On behalf of Colonel Pat Sullivan, the Director of the Modern war Institute, and Dr. Charlie Fain, the Director of this podcast series, it is my pleasure to present you with this rare and coveted MWI coin. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 18:11
  Speaker A: This has been an episode of Five Questions for a General, a production of the Modern War Institute of West Point. If you like what you heard today, please download, like, subscribe and share this podcast to help us reach an even larger audience. All statements in this podcast represent the personal views of the speakers and do not represent an official position of the United States Military Academy or the United States Government.
• 18:33
  Speaker C: SA.
• 21:01
  Speaker B: Sir.