National Defense Academy of Japan (防衛大学校, Bōei Daigakkō), abbreviated NDA (防大, Bōdai) is the national, four-year university-level service academy aimed to educate and train students who will be serving as officers in the three services of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. It is located in Yokosuka, Kanagawa.
History
The National Defense Academy of Japan was opened in 1952 as National Safety Academy (保安大学校), and was renamed "National Defense Academy" in 1954, when the incipient Japanese military was renamed from National Safety Force (保安隊) to the Japan Self-Defense Forces. In contrast to the pre-war period, when the Imperial Navy and Army had separate academies (Imperial Japanese Army Academy and Imperial Japanese Navy Academy, the National Safety Academy (later the National Defense Academy) was established as a unified institution in order to mitigate the effects of sectionalism and inter-service rivalry. The Academy matriculated its first female student in 1992.
Selection
Its main course students are selected from applicants and typically are recent graduates from Japanese civilian senior high schools who have completed twelve years of formal schooling. They are paid a salary as employees of the Ministry of Defense.
After graduation they are posted to the Officer Candidate Schools in one of three forces, conduct training alongside civilian university graduates and internal promotees before being commissioned as an officer after a year or two.
Postgraduate
The academy also conducts master's and doctoral level courses for students who are endorsed by their supervisors at their respective serving forces.
Condoleezza Rice had a three-week visiting professorship at the NDAJ in 1984, where she "had a hard time adjusting to the rigid hierarchy," according to her 2010 memoirs, Extraordinary, Ordinary People.
