Japan Air Self-Defense Force

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force, abbreviated JASDF and also called the Japanese Air Force, is the air and space branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Wikipedia says it is responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace, other air and space operations, cyberwarfare and electronic warfare. It carries out combat air patrols around Japan and keeps a network of ground and air early-warning radar systems. It also fields the Blue Impulse aerobatic team and has provided air transport for United Nations peacekeeping missions. The article gives an estimated 49,913 personnel in 2018 and about 712 aircraft in 2023, roughly 321 of them fighters, and records a Space Operation Squadron inaugurated on 19 May 2020. The service was created in 1954 under American guidance after the occupation ended, and a renaming to the Japan Air and Space Self-Defense Force has been planned.