Japanese recruiting
This is a Japanese military recruiting poster. Although, many Japanese deny that they even have a “military.” Instead, it’s a “self-defense force” they say, not recognizing / acknowledging the correlation. But with a quarter million men and women in uniform I feel safe saying that Japan has one of the largest militaries in the world: the Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF); the Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF); and, the Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF). Does that sound peaceful and benign? Currently, the JSDF shares many military facilities - harbors, air stations and firing ranges, with U.S. forces based in Japan.
By law, the defense budget is limited to 1% of the Gross Domestic Product, but since the Japanese economy is so large, in effect it has a robust military budget.
Japanese self-defense forces have some extremely high-tech gadgets. Their grandest armaments today are two Izumo class multi-purpose operational destroyers - helicopter carriers which are the largest warships Japan has built since the Second World War. Each one is a de facto aircraft carrier.
Incidentally, the famous red-and-white rising sun flag that many foreigners know from WWII war movies was never the national flag - it was the naval ensign. And, it is still the naval ensign today.