Katsutoshi Kawano

is a retired Japanese admiral who served as the 5th Chief of Staff, Joint Staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces from 2014 to 2019 — the longest tenure of anyone who has held that specific post since its creation. Prior to his appointment, he was Chief of Staff of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), Japan's maritime military service.

Early life and education Kawano was born in Hakodate, Hokkaido, on 28 November 1954, the fourth of five children. According to his own account, his father, Katsuji Kawano, served as a junior officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II, including as an engineering officer aboard the submarine I-16 at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. After the war, Katsuji continued his naval career in the JMSDF, eventually reaching the rank of rear admiral and commanding the JMSDF's Hakodate sub-area activity. Two months before Katsutoshi was born, Katsuji took part in rescue and relief operations following the sinking of the JNR train ferry Tōya Maru during a typhoon. After his father's retirement, the family relocated to Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture.

In 2008, while serving as Director of the Defense Department at the Maritime Staff Office, Kawano was among the officials who gave initial public statements about the collision between the destroyer and the fishing vessel Seitoku Maru off Chiba Prefecture on 19 February, in which two fishermen were killed. Kawano was not in Atago's chain of command; the ship belonged to the 3rd Escort Division of the Escort Fleet's 3rd Escort Flotilla. At a press briefing shortly after the collision, Kawano stated that Atago's lookout had sighted the fishing boat's lights two minutes before impact; days later, the Ministry of Defense revised this account, stating the lights had in fact been sighted around twelve minutes beforehand, prompting sustained media criticism of the ministry's and JMSDF's handling and disclosure of the incident. According to Japanese Wikipedia's account of his career, Kawano's transfer to command of the Mine Warfare Force in March 2008 has been described as connected to the fallout from the incident. In that role, he was closely involved in the JMSDF's response to the ongoing Senkaku Islands dispute.

On 14 October 2014, Kawano was appointed by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as Chief of Staff, Joint Staff. He was retained beyond the JSDF's normal retirement age of 62 through three separate extensions of his mandatory retirement date — the first JSDF Chief of Staff, Joint Staff ever granted more than one such extension — ultimately serving four and a half years before being succeeded by Kōji Yamazaki on 31 March 2019. Commentary at the time linked the extensions to heightened regional security tensions, including the 2017–18 North Korea crisis.

2017 remarks on constitutional revision In May 2017, Prime Minister Abe proposed in a newspaper interview that Article 9 of Japan's constitution be amended to explicitly reference the Self-Defense Forces while leaving its first two paragraphs unchanged. Three weeks later, at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan, Kawano was asked for his views. He prefaced his answer by saying that, as a matter of high politics, it was "not appropriate" for him to comment in his official capacity, but added: "speaking as an individual Self-Defense Forces member, if the Self-Defense Forces were to be explicitly written into the constitution in some form, I would be very grateful."

The remark drew criticism from some media outlets and opposition politicians, on the grounds it risked conflicting with the Self-Defense Forces Act's requirement of political neutrality for JSDF personnel, and potentially with Article 99 of the constitution, which obliges public officials to respect and uphold it. On 24 May, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga stated that the remark had been expressed as Kawano's personal opinion and posed no problem under the Self-Defense Forces Act. The following day, the Japanese Communist Party held a press conference calling for Kawano's dismissal, arguing the remark violated public officials' constitutional duty to respect the constitution. A formal question was also submitted in the House of Councillors regarding the remark; the government's written response stated it did not consider the comment problematic.

After retirement After retiring, Kawano became an advisor to the Ministry of Defense and has since served as a commentator for the Nippon TV group and as an advisor to several companies. He has continued to comment publicly on Japanese security policy, including constitutional revision and deterrence in the context of a potential Taiwan contingency.

Defensive memorial cordons Kawano received the following Defensive memorial cordons during his career:

Dates of promotion

Intermediate ranks between ensign and commander (e.g. lieutenant junior grade, lieutenant, lieutenant commander) are omitted here because the cited source does not give dates for them individually, not because they did not occur.