Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

DEJIMA • 75
Keizai Dantai Rengokai: Keidanren) and the Japan Federation of
Employers’Associations (Nihon Keieisha Dantai Renmei: Nikkeiren)
were integrated into the Japan Business Federation (Nihon Keizai
Dantai Rengokai: JBF) in May 2002. The JBF comprises 1,645
member corporations and business organizations, among them, some
90 major foreign-financed corporations, 131 major industry-classified
national organizations, and 47 local economic organizations (as
of 26 May 2005). The Defense Industry Commission (DIC) of the
JBF summarizes the views on the business world in order to reflect
their opinions in the National Defense Program Outline and the midterm
defense buildup program. The DIC serves as Japan’s secretariat
in the Industry Forum for Security Cooperation (IFSEC), a forum
established in January 1997 that aims to provide the Japanese and
U.S. defense industries with opportunities to have a dialogue and to
make policy recommendations to the Japanese and U.S. governments.
See also DEFENSE.
DEFENSE-RELATED MINISTERS ROUND-TABLE CONFER-
ENCE. The Ichiro Hatoyama administration decided to establish a
Defense-Related Ministers Round-Table Conference on 2 August
1955. A bill to establish this conference was submitted to the 22nd
special Diet session, but it was not passed. As a result, the conference
was established as a prime minister’s advisory committee. It was responsible
for examining various defense-related issues at a ministerial
level upon request. In August 1955, the conference approved the “Six-
Year Defense Program.” This program would increase the size of the
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force to 180,000 people provided that the
U.S. ground forces pulled out within three years. In 1956, another bill
to provide this advisory committee with a legal base was submitted to
the Diet. On 2 July 1956, the conference became the “National Defense
Conference” and was established within the cabinet.
DEJIMA (NAGASAKI PREFECTURE). A relatively small, manmade
island in Nagasaki harbor where Dutch and European merchants
working for the Dutch East India Company were allowed to work and
live during most of the Tokugawa Era. The island and the Europeans
living on it were restricted and kept under tight surveillance by guards
of the Tokugawa shogunate. Dejima became symbolic of the sakoku