「将来の変化に適応を」　菅首相、防大卒業生に訓示

　菅義偉首相は２１日、防衛大学校（神奈川県横須賀市）の卒業式で訓示した。首相は、将来的に自衛隊に新たな任務が加わる可能性があるとの認識を示した上で、「強い意志を持って、進んで新しいことに挑戦して将来の変化に適応してほしい」と呼び掛けた。
　首相は、海外での国連平和維持活動（ＰＫＯ）などの新たな任務が自衛隊に付与されてきたことに触れ、「諸官の先輩は、３０年前に誰も予測できなかった数々の任務に立派に対応してきている」と強調。今後３０年についても、「これまでにない課題や脅威が現れ、新たな任務が自衛隊に付与されているのではないか」と述べた。（2021/03/21-12:54）

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Sunday called on graduates of the National Defense Academy to "actively take on new challenges and adapt to changes in the future with a strong will" as they are set to become members of the Self-Defense Forces.
   In an address at the graduation ceremony of the school in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo, Suga noted that new tasks, such as those for U.N.-sponsored peacekeeping operations abroad, have been added to the SDF. "Your predecessors have admirably adapted to a number of new missions that nobody were able to imagine 30 years ago," the prime minister told the graduates.
   "I think that the SDF will be tasked to perform additional new missions (in the next 30 years) as new challenges and threats emerge," he said.
   "With the security situation increasingly complicated, no country can protect peace and security of its citizens on its own," Suga said, stressing his intention to further enhance the Japan-U.S. alliance through his planned visit to the United States in April for his first in-person meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
   A total of 488 students are set to graduate from the National Defense Academy in fiscal 2020, which ends on March 31. Of them, 28 students, down by seven from fiscal 2019, will not join the SDF after graduation, due to reasons such as starting to work at private-sector companies.