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On October 6th, the enrollment ceremony for the 17th Joint Advanced Course was held at the Meguro Base auditorium with the pleasure of their companies, Lieutenant General Toshiya Okabe, Vice Chief of Staff of Joint Staff, acting Chief of Staff of Joint Staff, and three other Vice Commandants from the Ground, Maritime and Air Staff Colleges.
　The purpose of the Joint Advanced Course is for potential senior commanding and staff officers to acquire the comprehensive knowledge and skills, related to joint service operations of Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF), which are essential to complete diverse missions. A total of 48 new students enrolled in the 17th Joint Advanced Course, which consists of 17 Ground officers, 16 Maritime officers, 14 Air officers, and 1 foreign student from Korean Navy (Captain), who are all with the ranks of either Colonel/Captain or Lieutenant Colonel/Commander.
　Prior to their enrollment, the students have already completed each advanced course at their own service staff college, which was relatively service-oriented, for about a half year since this spring. They will spend another 5-month course period at the Join Staff College, where the education is focused more on joint service operations.
　During the course, the students will have extensive opportunities to learn peacetime joint operation to contingency joint operation by classroom lectures, group research on defense strategy, and field study trips to major JSDF sites and U.S. Forces sites in Japan as well as overseas field trips.