The , also known as the , is stationed in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) Camp Narashino in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture. The Brigade serves as Japan's elite paratrooper unit meant to counter against either guerrilla warfare or commando and special forces units enemy. Since 1999, the Brigade has a , serving as its NEO (Non-combatant Evacuation Operations) unit. Currently, they are attached to current homeland defense and international combat operations under the JGSDF's Ground Component Command () (formerly under the Central Readiness Force). History In 1958, the Airborne Brigade's first platoon was formed after Hayao Kinugasa was made the first commander of the unit. It continued to increase in numbers as ranger and free-fall training were added in 1962 and 1969. An additional armed transport unit was established in 1973. In 1985, the 1st Airborne Brigade was involved in rescue operations of the downed Japan Airlines Flight 123 in the ridges of Mount Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture after the local volunteer fire corps found some survivors, marking the first time that the Brigade was seen in the public eye. Later on, they were also deployed in Yamanashi Prefecture for civil operations and after the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in 1995. A Guide Unit was established on October 20, 1999, and based at Funabashi, Chiba. Preparations to create a new special forces unit went underway in the Brigade in 2000. In 2003, the framework of the Special Operations Group was established as an anti-guerrilla/terrorist unit embedded in the Brigade, but was established and separated from the Brigade in 2004 and placed under the control of the Defense Agency via the JGSDF like most of the JSDF's special forces units. Brigade paratroopers were involved in Iraq as the Brigade rotated ground personnel as part of the Japanese government's commitment to Iraq. They were withdrawn alongside the bulk of the Japanese Iraqi Reconstruction Support Group in the middle of 2006. The brigade was added to the Central Readiness Force on March 28, 2007. On October 9, 2006, members of the Oregon National Guard had a hand in assisting soldiers of the 1st Airborne Brigade in establishing a sniper school to train the unit's first generation of highly skilled snipers during Orient Shield '07. In March 2018, the brigade was integrated into the Ground Component Command after the Central Readiness Force was disbanded. On March 4, 2020, the brigade recruited Sergeant Reina Hashiba, the