自衛隊

简 自卫队 · 繁 自衛隊
Mandarin · pinyin zì wèi duì

Meanings

  1. self-defense force
  2. the Japanese armed forces
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Characters in this entry

自
zì · self, private, personal; from; Kangxi radical 132
衛
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隊
duì · team, group; army unit
卫
wèi · guard, protect, defend
队
duì · team, group; army unit
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

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Mandarin tones

4–4–4 · zi4 wei4 dui4

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Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

自衛隊 · find source passages ↗ · 自卫队 · find source passages ↗

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Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 2 senses

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

  1. self-defence forces

name

  1. the Japan Self-Defense Forces

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

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