JMSDF Kure Naval Base (呉基地)

JMSDF Kure Naval Base is the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force installation at Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, on the Seto Inland Sea. It comprises port and shore facilities dispersed across several districts of the city — principally the Sachi, Shōwa and Yoshiura districts — and is the seat of the JMSDF Kure District, one of the five regional districts responsible for local defence, port security and base support in western Honshu and the Inland Sea approaches.

The Sachi district holds the Kure District headquarters and berths units of the Fleet Escort Force, including the 4th Escort Flotilla with its 12th Escort Division, together with the 1st Training Support Squadron. The Training Squadron and its 1st Training Division, which conduct the JMSDF's post-commissioning ocean training cruises, are also homeported at Kure. Mine Warfare Force elements are assigned here, comprising the 3rd Minesweeper Division and the 1st Landing Ship Division, the latter operating the Ōsumi-class tank landing ships. The Kure District Police, the Kure System Communications Unit under Communications Command, and the Kure Guard provide security, communications and harbour defence.

The Shōwa district is the submarine centre, hosting Fleet Submarine Force units: the 1st Submarine Division, the 1st Submarine Training Division and the Submarine Training Command, alongside the Kure Maritime Training Guidance Team. Also located there are the Mine Warfare Support Detachment Kure with its amphibious and mine tactical support team, and the Oceanography ASW Support Command's 1st Ocean Surveillance Unit, which operates acoustic measuring ships.

Maintenance and logistics are handled by the Kure Repair Supply Station, formed in 1998 from the amalgamation of the Kure Supply Station and the Kure Repair Centre; its Oil Storage Station lies in the Yoshiura district. The base also supports the Kure Ammunition Maintenance and Supply Station, the Kure Base Service Unit, the Kure Education Corps, the Kure Band and the Self-Defense Forces Kure Hospital, opened in 2005.

The site was established as the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kure Naval District on 1 July 1889. Following the 1945 surrender the district became a demobilization bureau, and minesweeping work resumed under the Japan Coast Guard from 1948. The Kure District Base Corps was formed on 16 September 1953 under the Yokosuka District Force, and was reorganised as the Kure District Force with the creation of the JMSDF on 1 July 1954.