The efforts are part of Japan's largest military mission since World War II, with roughly 106,000 of its 240,000 soldiers rendering aid.
The stakes for Japan's military are high: If the mission is seen as a success, as it has been for the most part so far, it could lead to wider acceptance of a more-active military at a time when it is eyeing an increasingly visible international role. If it fails, with delays in reconstruction or other problems, it could dent the military's reputation.
Created after World War II, the Self Defense Forces are severely restricted in their duties by a constitution that renounces war. Although SDF personnel have participated in some international missions, including building schools in Iraq, their activities are limited to self-defense or disaster relief, and many Japanese remain wary of expanding their activities at home or abroad.
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But in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, SDF forces have been cast into an unusually public role as the lead responders across much of Japan's northeastern coast.
Congratulatory profiles are turning up on television, showing uniformed soldiers working through rubble with sticks to find bodies. Military helicopters helped to drop water on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility and soldiers have helped to manage logistics at shelters.
The SDF "is the one institution that has performed superbly" in the crisis, said Michael Green, a Japan expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Political leaders have drawn more mixed reviews, while executives at plant owner Tokyo Electric Power Co. have been criticized.
It is unclear whether SDF forces have the manpower and expertise to sustain more than a short-term effort. Japan's joint SDF chief of staff, Gen. Ryoichi Oriki, said last week the forces have been "pushed to the limit." Other Japanese officials have acknowledged the military has been severely tested.
"Morale among SDF members remains high, but they're human after all. They're exhausted," said Tetsuya Kono, a spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry. The military is talking about creating shifts so soldiers that are deployed early can rotate out to rest while others are sent in as replacements, the spokesman said.
Officials have debated whether it makes sense having soldiers deal with disasters at all, since tying up them with such work could potentially leave the country vulnerable or otherwise use up resources needed for national defense.
The SDF are "getting some appreciation," said Yukio Tada, president of the Sojitz Research Institute in Japan. But "there are still lots of risks" the relief effort won't go well, he said. Japan's military has seen its stature grow after previous disasters. After the Kobe earthquake in 1995, government officials took steps to bolster the SDF so that it could mobilize more quickly in disasters, boosting its credibility. The steps came after authorities failed to deploy SDF soldiers quickly in Kobe because of bureaucratic rules and sensitivities over having soldiers working in urban areas.
Since then, the Ministry of Defense has played up the SDF's role in disaster relief in recruitment posters on neighborhood street corners showing troops engaged in aid efforts and other public outreach.
More recently, debates over the military's role have intensified amid rising concerns over possible threats from North Korea or China. The U.S., meanwhile, has called on Japan to shoulder more of the burden of helping maintain Asian security.
But as Japan has started taking part in more overseas missions, including supporting U.S. forces in noncombat roles in Afghanistan and Iraq, nervousness over Japan's ambitions has also increased, especially among neighbors scarred by Japan's aggression in World War II.
Another issue: As Japan spends more on a ballistic missile defense program and other advanced hardware, it has less money for soldiers and low-tech troop transports in an era of increasingly tight budgets.
Mr. Green, the Japan expert, said he believed a successful disaster mission would make it easier for the SDF to press for a bigger role, including more cooperation with the U.S. military. "All of that will buttress Japan's waning power" as it becomes a less-important economy compared with China, he said. It would also make it harder for politicians to downsize the military. "No one will want to cut after this," Mr. Green said.
So far, at least, support for the troops appears to be running high in tsunami-affected areas.
Toshio Ota, 56, in the seaside suburb of Yamamoto Town south of Sendai, said he was surprised and impressed by the sudden surge of men and women in fatigues that were in his tsunami-struck town within days of the disaster.
"This is the first time I have ever seen them," he said, looking over at the jeeps and heavy machinery parked near the town hall. "They just popped up out of nowhere."
In Rikuzentakata, men from the SDF's Ninth Division arrived before dawn the morning after the tsunami, and later provided food and drinking water in addition to search-and-rescue operations. Engineering units have used bulldozers, hydraulic excavators and other heavy equipment to clear roads. The troops are living in olive drab tents pitched on school playing fields and elsewhere around the city, and military vehicles are a constant presence on local roads, ferrying supplies and carting away rubble. The soldiers provide water at shelters and have set up bathing facilities. While residents bathe, the SDF washes their clothes.
Yuma Takahashi, 17, a high-school student from Rikuzentakata, said some of his friends are considering enlisting after they graduate. "Before, I used to think the SDF was just for wars," he said. "Now I see that they are here to help the Japanese people."
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