The widely-respected national security expert and former Defence Department deputy secretary was awarded an Order of the Rising Sun medal at a formal conferral ceremony in the Japanese embassy on Friday afternoon.

Japanese ambassador Shingo Yamagami described his contribution to opening up relations between the two countries over the decades as being "foundational".

Esteemed guests and former colleagues of Dr Dibb attended the event as he reflected on his career, which spans several decades and countless more Australia governments.

Among those in attendance were former defence force chiefs, General Peter Gration and Admiral Chris Barrie, former DFAT and Defence secretary Dennis Richardson as well as heads of think tanks and policy schools.

Dr Dibb thanked attendees but made a special mention to General Gration for his assistance in drafting his 1986 review of Australia's Defence Capabilities, dubbed the "Dibb Report".

The report, which was commissioned by then-defence minister Kim Beazley, implored the importance of positioning Australia's defence priorities around the country's northern borders but his recommendations were not fully adopted by the Hawke Labor government.

"Peter, without your help, both as [Chief of General Staff] as it was in those days and then as the [Chief of Defence Force] and your acknowledgement that we need to do something about the location of the Army to the north of Australia, we would have never have got the '86 review through," Dr Dibb said on Friday.

"You were absolutely essential."

But the highly-regarded defence strategist added he had regretted the state of the army in recent years.

"If I might say so, one of the more disturbing things, however, is that since then, Army has gone backwards," Dr Dibb said.

"A few years ago, I was at the new Cultana barracks in Adelaide, it cost $630 million.

"A battalion was detached from Darwin to go there I presume, Peter, to face the threat from the penguins of Antarctica."

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Mr Yamagami said he owed Dr Dibb "an enormous debt" on a personal level for being the first, along with his wife, in Canberra to invite the ambassador and his wife over for dinner.

But in a professional sense, he was also grateful for his engaging and insightful analysis.

"What made Paul particularly engaging was his direct, no nonsense approach to analysis," he said on Friday before the conferral.

"Speaking as a former Director-General of the intelligence and analysis service in Japan's foreign ministry, I can't begin to tell you what a relief it was to hear analysis without layer upon layer of provisos."

"In that sense, Paul should be regarded as a patron saint of getting to the point.

"While canonisation is not in my power to confer, what I can draw your attention to is the patient, methodical manner in which Paul had to establish and then develop the defence relationship between Japan and Australia."

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