Japan military hiring hit by low birth rate, pay as many reluctant to give up ‘good life’

The Self-Defence Forces managed to hire only 9,959 people in the financial year 2023, just over 50 per cent of their target and a record low for personnel joining the three branches of the armed forces.

The SDF’s optimum troop strength is around 247,000, but it is currently about 20,000 short of that figure across all arms of the military.

“People realise that they are living a reasonably good and comfortable life and they are asking why they would swap that for the strict life and poor pay of the military,” Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo, said.

A string of scandals has also put some young Japanese off signing up.

On Tuesday, Rina Gonoi, who was sexually assaulted while serving in the Ground Self-Defence Force, reached a civil settlement with three of her former superiors.

She resigned from the GSDF in 2022 and defied requests from the defence ministry not to go public with her claims, eventually winning a compensation suit against the department.

Separately, the ministry on Friday took disciplinary action against 200 officials and members of the armed forces for a number of issues, including “power harassment” and sharing secret information with colleagues who did not have the appropriate level of clearance.

Defence Minister Minoru Kihara has ordered an investigation into reports that military contractor Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd provided money to submarine crew members under the guise of payments to subcontractors.

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The latest revelations have further compounded the SDF’s long-standing image problem and its struggle to attract talent, analysts say.

“There are a lot