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Japanese military recruitment faces crisis
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Empty recruiting tables and disinterested audiences are becoming more common for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces as demographic troubles and robust economy have created a military recruitment “silent crisis.”
The number of Japanese aged 18 to 26 has shrunk to 11 million from 17 million in 1994. That group is forecast to shrink to 7.8 million over the next 30 years. It has left the SDF unable to hit recruitment quotas since 2014. Overall, the military was only able to recruit about 77 percent of the 9,734 lowest-rank enlisted personnel it had sought in the year ending in March.
As Japan’s economy has improved, unemployment has fallen to around a 25-year low. More high school grads are also heading to college. That is good news for the country, but it not for military recruiting.
“Even though we have the budget, we fall below the allotted number of troops,” said Kenji Wakamiya, a former defense vice minister who heads a party defense policy panel.
Japan budgeted for 247,154 SDF personnel in the year to March 2018, but the military employed only 226,789. The biggest shortfall is in the lowest ranks of enlisted personnel, which were roughly 26 percent below their budgeted level.
With conscription deemed unconstitutional, the military is trying to recruit more women, and next month, the maximum age for new recruits will be raised to 32. Retirement ages may be increased as well.
A Female Personnel Empowerment Initiative unveiled last year aims to double the percentage of women in the SDF from 6.1 percent in 2016, and to at least 9 percent by 2030.
That compares with about 15 percent in the United States and 10 percent in Britain.
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