The article, published in Gender Issues, examines the intersection of the simultaneous trends of military expansion and population contraction occurring in Japan today. It asks why the resulting recruitment shortages in the Self-Defense Forces have not prompted a significant increase in female personnel.
Based on previously undisclosed admissions data from Japan’s premier military academy, it shows that the government’s gender-specific recruitment targets have amounted to a system of affirmative action for male applicants, where the path to admission for women has proven up to six times more competitive over the past three decades.
Contrary to entrenched notions of a link between masculinity and military prowess, the article demonstrates how artificially maintaining a male-dominated composition of the SDF leadership has come at the detriment to the organisation’s own meritocratic principles, undermining the academic and physical standards the recruitment process purports to uphold.
This open access article is free to read and download here.
