Editorial

15:00 JST, January 11, 2025

Given the current deteriorating security environment around Japan and the frequent occurrence of large-scale disasters, the need to resolve the shortage of people willing to become Self-Defense Forces personnel can be called urgent.

The shortage of SDF personnel is serous. The number of personnel is consistently about 20,000 less than the SDF’s capacity of about 247,000.

To improve this situation, the government has compiled a basic policy for securing SDF personnel.

There currently exist both a system where people are commissioned as SDF personnel from the start and a program where individuals are recruited as cadets and later commissioned as SDF personnel after a period of education and training. The basic policy clearly states that the cadet program will be abolished, and another program will be introduced where people are commissioned from the start........

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