Although they and their fellow marines are expected to lead the way on the front lines, their unit – and Japan’s military – lags far behind in gender diversity, a problem that risks turning into a crisis as the country’s greying population shrinks while threats from China, Russia and North Korea grow.
Commander Shingo Nashinoki and soldiers of the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade take part in a military drill on the uninhabited Irisuna island close to Okinawa in November 2023. Photo: Reuters
“Women are crucial to ensuring a stable supply of suitable recruits,” Shingo Nashinoki, then-commander of the ARDB force, said on an uninhabited island in the Okinawan chain, where a small all-male ARDB contingent practised helicopter attacks.
Although the number of Japanese women soldiers has doubled during the past decade, it is still far behind Tokyo’s ally, the United States.
Women make up only 8.7 per cent of the 230,000 strong Japanese Self-Defence Forces (JSDF), half the rate of the US military, and only 1.6 per cent of the ARDB, which was activated in 2018. That compares with the almost one in 10 US Marines who are women.
“The ARDB has a reputation for being physically, mentally, and technically demanding, and I think that a lot of women worry whether they could handle that,” Staff Sergeant Maruyama, 38, a doctor, said in the amphibious landing ship’s mess hall.
Sawaka Nakano, a soldier with Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, says she would like to see more military roles opened to women. Photo: Reuters
Aboard the Osumi, women are uncommon. Only men took part in a fitness training session on the flight deck. Maruyama and Corporal Kurosawa, 20, instead stretched in the ship’s small gym while male colleagues around them lifted weights.
The SDF’s efforts to present itself as a more women-friendly force have been undermined in recent months by high-profile sexual harassment cases.
In October, Minister of Defence Minoru Kihara had to apologise after a Japanese sailor was forced to meet a superior accused of sexually harassing her. In December, a Japanese court found three male soldiers guilty of sexually assaulting a woman comrade.
“It leaves me a bit speechless. It’s important to be clear to every person what harassment is and to continue educating people,” said Captain Nakano, 42, aboard a ship that was not designed to accommodate a mixed- gender crew when it was commissioned two decades ago, before she joined. She would like to see more roles opened to women, she added.
Hikari Maruyama, 38, a soldier with Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, trains at a gym space inside the JS Osumi in waters close to Okinawa in November 2023. Photo: Reuters
Maruyama, who has two daughters with her SDF-enlisted husband, says more childcare help would be a boon.
“The reality is that women are expected to be more involved in raising their children,” she said.
Unlike male military personnel, who sleep in bunks assigned to them by rank and unit, the three women marines are billeted together with other women in cabins near the ship’s bow regardless of rank. The men on board are warned to stay away from the area.
Accommodations are cramped for everyone, with three-tier bunk beds separated by narrow aisles filled with bags, suitcases and small camping stools that soldiers and sailors bring from home.
Hikari Maruyama and Runa Kurosawa, soldiers with Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, in the women-only quarters during their break time inside the JS Osumi in waters close to Okinawa in November 2023. Photo: Reuters
Kurosawa, who joined the ARDB less than two years ago, likes having older women colleagues close by that she can confide in.
“There aren’t many women in the military, and it’s important to be able to find someone to talk to,” said Kurosawa, a mechanic who maintains the ARDB’s trucks on the ship’s vehicle deck.
Above the washing machines nearby that line one side of that compartment, the men hang their uniforms and underwear to dry.
