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Wi-fi warships: Japan’s plan to lure millennials to the military

  • Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force will expand internet access on its warships to bunks and communal areas to attract more young recruits
  • All three arms of Japan’s self-defence forces are struggling to reach recruitment targets, as a ‘spoilt’ generation shuns military life

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The Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force’s helicopter carrier, Izumo. The force is planning to offer improved internet access on board its vessels, to attract younger recruits. Photo: Kyodo
As it struggles to attract sufficient numbers of young recruits, Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force has come up with a novel solution: increasing internet access on its warships to make it easier for a generation that has never been without mobile phones to get online while at sea.

At present, crew members have limited access to the internet from specific parts of their ships, primarily due to security concerns. Senior MSDF officers have decided, however, to expand Wi-fi access to allow off-duty crew members to log on from their sleeping bunks or communal areas such as mess halls, The Mainichi newspaper reported.

The prime reason behind the decision is to attract new recruits to a service that is already seriously undermanned and does not appeal to many young people, sources told the newspaper.

All three arms of Japan’s self-defence forces have failed to reach their recruitment targets for the last five years, with the overall recruitment figure in 2018 a mere 70 per cent of what was required. The situation was particularly serious in the MSDF, where the number of new recruits was just 60 per cent of the target.

Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force destroyers JS Murasame and JS Akebono take part in a military drill. Photo: AP
Japan's Maritime Self-Defence Force destroyers JS Murasame and JS Akebono take part in a military drill. Photo: AP

“There are a lot of reasons young people do not want to go into the services today,” said Hiromi Murakami, a professor of political science at the Tokyo campus of Temple University.

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