Noshiro frigate: this is how this gigantic Japanese battle ship operates

After 75 years of peace, Japan faces immense challenges in its rush to develop a more formidable military. To understand why, consider the Noshiro, a newly commissioned naval frigate equipped with anti-ship missiles and submarine-tracking sonar.

The vessel was designed to operate with about two-thirds of the crew needed to operate an earlier model. Now he goes to sea with even fewer sailors than that. On the bridge, duties that held seven or eight crew members have been consolidated to three or four.

“We are systematizing a lot of things,” said Captain Yoshihiro Iwata, 44, when the frigate docked recently in Sasebo, in southwestern Japan. “But to be honest, the same person does two or three different jobs,” he added.

The Noshiro's reduced crew points to the demographic reality in Japan as it faces its most serious security threats in decades in the wake of China's increasingly provocative military actions and North Korea's growing nuclear arsenal.

Japan has pledged to increase military spending to 2 percent of GDP, or about 60 percent over the next five years, which would give it the world's third-largest defense budget. It is acquiring Tomahawk missiles and has spent about $30 million on ballistic missile defense systems.

But as the population ages and shrinks — nearly a third of Japanese are over 65 and births fell to a record low last year — some experts fear the military will be unable to staff the fleets. and traditional squads.

The Army, Navy and Air Force have not met their recruiting goals for years, and the number of active personnel — around 247,000 — is almost 10 percent lower than in 1990.

Japan must also attract soldiers with technological skills to operate sophisticated equipment or protect from cyber attacks. For some tasks, military leaders say they can turn to unmanned systems like drones, but such technology can still require large numbers of personnel to operate.

There is also public resistance to tax increases to fund the defense budget at a time of rising social costs for older adults.

Until recently, the public opposed the acquisition of missiles capable of attacking enemy territory or legal changes that would allow Japanese troops, limited by the Constitution to defend the nation, to fight combat outside the country. Now that many see China as a threat to Japan's security, some polls show support for such measures.

However, that has not led to an increase in recruitment to the Japan Self-Defense Forces, as the Army is known.

Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, chairman of Japan's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military should increase the proportion of women to 12 percent, from less than 8 percent, by 2030. It should recruit mid-career officers, collaborate with private sector and deploy artificial intelligence and unmanned systems, he indicated.

But accounts of sexual harassment discourage women from enlisting. And with an unemployment rate of 2.5 percent, it is difficult to attract graduates or job changers.

Some recruiting tactics have failed. The Army aired ads in theaters last summer before a screening of “The Silent Service,” a thriller set on a nuclear submarine.

When asked if the ads had inspired enlistments, Hironori Ogihara, spokesman for the recruiting center in Okinawa, smiled and shrugged.

“Not yet,” he said.

By: Motoko Rich and Hikari Hida
The New York Times