The women marines Japan is training for war

About 40 women are part of Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, meant to lead assaults from the sea in a possible future war

Japan’s military lags far behind in gender diversity, a problem that risks turning into a crisis amid a greying population and regional threats

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Hikari Maruyama and Runa Kurosawa. soldiers with the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade, in November 2023. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:39am, 12 Jan 2024

Hikari Maruyama, Runa Kurosawa and Sawaka Nakano are part of an elite force: Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade (ARDB), meant to lead assaults from the sea in a possible future war.

They are also three of about 40 women in their 2,400-person unit.

Living alongside a close-knit group of other women service members aboard the JS Osumi, a Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force tank landing ship deployed for exercises in the East China Sea, they in November supported beach assault drills in Japan’s vulnerable southwest island chain.

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.