On Nov. 20, the Japanese Ministry of Defense confirmed that military recruitment figures for the 2014 fiscal year had declined compared to the previous year. The number of applicants on the non-commissioned officer fast-track fell 10 percent. The number of aviation school applicants fell five percent.
Mainichi Shimbun was the only Japanese news agency to report the fall in applications. Its story spread around the Chinese press via South China Morning Press.
While the figures are probably correct, Mainichi’s article betrays its political bias. The paper assumes, without much evidence, that the decline is a result of the government’s recent—and controversial—decision to give Japan the legal right to go to war to defend its allies.
“The Defense Ministry started soliciting applications after the government made a cabinet decision on July 1 to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense,” Mainichi asserts.
The Defense Ministry denied there was any link between the fall in prospective servicemembers and the constitutional reinterpretation, according to the paper.
Mainichi Shimbun opposes collective self-defense. The article pushes that stance at the expense of the broader context. Namely, a declining birthrate, low unemployment and a ministry desperately competing for young workers.
In other words, there’s a better explanation for Japan’s military recruitment problem than some popular revolt against the government’s new war policy.
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