Attract The Interest Of The Young Generation, The Japanese Military Loosens The Rules On Rambut

Illustration of Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces personnel. (Wikimedia Commons/PFCmen Mort)

JAKARTA - Japan's Ministry of Defense will allow new members of Japan's Self-Defense Forces to have longer hair from April this year, with the aim of making the armed forces more attractive to young people.

The current ministry rules require that new troops in the training unit must have cut-offs for men, while for short-haired women. However, this will be adjusted.

Authorities said the hair rule would be relaxed, allowing them to have longer hair, reflecting the easing of similar rules in public high schools in recent years.

Starting this fiscal year, the ministry will allow men to have short hair on the back and sides, while the upper hair is longer. While women are allowed to have long hair as long as they don't interfere with the wearing of helmets or hats and tie them when they are in uniform, so they don't fall on the shoulder.

The easing of the barbershop rule was reported last month in a panel of experts meeting assigned to increase the number of recruitments, after the panel asked the ministry last July to "change or remove disciplinary regulations that have no rationality."

"When our country faces a serious labor shortage, we recognize that competition with other parties, including the private sector, to gain talented workers is increasing," Defense Minister Minuru Kihara said at a panel of experts meeting last month.

Defense Minister Kihara added, as the head of defense for the Land of the Rising Sun, improving the work environment for every SDF officer and obtaining superior personnel is his mission.

This step was taken when Japan faced a deteriorating regional security environment caused by China's rapid military build-up, as well as North Korea's increasingly widespread missile and nuclear programs.

In related steps, the Ministry of Defense has also considered allowing people with tattoos to join SDF, reviewing current guidelines that prohibit them from registering as SDF cadets.