Japan rethinks tattoo ban in defence forces to lift recruitment

Japan's defence force is rethinking a ban on tattoos as it tries to increase recruitment from a rapidly shrinking population.

Tattoos have long been a taboo in the country, where they are associated with mafia-like criminal gangs known as yakuza who sport elaborate skin art.

But officials now say that young Japanese have tattoos for sartorial reasons, not to identify with yakuza.

And they also argue that the ban is hindering enlistment.

The Japanese Self-Defence Forces (JSDF), the country's military, is 10% short of its troop capacity and missed its recruitment target last April, officials say.

"Rejecting applicants just because they have tattoos poses a problem in terms of enhancing the human resources base," Masahisa Sato, an MP from the governing Liberal Democratic Party, recently said.

The head of the defence ministry's personnel bureau, Kazuhito Machida, has said that the ban must be reconsidered given Japan's declining birth rate.

The country of 125 million had fewer than 800,000 births in 2022, down from more than two million in the 1970s. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has said it is "now or never" for Japan to address its shrinking and ageing population.
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