Japan Coast Guard Begins Employment Scheme for Retiring MSDF Personnel; Aims for 15 Recruits in FY25

By Hirofumi Morita / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

20:00 JST, May 25, 2025

The Japan Coast Guard has begun employing Maritime Self-Defense Force members who will soon reach their mandatory retirement age, for work on the JCG’s large patrol vessels, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The JCG in June will employ two former MSDF members under this system for the first time. It aims to hire a total of about 15 former MSDF members within the current fiscal year.

A system to allow former JCG officers, including those over 65, to be hired as workers to cover the duties of officers on childcare leave has also been established. The JCG will take measures to secure personnel both through recruitment and through reducing the number of those leaving their jobs.

Since fiscal 2013, the government has increased the maximum number of staff the JCG can have by an average of 170 a year, with the aim of strengthening territorial water patrols around the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. In the current fiscal year, the figure reached a record-high 14,889.

However, since fiscal 2021, more than 300 members, mainly in their 20s and 30s, have resigned for personal reasons. As of the end of fiscal 2024, the number of staff was 665 short of the 14,889 limit. There were 355 vacancies as of January on large patrol vessels, which have crews of 30 to 50 personnel, a vacancy rate of 12%.

“We took such measures as letting more crew members take charge of two or more duties on patrol vessels – increasing the burden on crew members,” said a senior JCG officer.

In response to such circumstances, the JCG has begun to recruit retiring MSDF members — age between 55 and 58 —as crew on its large patrol vessels.

Crew members being recruited span five categories: navigation, engineering, communications, accounting and gunnery. Work locations will be arranged nationwide based on their stated preferences.

It was decided that two male MSDF members would be hired in June by the JCG to serve as a navigator and an accountant.

“The roles of MSDF members and JCG officers are different, but they share many common points, as both are sailors,” a personnel management official of the JCG said. “We want to use the system to secure personnel who are skilled in performing duties aboard a ship.”

The JCG also plans to expand the range of job categories available to those recruited from the MSDF.

Many SDF personnel reach retirement age at 56, and anxiety about post-retirement income is said to be one of the reasons for recruitment difficulties. Therefore, for the MSDF, having more employment opportunities for its retirees is beneficial.

Covering childcare leave

Eleven former JCG officers, including some over 65, began working in April as replacement workers for those taking childcare leave. They were rehired with contracts at least one-year long.

In the JCG, about 50 employees a year take childcare leave for at least one year. As of April, there were a record 1,467 female employees, accounting for 9.9% of all the staff. Of new recruits, about 20% are women. It is therefore assumed that more and more officers will take childcare leave in the future.

The JCG has created a new system which registers retirees who want to be replacement workers and notifies them of hiring information when active officers are scheduled to take childcare leave for between one and three years. This system aims to secure replacement workers who are capable of immediately doing duties and eliminate vacancies. So far, seven retirees are registered on the list.

In the JCG, it will be the first time for people over 65 to be hired. To be reemployed, the registered retirees need to pass a medical examination, essay-writing exam and interview, in the same way as younger applicants.

“Without being bound by precedents, we’ll continue to take measures to secure a sufficient workforce, including ones to lower employee turnover,” said a senior JCG officer.