In the hot and humid weather in early June, about 100 cadets at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s Kure base in Hiroshima Prefecture rowed in unison in a traditional cutter boat drill in Kure Bay.
"I want to contribute to society through overseas missions and other activities,” said Mirei Tanouchi, 18, a seaman apprentice at the Kure Recruit Training Center who joined the corps this spring after graduating from high school in Kagawa Prefecture.
Like Tanouchi, many of the new recruits at the training center are high school graduates learning the basics of their duties as members of the Self-Defense Forces. While the lessons at the center have largely remained the same over the years, the methods of instruction have changed dramatically, officers say.