SDF now targets 15-year-old boys

The Self-Defense Forces are carrying on a recruitment campaign among
junior-high school students in Saitama Prefecture, located next to Tokyo.

Students in the third year of junior-high schools at this time of year
are nervous about deciding what to do after they graduate at the end of next
March, whether to go on to high school or get jobs.

The SDF Saitama Regional Office has sent direct mail to male students in
the third year of municipal junior-high schools in the prefecture to supply
recruitment information for Ground, Maritime, and Air SDFs, said Akahata on
November 29.

The information said that SDF officers are qualified as high school
graduates, have guaranteed salaries and lifelong pension, and are given free
clothing, bedclothes, meals, and accommodation.

Such a direct recruitment of the SDF among 15-year-old boys has made
school teachers and parents angry.

The Saitama Prefectural Teachers Union and High School Teachers Union
demanded that the SDF recruitment be stopped on the grounds that the SDF,
the existence of which is unconstitutional, are not allowed to influence
public school education and hunt for school children. (end)