Print ISSN 2433-4189 / Online ISSN 2433-4197

グローバルセキュリティセミナー叢書

第３号

GLOBAL SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES NO. 3

Gender, Diversity, and Military Leadership
Development in Norway and Japan
A Preliminary Seminar on Socio-cultural
Backgrounds and Current Issues

Coedited by
Glenn-Egil Torgersen, Ole Boe and Hitoshi Kawano

防衛大学校先端学術推進機構
グローバルセキュリティセンター

© National Defense Academy, Japan Ministry of Defense
1-10-20 Hashirimizu, Yokosuka, 239-8686 JAPANGlobal Security Seminar Series No.3

Gender, Diversity, and Military Leadership
Development in Norway and Japan
A Preliminary Seminar on Socio-cultural Backgrounds
and Current Issues

Coedited by
Glenn-Egil Torgersen, Ole Boe and Hitoshi Kawano

March 2019

Center for Global Security, National Defense Academy
Yokosuka, Japani

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
Glenn-Egil Torgersen, Ole Boe and Hitoshi Kawano

1

CHAPTER 1
Glenn-Egil Torgersen Competence for the Unforeseen – Diversity and Samhandling
5
CHAPTER 2
Roennaug Holmoey

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security
at the Norwegian Military Academy in Oslo

13

CHAPTER 3
Ole Boe

Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selectionof Officers

26

CHAPTER 4
Hitoshi Kawano

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan SelfDefense Forces

41

CHAPTER 5
Hisanori Fukada

Gender Issues and Initiatives in the Japan Ground SelfDefense Force: A Commander’s Viewpoint

54

CHAPTER 6
Junko Furuta

Gender Equality and Leadership in the Japan Air Self-Defense
Force

66

SEMINAR PROGRAM

73

CONTRIBUTORS

74
ii

GLOBAL SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES

Global Security Seminar Series is published occasionally by the Center for Global
Security.

The Center designs series of international seminars and other independent

seminars.

This series consists of the working papers of these seminars.

The views

expressed in this publication are solely of the authors, and do not necessarily represent
those of the institutions or governments of the authors.

Copyright ©2017 by National Defense Academy of Japan.

Published by the Center for

Global Security, Institute for Advanced Studies, National Defense Academy, Yokosuka,
JAPAN.
iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank all of the presenters and participants in the seminar, including
Hiromi Takashima, Vice Admiral (Ret.), Maritime Self-Defense Force, Misa Nakagawa,Colonel, GSDF, Akiji Watamori, Colonel, ASDF, Yukari Yoshida, Colonel, ASDF,
Hiroko Takigawa, Commander, MSDF, Ken Nakabayashi, Japan Peacekeeping Training
and Research Center (JPC), Joint Staff College, and Takeshi Watanabe, National Institutefor Defense Studies (NIDS).

We also thank Eiko Iwata of NIDS for her assistance inpreparing for the joint-project, and Chizu Kurita, Colonel, GSDF, for encouraging us formaking the joint-application for the NATO SPS program, when she was working in the
Office of the Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security at the NATO
Headquater in Burussels in 2015. In addition, we are deeply grateful to Mari Skåre,former NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security,
for supporting our joint-efforts, or “Samhandling,” in the process of making this firstcollaboration between Norway and Japan.
would never have taken place.

iv

Without her encouragement, this seminar

Editors’ Introduction

1

EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION1

Many North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members and partner countries havepolicies and action plans in place to ensure that their defense and security-related
institutions are promoting cooperation, gender equality, diversity and implementing
United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 adopted in 2000, and related
Resolutions thereafter. All NATO members and partner nations who are members of theEuro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), as well as Afghanistan, Australia, Japan,
Jordan, New Zealand and United Arab Emirates stand behind the NATO/EACP Policy
and Action Plan. Since the first NATO/ EAPC Policy on Women, Peace and Security
was adopted in 2007, and subsequent adoption of Action Plan in 2010, NATO continued
its efforts to update policies and action plans in 2014, and most recently in 20182.
The 2014 NATO/EAPC Action Plan aimed to achieve the two Strategic Outcomes: 1)
Reduced barriers for the active and meaningful participation of Women in NATO’s, Allies’
and partners’ defense and security institutions, and within NATO-led operations, missions
and crisis management, and 2) Women, Peace and Security priorities and a gender
perspective are integrated in policies, activities and efforts under-taken by NATO, Allies
and partners to prevent and resolve conflicts. It also recognizes that in order to advanceand implement UNSCR 1325 and related Resolutions as well as the NATO/EAPC Policy,
demonstrated leadership is absolutely key 3 . In order to reach this outcome, NATOInternational Staff and NATO Military Authorities are to ensure that performance review
systems, including appropriate training, address managers’ ability to integrate Women,
Peace and Security priorities in their portfolios, including their ability to promote
improved gender balance and a respectful and safe working environment, and to establish
informal networks of key leaders that can instigate changes in institutional mind-sets and1

This introduction includes the original texts prepared by Ambassador Mari Skåre and SeniorLecturer Rønnaug Holmøy at the initial stage of our joint-application for the NATO Science for
Peace and Security (SPS) Workshop project.
2 See NATO/EAPC Action Plan for the Implementation of the NATO/EAPC Policy on Women Peaceand Security, 2014. https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdft_2016_07/160718-wpsaction-plan.pdf. It was further updated in 2018, see NATO/EAPC Women, Peace and Security Policy
and Action Plan 2018.
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_2018_09/20180920_180920-WPS-ActionPlan-2018.pdf
3NATO/EAPC Action Plan for the Implementation of the NATO/EAPC Policy on Women Peace andSecurity, p. 2.

2

Editors’ Introduction

behaviors4. In addition, addressing diversity and cooperation among NATO members
will be important. One of NATO’s and its partners overarching aims is to yield a change
in mind-sets and behaviors in their institutions and promote awareness and positivechanges. Personal attitudes as well as the competences of the individual leader on
gender equality and on gender roles are determining factors for the institution’s ability todeliver results. Continued progress and change in institutional behaviors require an
approach focused on altering perspectives and enhancing skillsets of the leaders.
The 2018 NATO/EAPC Policy and Action Plan further updated its strategic outlook withthe framework of 3 I’s: 1) Integration - making sure that gender equality is considered as
an integral part of NATO policies, programs and projects guided by effective gendermainstreaming practices; 2) Inclusiveness- promoting an increased representation of
women across NATO and in national forces to enhance operational effectiveness andsuccess; and 3) Integrity- enhancing accountability with the intent to increase awarenessand implementation of the WPS agenda in accordance with international frameworks5.
NATO members and partner countries have over the past years actively pursued stronger
collaboration on issues relating to women, peace and security. This seminar report is a
result of joint collaboration between researchers at the National Defense Academy ofJapan and the Norwegian Defence University College. Japan has, at the highest level,
identified women, peace and security as a key priority in its collaboration with NATO andhas since 2014 provided a person (Voluntary National Contribution) to the Office of theSpecial Representative for Women, Peace and Security. Norway has a long-standing
record in promoting gender equality and women, peace and security priorities.
Since 2015, there has been an expressed interest from both NATO, Norway and Japan tocontinue to develop the collaboration on gender, diversity, risk, peace and security with afocus on activities that will have a practical impact and support the continued mobilisationof ability and will to deliver changes within the institutions. In preparation for a jointproject of a NATO Science for Peace and Security Advanced Research Workshop to beheld in 2018, we conducted a preliminary international seminar on “Gender, Diversity,and Leadership Development” hosted by the Center for Global Security, National Defense
Academy, Yokosuka, Japan, on November 28, 2017. The seminar was to share basic
information and enhance mutual understanding of different socio-cultural backgrounds
4
5

Ibid.
NATO/EAPC Women Peace and Security Policy and Action Plan 2018, p.7.

Editors’ Introduction

3

surrounding the military institutions in Norway and Japan. Chapters included in thisreport are based on presentations made at the seminar.
In Chapter 1, “Competence for the Unforeseen – Diversity and Samhandling,” GlennEgil Torgersen proposes a new theoretical framework for effectively understanding
complex competence and skill-sets required for dealing with “the unforeseen” situation.
He calls it Samhandling in Norwegian, or “Interaction” in English, which means “an open
and mutual communication and development between participants, who develop skills
and complement each other in terms of expertise, either directly, face-to-face, or mediatedby technology or by hand power. It involves working towards common goals.” Hisargument is further elaborated in publication of his edited book, Interaction:‘Samhandling’ Under Risk, in 20186.
In Chapter 2, “Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the former
Norwegian Military Academy in Oslo,” Rønnaug Holmøy shares her experiences fromarranging a seminar on the topic Women, Peace and Security at the former Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo from 2009 to 2013/2015, as well as some reflections on genderand diversity dilemmas at the Norwegian Defence University College (NDUC).
In Chapter 3, “Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers,”
Ole Boe argues that, with various empirical evidence, character strengths have beenshown to be a relevant tool for leadership education and selection of Norwegian military
officers. The Character Strengths Questionnaire (CSQ) has proved itself to be valid forfinding out which character strengths are important for officers. He also suggests that
the Observation of Character Strengths in Field (OBSCIF) has been found to be a valid
instrument for predicting performance in officer cadets.
In Chapter 4, “Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense
Forces,” Hitoshi Kawano reviews the historical process of gender policy development inJapan for the last two decades, while showing long terms trends in changing socio-cultural
structure of labor force and households in contemporary Japan. Understanding thesechanging socio-cultural backgrounds is necessary for explaining why Japan Self-Defense
Forces are updating gender policies and promoting gender mainstreaming.
In Chapter 5, “Gender Issues and Initiatives in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Forces

6

Glenn-Egil Torgersen, ed., Interaction: ‘Samhandling’ Under Risk, Oslo, Cappelen Damm, 2018.

4

Editors’ Introduction(JGSDF): A Commander’s View,” Colonel Hisanori Fukada, GSDF, shares his
experiences as a commander of GSDF units, and offers some practical solutions forgender issues involving some male and female GSDF personnel.
underlines importance of initiatives by a Commanding Officer.

Col. Fukada

In Chapter 6, “Gender Equality and Leadership in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force,”
Lieutenant Colonel Junko Furuta, ASDF, described operational characteristics of Air
Self-Defense Force, and changing working situations for female ASDF personnel andorganizational challenges for maintaining readiness and promoting diversity. Lt. Col
Furuta also emphasizes the importance of leadership of commanders at all levels, and inparticular, the top leaders’ visible commitment to diversity management.

Glenn-Egil Torgersen and Ole Boe
Norwegian Defence University College andUniversity of South-Eastern Norway

Hitoshi Kawano
National Defense Academy

Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

5

CHAPTER 1

Competence for the Unforeseen — Diversity and Samhandling*

Glenn-Egil Torgersen
Norwegian Defence University College

WHAT IS “DIVERSITY”?
There are several definitions and approaches to the term "Diversity".

The understandingof diversity in organizations (and the very purpose of the concept) has also changed
throughout history in conjunction with the development of society 1 . A meta study
conducted by Jayne and Dipboye about how organizations define and use the term
diversity showed that the vast majority of definitions are not general and theoreticallyanchored, but normative and designed in practical terms adapted to one´s own
organization and workplace2.
Also common is that the descriptions of diversity often list different concrete
characteristics, or variables, either related to the type of competence or to the human being* The author wishes to thank Associate Professor Trygve Steiro at the Norwegian University of
Science and Technology for valuable help with the language elements of this work. The views
expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent any official position held by the
Norwegian Armed Forces.
1

J. Brown, Inclusion: Diversity, The New Workplace & The Will to Change, Hartford, Publish Your
Purpose Press, 2017; S. Thiederman, The Diversity and Inclusion Handbook, TX, The walk the talkcompany, 2012; K. A. Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a world of strangers, New York, W.W.
Norton & Company, 2006; M. E. MorBarak, Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive
Workplace, Thousand Oaks, Sage, 2005; M. S. Stockdale & F. J. Crosby, eds., The psychology andmanagement of workplace diversity, Malden, MA, Blackwell, 2004; S. Jackson, A. Joshi & N. Erhadt,“Recent research on team and organizational diversity: SWOT analysis and implications”, Journal ofManagement, 29(6), 2003, pp. 801-830; K. Y. Williams & C. A. O’Reilly, “Demography anddiversity in organizations: A review of 40 years of research”, Research in Organizational Behavior,
20, 1998, pp. 77-140; T. H. Cox Jr., Cultural diversity in organizations: Theory, research and practice,
San Francisco, Berrett–Koehler, 1994.
2
M. E. A. Jayne & R. L. Dipboye, “Leveraging diversity to improve business performance: researchfindings and recommendations for organizations”, Human Resource Management, 43(4), 2004, pp.
409-424.

6

Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

and on cultural backgrounds. These are further organized in different groups or strata.
The core of the definitions is that they often focus two or more main groups of properties
and connect diversity to inclusion. For example, the organization Sempra Energy
expresses this as follows3:
When we talk about diversity at Sempra Energy, we mean more than race, age,sexual orientation, and gender.

We believe that diversity includes:•

Human diversity, characterized by our employees’ physical differences,personal preferences, or life experiences.

•

Cultural diversity, characterized by different beliefs, values, and personal
characteristics.

•

Systems diversity, characterized by the organizational structure andmanagement systems in a workplace.

In terms of characteristics, it is also often distinguished between "visible" and "invisible"
diversity. An example of it is described in The Norwegian official strategic competence
policy document for (the whole) defense sector, Competence for a New Age:
Diversity “is about having a varied staff composition with regard to both visible
and invisible differences. Visible diversity refers to variables such as gender,
ethnicity, age and physical capabilities…Invisible variables refer to factors suchas education, experiences, sexual orientation, religion, mindset, competence,social or geographical background (my translation) 4.”
The purpose of focusing on, and facilitating for, diversity in organizations has been toadapt skills and labor in line with the overall development of society 5 . Technology
development and increasing digitalisation in society have led to an increasing degree ofinteraction between organizations and nations 6 , ie. globalization. This, in turn, has
3

Ibid.
FD, “Kompetanse for en ny tid [Competence for a new age]”, Meld. St. 14, Oslo, Det Kongelige
Forsvars department [The Royal Department of Defense], Official document, 2012-13, p. 24.
5
J. Brown, Inclusion: Diversity, The New Workplace & The Will to Change, Hartford, Publish Your
Purpose Press. 2017; T. Kochan, K. Bezrukova, R. Ely, S. Jackson, A. Joshi, K. Jehn, et al., “Theeffects of diversity on business performance: Report of the diversity research network”, Human
Resource Management”, Vol. 42, 2003, pp. 3-21; M. E. A. Jayne & R. L. Dipboye, “Leveraging
diversity to improve business performance: research findings and recommendations for organizations”.
6
Cf. cross-cultural management and interaction. I. Nonaka and H. Takeuchi, The KnowledgeCreating Company, New York, Oxford University Press, 1995.
4

Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

7

created a need for greater focus on diversity as a phenomenon. To be competitive
diversity is needed in competence(s). The same goes for defense organizations.
Furthermore, a defense organization needs to be prepared to cope with serious andcomplicated unforeseen events, challenges that are not known or trained for in advance7.
It places particularly high demands on diversity in both competence, mindset, learningand interactivity ('samhandling'), as an important part of the "fighting force". In orderto prevent, meet and recover from such events, management, planning and practicalmeasures are needed to ensure that the organization as a whole has the necessary skills
and capabilities for this. In other words, special insight into diversity is required as aform of discipline and practical knowledge as to how this can be strategically developedin the organization.

COMPETENCE FOR THE UNFORESEEN – DIVERSITY AND SAMHANDLING
Difference and variety in competence i.e., diversity, is necessary for complex task
solutions and handling unforeseen events. The Unforeseen: UnFs is defined as:
Something that occurs relatively unexpected and relatively low probability or
predictability for those who experience and must deal with it (short def.) 8.
Diversity provides adaptability. Competence diversity requires new methods forstrategic leadership, recruitment and selection. Samhandling is required both to gain
diversity in organizations, and to exploit the potential in diversity as competence.
Samhandling as a relational phenomenon has wider relational ambitions compared withsimilarly relational processes i.e., integrating insights from communications, cooperation,
coordination and collaboration (Figure 1). ‘Samhandling’, is a Norwegian term that
connotes interaction, collaboration, cooperation and coordination in one word. A
7

G. E. Torgersen, “The Idea of a Military Pedagogical Doctrine”, In: T. Kvernbekk, H. Simpson,&
M. A. Peters, eds., Military Pedagogie, And Why They Matter, Rotterdam, Sense Publishers, 2008; O.
Boe & G. E. Torgersen, “Norwegian ‘Digital Border Defense’ and Competence for the Unforeseen:
A Grounded Theory Approach,” Frontiers in Psychology, 9(555). doi: org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00555
2018; G. E. Torgersen, ed., Interaction: ‘Samhandling’ under Risk. A Step Ahead of the Unforeseen,
Oslo, Cappelen Damm Akademisk/NOASP, 2018.
https://press.nordicopenaccess.no/index.php/noasp/catalog/book/36
8G. E.Torgersen, ed., Pedagogikk for det uforutsette [Pedagogy for the Unforeseen], Oslo/Bergen,
Fagbokforlaget, 2015.

8

Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

definition developed by Torgersen & Steiro9is:Samhandling is an open and mutual communication and development between
participants, who develop skills and complement each other in terms of expertise,either directly, face-to-face, or mediated by technology or by hand power. It
involves working toward common goals.
The relationship between
participants at any given time relies on trust, involvement, rationality and trade
knowledge.
However, our analysis shows that “interaction” is the nearest construct that covers theNorwegian term of samhandling10.

9G. E. Torgersen & T. J. Steiro, Ledelse, samhandling og opplœring i fleksible organisasjoner[Leadership, Smhandling and Education in Flexible Organizations], Stjørdal, Lœringsforlaget, 2009,quoted in G. E. Torgersen & T. J. Steiro, “Defining the Term Samhandling”, G. E. Torgersen ed.,Interaction: ‘Samhandling’ Under Risk, A Step Ahead of the Unforeseen, Oslo, Cappelen Damm
Akademisk,
2018,
p.
44.
doi:
https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.36.ch2.
https://press.nordicopenaccess.no/index.php/noasp/catalog/book/36
10Torgensen & Steiro, Ledelse, samhandling og opplœring i fleksible organisasjoner; Torgensen,
Interaction: ‘Samhandling’ Under Risk.

Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

9

Figure 1: The 4’Cs pyramid

Source: G. E. Torgersen, ed., Interaction: ‘Samhandling’ under Risk. A Step Ahead of the Unforeseen, 2018, p. 46.

The construct of samhandling [Interaction] in general, and primarily under predictable
and safe conditions, is identified by 15 key, underlying processes (indicators) that areimportant for effective samhandling [interaction], based on experiences from ten varietiesof businesses and theoretical approaches in Norway11.

11

Ibid., p. 157f, Figure 2.

10Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

Figure 2: 15 key, underlying processes (indicators) of Samhandling, generally

But, under unpredictable, unforeseen and risk-oriented conditions it is necessary to placeemphasis on specific underlying relational processes (indicators), derived by Torgersen12.
See Figure 3.

12 G. E. Torgersen, ed., Interaction: ‘Samhandling’ under Risk. A Step Ahead of the Unforeseen.

Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

11

Figure 3: Key underlying processes (indicators) of Samhandling Under Risk13

FURTHER RESEARCH: NETWORK UNFS-GROUP OF NORWAY AND JAPAN
Perhaps there are important details and nuances in these phenomena and related concepts
stemming from culture, language and experience. These must be identified anddeveloped. It can make the theories, models and practices even more accurate andcorrect. It is the concrete content of the concepts that are important- not least in their13

Ibid, p. 527.

12

Chapter 1

Competence for the Unforeseen － Diversity and Samhandling (Torgersen)

importance for practical training14. It can be the starting point for developing a newintercontinental/cultural scientific model of unforeseen (UnFs), diversity (D) andsamhandling (SAM)15. Research such as this, in the spirit of samhandling, will also benecessary in order to develop wider understanding of the concept of diversity – as acompetence tool for handling unforeseen events.

14

Ibid. and G. E. Torgersen, “The Idea of a Military Pedagogical Doctrine”, T. Kvernbekk, H.

Simpson, & M. A. Peters, eds., Military Pedagogies. And Why They Matter. Rotterdam, Sense
Publishers, 2008.
15

See the part “Japanese expression of samhandling under risk,” in G. E. Torgersen, ed., Interaction:‘Samhandling’ under Risk. A Step Ahead of the Unforeseen, 2018, pp. 532-535.

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

13

CHAPTER 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security
at the Norwegian Military Academy in Oslo

Rønnaug Holmøy
NDUC/ Norwegian Military Academy

INTRODUCTION
This paper was originally developed as a part of my presentation at the seminar“Gender, Diversity, and Leadership Development”, at the National Defense Academy in
Yokosuka, Japan on November 28, 2017. Presenters from both Norway and Japan wereinvited to participate in the seminar.
As the focus for the seminar was to share understanding of the current situation withineach country’s military organizations, this paper will reflect diversity dilemmas fromthose parts of the military organization in Norway this author is connected to. First andforemost, experiences from arranging the seminar on the topic “Women, Peace andSecurity” at the former Norwegian Military Academy in Oslo (from 2009 – 2013/2015).
In addition, some reflections are provided on gender and diversity dilemmas at the
Norwegian Defense University College (NDUC).
The paper will start with some main questions and challenges related to “Gender,
Diversity and Leadership Development” and some Norwegian milestones on the topic.

A MAIN QUESTION – AND SOME MILESTONES ON THE TOPIC
Should women have the “right” to serve in combat units?

According to Marius

Kristiansen, a young officer from the Norwegian Armed Forces, this could never be theright question to ask. The appropriate question would be whether a mixed distribution

14

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)of gender adds value to military organizations and enhances its effectiveness - or not1?
Kristiansen argues that since half the world’s population is composed of women, militaryorganizations – and especially the Special Operations Forces (SOF) - would not beutilizing their full potential without having women integrated within them. The future
calls for military organizations that – in addition to fighting in a relevant manner – areable to communicate with, understand, relate to, and influence a population as a whole2.
The Norwegian Government's Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security (last version
2019-2022) is a tool for achieving the aims of the UN Security Council resolutions on thesubject. This will be achieved through cooperation with the UN, NATO, regional andnational actors, and civil society.
As women have the right to take part in decision-making processes that affect their own
future, the Norwegian Government seeks to increase women’s participation and influencein processes relating to peace and security. “Moreover, we know that if womenparticipate, we can achieve a broader-based and more sustainable peace. By taking partin international operations, women can supply vital expertise and diversity and help toimprove performance. It is therefore essential to integrate a gender perspective into
Norway’s efforts”3.
MILESTONES ON THE TOPIC
NATO is already at the forefront of the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and related
resolutions. However, there are many obstacles for implementing established policies
and action plans, and one important question seems to be: how can we stimulate leadersand develop the skill and mind-sets – the type of leadership – that is required to ensure
implementation of policies on women, peace and security?
There might be a need to target leaders at the strategic, institutional level and develop
tools that will enhance their skills promoting gender equality and implementing women,
1

Marius Kristiansen, “Women: A NATO Special Operations Forces Force Multiplier”, Small Wars
Journal, 24 May 2017. https://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/women-nato-special-operationsforces-force-multiplier
2
Ibid.
3
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security
2015-2018”, 2015. https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/women-peace-security/id2395993/

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

15

peace and security priorities within their institutions.
Norway seems to have moved fast to break down military gender barriers. The
parliament introduced legislation in the 1980s that opened up all military roles to women,
and Norway became the first NATO country to introduce female conscription in 2016.
Lieutenant Silje Johansen Willassen is Norway's Telemark Battalion's first female tankcommander. Norway also had the world´s first all-Female Special Forces unit in 2016.
The unit was started after Norway’s Armed Forces' Special Commander saw anincreased need for female special operations soldiers – particularly in places like
Afghanistan where male troops were forbidden from communicating with women 4 .
The commander of Norway's special forces, Col. Frode Kristoffersen, stated that when
[Norway] deployed to Afghanistan the unit saw that they needed female soldiers: both asfemale advisors for the Afghan special police unit that we mentored, but also when they
performed an arrest. As they clearly needed female soldiers to take care of the womenand children in the buildings that were searched, they created the all-female unit
specifically designed to train them5. Furthermore, since a more balanced gender mix in
the Norwegian contributions could ensure better mission solving, it may also have an
important symbolic effect in the host country.
In 2012, NATO established a position – Special Representative for Women, Peace andSecurity – which, for the first two years, was funded by Norway. Norway has also
advocated closer cooperation between NATO and international and regional organizations
such as EU, UN, AU and OSCE in crisis management. The Women, Peace and Security
agenda is thereby a natural component of any exchange of experience and cooperation inthis area, and could act as a catalyst for closer cooperation across the whole spectrum ofcrisis management.
During the 2014 NATO Summit in Wales, a new initiative was launched to strengthen
support for capacity building in the defense sector in both partner countries and nonpartner countries. The resolutions on women, peace and security are thereby also very
important to capacity building efforts and security sector reform6.

4

Carlo Angerer, “Inside the World’s First All-Female Special Forces Unit: Norway’s Jegertroppen”,
NBC News, April 16, 2017. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/inside-world-s-first-all-femalespecial-forces-unit-norway-n746041
5
Ibid.
6
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security
2015-2018”, 2015, p. 25.

16

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

EXPERIENCES FROM ARRANGING A SEMINAR ON THE TOPIC WOMEN,PEACE AND SECURITY AT THE FORMER NORWEGIAN MILITARY ACADEMY(FROM 2009 – 2013/2015)
Both research reports and international experience show that both sexes are needed ascombat force personnel in today's defense structures. The main reason is not necessarily
gender equality policy. Equally important is the ability to realize that diversity in skills
is needed to meet unforeseen events and complex forms of cooperation, both in conflictand not least to help avoid conflict if possible. For some years the author of this paper
was responsible for integrating Gender to the Leadership Education and teaching programat the Norwegian Military Academy. The topic had to be connected to the UN
Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security7. In addition, the Norwegian
Government further formulated action plans on this topic8. For five years, during theperiod 2009-2014/15, the Academy arranged seminars in alignment with the informationand documents mentioned above. Together, it all formed part of the Leadership
Education9 program.
For the seminars the overall goals were identified as:- Knowledge of gender issues and the UN Resolution 1325
- Opportunities and implications such understanding brings in the peace support
operations10.
The following subsection explores one example from the 2010 seminar, related questions,and exercises conducted for improvement of the students understanding and learning.

7

The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000)[on women and peace and security].
http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/1325.
8Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “The Norwegian Government’s Action Plan for SCR 1325
(2000) on Women, Peace and Security”, March 2016.
https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/upload/kilde/ud/pla/2006/0002/ddd/pdfv/279831actionplan_resolution1325.pdf; “Women, Peace and Security – Norway’s strategic plan 2011-13”,
February 21, 2011.
https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/1325_strategic_plan/id631062/;“National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security 2015-2018”; Norwegian Government, “Women,
Peace and security (2019-2022)”, January 11, 2019.
https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/plan_wps/id2625029/
9
After 2013 Gender and Diversity dilemmas is not a specific topic in a specific class or seminar but
more or less a natural part of the education process in general.
10
Norwegian Military Academy, Studiehåndbok 2009-2010, 2009.

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

17

MINI-SEMINAR ON UN RESOLUTION 1325 AND PROTECTION OF CIVILLIANS AT THE
NORWEGIAN MILITARY ACADEMY 30TH APRIL 2010
Goals / Purpose
The seminar was conducted in semester four of the studies in Military Leadership.
A combination of speeches from invited lecturers and a Q&A session with the audience
was undertaken. The purpose of the seminar was to consider and reflect on challenges
regarding the implementation of the UN Resolution 1325, asking questions such as:- What would the future officers need to be prepared for?
- How far had the work come, generally and especially from the Norwegian side?
The overall objectives of the seminar were:
1) Knowledge of UN Resolution 1325 – the opportunities and implications thisbrings into peace support operations.
2) A conscious awareness in the practice of military leadership in various types ofoperations in Norway and abroad.
Knowledge on the topic
The cadets were at that time familiar with concepts concerning Peace Support Operations
and Counterinsurgency. They were also familiar with the main issues of UN and NATO
activities, including UN’s basic concepts, ideas as well as challenges related to war andarmed conflicts. With regard to the UN Resolution 1325, this was introduced to thegroup through this seminar.
The seminar also focused upon sexual violence and the protection of civilians (including
the UN resolutions 1820 and 1888), arising as a natural consequence of working withresolution 1325. The cadets also had some knowledge about the concept 'Responsibility
to Protect’.
The following table shows the focus of each lecture.

18

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

Plan and program
Time

Activity

Explanations

Responsible

08:0011:20

PART 1:

08:0008:10

Introduction- Introduction to the seminar

Sen
Lecturer
RønnaugHolmøy08:10–
09:10

Lecture, including Focus:
Operational Effectiveness and UN
questions
Resolution 1325 – Lessons fromDr.
LouiseOlsson, Folke
Bernadotte

Afghanistan: The most important

Academyconclusions.

09:1010:10

Lecture, including The role as a gender advisor in the Capt.
questions
Norwegian PRT, Afghanistan Meyer

Joakimsummer/fall 200910:1010:20

Break

10:2011:20

Lecture, including Conflict-related Sexual Violence: Letitia
questions
A Threat to Security and Anderson,
Impediment to Peacebuilding’
Advocacy and
Women’s Rights
Specialists UN Action

11:20
12:00

– Lunch12:0014:00

PART 2:

12:0013:00

Lecture, including Focus: ‘U.S. Marine Corps Female Major
Anita
questions
Engagement Teams: A Pragmatic Carroll, Hærens
Approach to Operationalizing Våpenskole /Gender’U.S.
MarineCorps

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

13:0013:15

Break

13:1513:50

Discussion

19

With coffee and pastries
Senior Lecturer
RønnaugHolmøyEXAMPLES OF PREPARATION AND WRITTEN EXERCISES CONNECTED WITH THE
SEMINARS

1) "Taking a gender perspective means taking into account that women and men in a
conflict area experience the conflict differently. Women and men would often holddifferent information and situational understanding, which require the military operations
to be adapted to these realities."
The quote is from The Norwegian Prop. 1 S (2009-2010) Prop to the Government, p. 95.
•

Please explain what you understand with by term “Gender Advisor” and how you
see that a Gender Advisor could work in a military operation?

2) The main objective for this subject in semester 4 is:“Knowledge of gender issues and UN Resolution 1325 - what opportunities andimplications does this bring into peace support operations?”•

Please try to analyze and discuss how you believe it would be possible toimplement the gender perspective into peace support operations.

3) At our seminar on April 30, Dr. Louise Olsson will present the main conclusions fromher work on the report “Operational Effectiveness”.

Please see the reading list.

Please review the selected chapters in the report and consider the following:•

What do you think are the most important conclusions in the report?

•

What are your thoughts after reading the report from Norway and Sweden andwhat would it mean for you as a future military leader?

4) One speaker represents the U.S. Marine Corps on the topic “Female Engagement

20

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

Teams (FET)”.
•

What do you understand by this concept? Please prepare at least two points fromthe report that you consider interesting with regard to the seminar on the 30th ofApril.

BASIC INFORMATION – GIVEN TO THE STUDENTS BEFORE THE SEMINARS
Resolution 1325 (2000) adopted by the Security Council October 2000
- Expresses concern that civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast
majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict, including as refugees andinternally displaced persons, and increasingly are targeted by combatants and armed
elements.
- Recognizes the consequent impact this has on durable peace and reconciliation.
- Reaffirms the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts andin Peace building, stressing the importance of their equal participation and full
involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security.
Furthermore the need to increase their role in decision-making with regards to conflict
prevention and resolution.
- Reaffirms the need to implement fully international humanitarian and human rights lawthat protect the rights of women and girls during and after conflicts.
The Norwegian Government action plan: 2006.
The Government's Action Plan for Implementation of Resolution 1325, (On Women,
Peace and Security), was launched in 2006 to ensure that the agenda was integrated into
all the design and implementation processes of Norwegian policy related to peace andsecurity.
The action plan was updated with:
Women, Peace and Security - Norway's strategic plan 2011-13
This new strategic plan intended to put Norway in a better position to enhance women’s
influence and participation and strengthen the protection of women during armed
conflicts. It provided a framework for ensuring that Security Council resolution 1325
was integrated into all our peace and security efforts.
https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/1325_strategic_plan/id631062/

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

21

In February 2015, Norway's third national action plan for women, peace and security
was launched. (2015-2018). The new action plan provides a basis for the departments'
joint efforts for the pursuit of ambitions in Security Council resolutions. The Ministry ofForeign Affairs has also developed a supervisor for work on women, peace and security.
https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/women-peace-security/id2395993/
Research report from May 2009Louise Olsson & Johan Tejpar, eds., “Operational Effectiveness and UN Resolution
1325 - Practices and Lessons from Afghanistan”.
The report holds interviews from the PRT Autumn 2008 / Spring 2009 and concluded on:1) The importance for one comprehensive strategy on how the resolution could be
integrated.
2) The importance of keeping leaders responsible for the integration of the resolution.
3) Giving experts the opportunity to work on its integration.
Of particular interest to Norway:- It was (at that time) found that there was low knowledge of 1325 (among both civilian
and military).
- Insufficient information and knowledge of 1325 with regard to the specific training plans.
It was also described as one-sided.
NATO directive:
The conclusions of the report gave the foundation for NATO's 2009 policy document BISC Directive 40-1 (updated in 2012). The directive covers Integration of the UNSCR
1325 and Gender Perspectives in the NATO Command Structures, including Protection
during Armed Conflict.
The three main areas are found in Prop 1. S (2009-2010)
1) Call for increased gender perspective throughout the ISAF operation.
Which means…
2) Increased focus on the leaders’ responsibilities
3) Need for expert competence re., gender in the field.
The term Gender perspective, as stated in Prop 1. S (2009-2010)
Gender perspective is meant to understand and take into account the fact that women and22

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

men in a conflict area experience the conflict differently. Women and men would often
hold different information and situational understandings, which require military
operations to be adapted to these realities. It can be done through more systematic
contact between/within groups of both sexes, daily patrols and other targeted actions.
There is a significant operational gain from such an approach. Focusing on the entire
locals in an operating area gives effectiveness in terms of better understanding of thesituation, acceptance, strengthening of protection of human rights and social development(Ref. p. 95)
EXAMPLE OF THE STUDY FOLDER/SYLLABUS FOLDER

Military Leadership – Syllabus, Semester 4, Spring 2010.
BI-SC Directive 40-1 (2009) Integrating UNSCR 1325 and Gender Perspectives in theNATO Command Structure including Measures for Protection during armed
conflict. NATO Unclassified 14 sider
Capstick M.D (2000) Command and Leadership in other people’s War. I: McCain, Carol& Pigeau Ross (red) The Human in Command: Exploring the modern military
experience. New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers. kap. 7. side 83–92
10 siderCordesman, Anthony H (2009) Afghan National Security Forces: Shaping Host Country
Forces as Part of Armed Nation Building. Washington DC: Center for Strategic &International Studies (Review Draft: November 04, 2009) Executive Summary(page ii - xi) + page 1-23, 54-68 50 sider
Dallaire R.A (2000) Command Experiences in Rwanda I: McCain, Carol & Pigeau Ross(red) The Human in Command; Exploring the modern military experience. New
York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers. kap. 4. side 29–50. 21 sider
de Coning, Cedric (2009) Implications of a Comprehensive or Integrated Approach forTraining in United Nations and African Union Peace Operations. Security in
Practice 6, Oslo: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. S. 1-6 6 sider
FM 3-24 (2006) Counterinsurgency Washington: Headquarters of the Army. kap 7,
Leadership and ethics for Counterinsergency. 10 sider
Friis, Karsten; Jarmyr, Pia (2008) Comprehensive Approach Challenges andChapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

23

opportunities in complex crises management. Oslo: Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutts. 10–20. =10 sider
Haaland, Torunn Laugen (2008) Participation in Peace Support Operations for Small
Countries: The Case of Norway. I: Stamnes, Eli (red) Peace Support Operations
Nordic Perspectives. London: Routledge. Kap. 4. side 45–61.16 sider
Johnson, B H; Eid, J; Laberg, J. C; Bartone, P; Andersen, R (2005). Internasjonale
Operasjoner I: Eid, Jarle & Johnson, Bjørn Helge (red) Operativ psykologi Bergen:
Fagbokforlaget, kap 21. side 368–388 20 sider
Jolly, R; Emmerij, L. and Weiis, T.G. (2009) UN Ideas That Changed the World United
Nations Intellectual History Project. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press,
Chapt 10, “Peace and Security: From Preventing State Conflict to Protecting
Individuals”, pp. 163-185. 22 sider
Olsson, Louise & Tejpar, Johan (eds) (2009) Operational Effectiveness and UN
Resolution 1325–Practices and Lessons from Afghanistan; Defence Analysis.
Stockholm: FOI Swedish Defence Research Agency. Side 15-34, 84-126. (Kap 14, 8-11) 61 sider
Stamnes, Eli (2008) Introduction. I: Stamnes, Eli (red) Peace Support Operations Nordic
Perspectives. London: Routledge 9 sider
Wallenius, Claes (1999) Stressreaktioner och prestation i livshotande situationer. I:
Larsson, Gerry (red) Ledarskap under stress. Karlstad: Försvarshögskolan,
Ledarskapsinstitusjonen. kap 4. s. 49–76. 27 sider
Ydstebø, Palle (2009) Kriger eller soldat? Strategiens krav til den militære profesjon I:
Krigerkultur i en fredsnasjon. Edström, H; Lunde, N.T, Haaland, J.M (red.) Oslo:
Abstrakt forlag. s 131-155 24 sider= Total 300 sider

24

Chapter 2

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

From 2015 and beyond
In 2015, The Norwegian Military Academy conducted a meeting in which further focus
on Gender and related challenges / opportunities / implications, were discussed. Todaythe faculty for Military Management and Tactics deals with the topic. While the focus
in general is how Gender, as a contributing factor, influences operational planning at thetactical level, a more specific focus is the teaching that takes place in the subject “LowIntensity Operations”.
Another notable event which occurred in 2015 was that the representatives from theAcademy were invited to the Norwegian Defense University College, “Sjefskurset”.
The invitation included perspectives on how the school delivered education regarding
Gender in operational planning.
“Sjefskurset” gives key personnel in the Norwegian society, as well as armed forces
personnel, understanding and insights on issues that form the basis of Norwegian defense
and security policy. Approximately one third of the attendees are military; the otherparticipants are civilians from the public and private sectors, non-governmentalorganizations and media.
INCREASED AWARENESS ON DIVERSITY DILEMMAS IN THE “NEW” ORGANIZATION: THE
NORWEGIAN DEFENSE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (NDUC)Over the next few years, the Norwegian Armed Forces will be undergoing educational
reform. The Norwegian Military Academy (alongside the Royal Norwegian Air Force
Academy and the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy) has, since the 1st of August 2018,
been a part of the Norwegian Defense University College (NDUC). As the University
College has markedly increased its staff members - the head of NDUC, Rear AdmiralLouise Dedichen invited all the 144 women in the new organization to a day focusing onleadership, career development, and how to increase women's awareness on diversity's
dilemmas at NDUC. The event took place at the 28th of September 2018.
The following topics were explored during the day:• Leadership – how to influence the environment• Master suppression techniques• Career development

Chapter 2•

Reflections from: Teaching on Women, Peace and Security at the Norwegian
Military Academy in Oslo (Holmøy)

25

How to increase awareness on diversity dilemmas

The discussion on master suppression techniques 11 highlighted some very interesting
input from many of the women attending the seminar. High levels officers, as well as
younger female officers and civilians, shared and discussed experiences from situations
they may not have been taken into consideration before. It was Norwegian Professor
Berit Ås12 that developed the theory of master suppression techniques in the late 1970s.
With these tools, women, and others, can identify what goes on when they are not listened
to, when they are overlooked or ignored.
The five master suppression techniques identified13•

Making Invisible••

Ridiculing
Withholding Information••

Damned If You Do And Damned If You Don’t
Heaping Blame and Putting to Shame

People tend to find the framework practical and useful. However, to identify the master
suppression techniques it would be necessary to make them visible and thereby neutralize
their effect. Maybe it is not that you made a poor argument or failed to present a caseproperly: rather, the point is that it may not have anything to do with the individual at all,but with the group membership to which you are allocated by others i.e., as presumed inrelation to your gender14.

11

Berit Ås, “The Five Master Supression Techniques”, Birgitta Evengård, ed., Women in White: The
European Outlook, Stockhlom Country Council, 2004, pp. 78-83; Kvinner i alle land… Håndbok i
frigjøring. Oslo, Aschehoug, 1981; “De fem hersketeknikker–om ufarliggjøring av undertrykkerensvåpen”. Årbog for kvinderet, København, Kvinderetlig Skriftserie, 1979.
12
The “master suppression techniques” is originally a framework developed in 1945 by the
Norwegian psychologist Ingjald Nissen. In the late 1970s the framework was further developed by the
Norwegian psychologist Berit Ås.
13
Ås, “The Five Master Suppression Techniques”.
14
Berit Ås, “The five master suppression techniques”, Kilden genderresearch. No.
http://kjonnsforskning.no/en/five-master-supression-techniques

26

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)CHAPTER 3

Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selectionof Officers*

Ole Boe
University of South-Eastern Norway

INTRODUCTION“I contend that fortitude in war has its roots in morality; that selection is a search forcharacter and that war itself is but one more test – the supreme and final test if you will –of character. Courage can be judged apart from danger only if the social significance andmeaning of courage is known to us; namely that a man of character in peace becomes aman of courage in war. He cannot be selfish in peace and yet be unselfish in war.
Character, as Aristotle taught, is a habit, the daily choice of right and wrong; it is a moral
quality which grows to maturity in peace and is not suddenly developed on the outbreakof war. For war, in spite of what we have heard to the contrary, has no power to transform,
it merely exaggerates the good and evil that are in us, till it is plain for all to read; it cannotchange; it exposes1”.
The basic values of the Norwegian Armed Forces (hereafter NAF): are respect,
responsibility and courage. These values are expected to accompany the officer's
decisions and actions2. The document outlining the Norwegian Chief of Defense's basic
view on leadership in the NAF emphasizes that good leadership is based on mutual
respect and trust between leaders and followers 3 and that leadership is based on* This research work was supported by the Norwegian Defence University College. The author wish
to thank Senior Lecturer Merete Ruud at the former Norwegian Military Academy for valuable help
with the language of this work.
1
Lord Moran, The Anatomy of Courage, Constable and Co Limited, 1966, p. 160.
2
Forsvarets kjerneverdier (The Norwegian Armed Forces core values), 2016.
https://forsvaret.no/fakta/historie-oppdrag-verdier/forsvarets-verdiar/forsvarets-kjerneverdier3
Forsvarsstaben, “FSJ grunnsyn på ledelse i Forsvaret (The Norwegian Armed Forces Chief ofDefence basic view of leadership in the Armed Forces)”, Oslo, The Norwegian Armed Forces Defence
Staff, 2012.

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)27

relationships. The NAF is also a value-based organization that must make sure that its
mandate toward society is professionally sound, both nationally and internationally. The
requirements of the military leader can further be summarized in the words be–know–act,
as described in Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Operational Doctrine4. The officer is
expected to have incorporated the military profession as part of his/her personality, andto have knowledge and understanding of relevant interpersonal and professional areasthat provide action. Action here means to see opportunities, take initiative and inspire
and provide care for the personnel5.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AT THE NORWEGIAN MILITARY ACADEMYThe Norwegian Military Academy: NMA’s new concept for leadership development was
introduced at the NMA together with the new educational plan for operational training
during the summer of 20126. The new leadership development concept is referred to as“Officer development: NMA’s concept for leadership development” and is currently
documented at NMA in terms of an overall concept description for use by staff andcadets7 and in several scientific articles8.
The starting point for officer development at the NMA is based upon the definitions ofleadership and leadership development described in The Center for Creative Leadership
Handbook of Leadership Development9. Leadership is here defined as the process of
4

Forsvarsstaben, “Forsvarets fellesoperative doktrine (Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Operational
Doctrine) ”, Oslo, The Norwegian Armed Forces Defence Staff, 2007.
5
Ibid.
6
H. Lilleng, “Innspill til Krigsskolens Offisersutviklingsmodell (Inputs to the Norwegian Military
Academy ́s concept of officer development model)”, Note to MLT, Norwegian Military Academy,
Oslo, Norway, 2014.
7
O. Boe, L. Eldal, H. Hjortmo, H. Lilleng & O. Kjørstad, Offisersutvikling: NMA konsept forlederutvikling (Officer development: NMAs concept of leadership development), Conceptual
description, Oslo, Department of Military Leadership and Tactics, Norwegian Military Academy,
2014; O. Boe, L. Eldal, H. Hjortmo, A. L. Jensen, T. Holth, O. Kjørstad & F. Nilsen, Offisersutvikling:
NMA konsept for lederutvikling (Officer development: NMAs concept of leadership development),
Oslo, Norwegian Military Academy, 2015.
8
O. Boe, “Developing leadership skills in Norwegian military officers: Leadership proficiencies
contributing to character development and officer competency”, Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, Vol. 186, 2015, pp. 288-292. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.017; O. Boe, “Character inmilitary leaders, officer competency and meeting the unforeseen”, Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences, Vol. 190, 2015, pp. 497-501. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.05.033; O. Boe & H. Hjortmo,“The Norwegian Military Academy’s concept of leadership development”, EDULEARN Proceedings,
2017, pp. 4887-4894.
9C. D. McCauley, E. Van Velsor & M. N. Ruderman, “Introduction: Our view of leadershipdevelopment”, E. Van Velsor, C. D. McCauley & M. N. Ruderman, eds., The Centre for Creative
Leadership Handbook of Leadership development, 3rd ed., San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publications,2010, pp. 1-26.

28

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)producing direction, alignment, and commitment in collectives, and leadershipdevelopment as expanding a person's capacity to be effective in leadership roles andprocesses. Leadership thus revolves around the development of competencies to actuallylead leadership processes by virtue of being in leader roles, both formal and informal.
According to Matthews, successful military personnel must be of high character, theyalso need to be fair and honest in dealing with other 10 . They also need to be both
physically and morally courageous and loyal to their country and to their units.
Competency as an officer is also linked to certain character strengths that are deemednecessary for military officers11.

DEFINING CHARACTER STRENGTHS
Embedded within the relatively new Positive Psychology paradigm, one will find a lot of
research on different character strengths. In 2004, a character strength classification
system was developed. The result was the book “Character Strengths and Virtues”,
classifying 24 specific character strengths sorted under six virtues12. The six virtues arerespectively Wisdom and Knowledge, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, andTranscendence. The six virtues each have a corresponding set of character strengths,
which serve as psychological ingredients or pathways to these virtues. In addition, eachstrength needs to meet most of the following ten criteria: “fulfilling, morally valued, does
not diminish others, has non-felicitous opposites, trait-like, distinctive from otherstrengths, have paragons who exemplify it, has prodigies, selective absence of it in somesituations, and has institutions/rituals to celebrate or express it13”. According to Peterson
and Seligman, these six virtues and 24 character strengths are recognized and valued
across the world14. The Greek philosopher Aristotle has discussed many of the same
virtues in his work, Nicomachean Ethics, indicating that Peterson and Seligman´s work
10

M. D. Matthews, Head strong: How Psychology is Revolutionizing War, Oxford University Press,
New York, USA, 2014.
11
O. Boe, “Leadership development in Norwegian junior military officers: A conceptual frameworkof building mission-solving competency”, Proceedings of the 16th International Military Mental
Health Conference (16IMMHC),2013; O. Boe, “Selecting personnel for high-risk and security jobs,
Why character and character strengths matters”, International Military Testing Association
Presentations 2004-2015, 2015. file:///C:/Users/olboe/Downloads/2015112P.pdf; O. Boe, “Character
strengths and its relevance for military officers”, S. Rawat, ed., Military psychology: International
perspectives, New Delhi, Rawat Publications, 2016, pp. 113-126.
12
C. Peterson & M. E. P. Seligman, Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification,
Oxford University Press, 2004.
13
R. Niemiec, “VIA Character Strengths: Research and Practice (The First 10 Years)”, H. H. Knoop
and A. Delle Fave, eds., Well-Being and Cultures: Perspectives from Positive Psychology, Dordrecht,
Springer, 2013, p. 12.
14
C. Peterson & M. E. P. Seligman, Character strengths and virtues.

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)29

from 2004 is basically a reworking of ancient wisdom and also concepts that are timelessand universal.
Under each virtue, there are thus several character strengths which relate to the specificvirtue. For instance, the virtue Courage entails emotional strengths that involve theexercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal.
Included in this virtue are the character strengths Bravery [valor], Persistence[perseverance, industriousness], Integrity [authenticity, honesty] and Vitality [zest,
enthusiasm, vigor, energy]. Courage is a fundamental aspect for every military officer
when it comes to leading others in dangerous contexts15. Elements of courage have been
said to include self-volition, a worthy goal, and a significant personal risk16. A lot of
research into Peterson and Seligman´s character strength classification system has been
conducted over the past ten years17. Table 1 below gives an overview of the six virtues
and the corresponding 24 character strengths.
Table 1 An overview of the classification of virtues and character strengths, basedon Niemiec18 and Peterson and Seligman19
1. Wisdom and knowledge-cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge
Creativity [originality, adaptivity, ingenuity]
Curiosity [interest, novelty-seeking, exploration, openness to experience]
Open-mindedness [judgment, critical thinking, thinking things through]Love of learning [mastering new skills and topics, systematically adding to knowledge]
Perspective [wisdom, providing wise counsel, taking the big picture view]
2. Courage-emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of
opposition, external or internal
Bravery [valor, not shrinking from fear, speaking up for what’s right]
Persistence [perseverance, industriousness, finishing what one starts]
Integrity [authenticity, honesty, speaking the truth, presenting oneself and acting in a genuine and sincere
way]
Vitality [zest, enthusiasm, vigor, energy, feeling alive and activated]

15

M. D. Matthews, Head strong: How Psychology is Revolutionizing War.
P. B. Lester & C. Pury, “What leaders should know about courage”, P. Sweeney, M. Matthews &P. B. Lester, eds., Leading in dangerous contexts, Naval Institute Press, USA, 2011, pp. 21-39,.
17
See R. Niemiec, “VIA Character Strengths: Research and Practice (The First 10 Years)”, p. 12, foran overview of the research up to 2013.
18
Ibid.
19
C. Peterson & M. E. P. Seligman, Character strengths and virtues.
16

30

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)

3. Humanity-interpersonal strengths that involve tending and befriending others
Love [valuing close relations with others, both loving and being loved, being close to people]
Kindness [generosity, nurturance, care, compassion, altruistic love, niceness, helping others]
Social intelligence [emotional intelligence, being aware of the motives/feelings of self/others]
4. Justice-civic strengths that underlie healthy community life
Teamwork [citizenship, social responsibility, loyalty, doing one’s share, working well as a team member]
Fairness [just, treating all people the same according to notions of fairness and justice, not letting feelings
bias decisions about others]
Leadership [organizing group activities, encouraging a group to get things done and at the same time
maintain good relations within the group]
5. Temperance-strengths that protect against excess
Forgiveness and mercy [accepting others shortcomings, giving people a second chance, not being vengeful]
Humility/Modesty [letting one’s accomplishments speak for themselves, not regarding oneself as more
special than one is]Prudence [careful, cautious, not taking undue risks, not saying or doing things that might later be regretted]
Self-regulation [self-control, discipline, controlling one’s appetites, impulses and emotions]6. Transcendence-strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning
Appreciation of beauty and excellence [awe, wonder, elevation, noticing and appreciating beauty,
excellence and/or skilled performance in various domains of life]
Gratitude [being aware and thankful for the good things that happen, feeling blessed]
Hope [optimism, future-mindedness, future orientation, believing a good future is something that can bebrought about]
Humor [playfulness, liking to laugh and tease, bringing smiles to others, light-heartedness]
Spirituality [religiousness, faith, having coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of theuniverse]

Which character strengths would be the most suitable for military officers who experienceand must deal with extreme situations? Not all the character strengths noted in Table 1
is of equal importance for military officers. For instance, looking at West Point
candidates at the U.S. Military Academy, they scored higher than civilians on character
strengths such as Bravery, Integrity, Leadership, Teamwork, Self-regulation, andPersistence20. The same character strengths have also been found to be a common trait
in famous and successful Norwegian officers in the period from 1940 to 201221. It is
M. D. Matthews, J. Eid, D. Kelly, J. K. Bailey & C. Peterson, “Character strengths and virtues ofdeveloping military leaders: An international comparison”, Military Psychology, Vol.18, 2006, pp.
557-568.
21
O. Boe, O. Kjørstad & K. Werner-Hagen, Løytnanten og krigen: Operativt lederskap i strid (Thelieutenant and the war: Operational leadership in combat), Bergen, Fagbokforlaget, 2012.
20

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)31

further possible to trace several of these character strengths through, for instance, theNMA´s motto “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (If you want peace, prepare for war) 22, or
through the National Defense Academy of Japan´s motto which consist of the three values“Honor, Courage, Propriety23”.

WHICH CHARACTER STRENGTHS ARE THE IMPORTANT ONES FOR
OFFICERS AT THE NMA
A series of studies conducted within the framework of the NMA´s research project on
character may shed some light on which character strengths that are considered importantfor officers. A common theme in these studies has been to give the participants a list of
the 24 character strengths as described by Peterson and Seligman 24 , and to ask theparticipants to indicate on a five-point scale how important each character strength is formilitary officers. This list is referred to as the Character Strengths Questionnaire: CSQ25.
Below a short overview of the conducted studies and the research findings from theresearch project at NMA will be given.
A common finding in the conducted studies using the CSQ is that the same 12 character
strengths emerges as the most important for military officers at the NMA26. The 12
character strengths can be seen in Table 2, categorized under the five virtues to which
they belong.

22

Forsvaret, Forposten, 2017. https://forsvaret.no/hogskolene/ForsvaretDocuments/2017%20_1%2
0Forposten%20nettutgaven%20MASTER.pdf
23
National Defense Academy, The National Defense Academy Cadets’ Pledge, 2018.
http://www.mod.go.jp/nda/english/about/pledge.html
24
C. Peterson & M. E. P. Seligman, Character strengths and virtues.
25
H. Bang, “Definisjoner og beskrivelser av 24 karakterstyrker, klassifisert under 6 dyder.
Arbeidsdokument (Definitions and descriptions of 24 character strengths, classified under 6 virtues.
Working document) ”, Oslo, Krigsskolen, 2014; O. Boe & H. Bang, “The Big 12: The Most Important
Character Strengths for Officers”, Athens Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 2017, pp. 161173; O. Boe, H. Bang & F. A. Nilsen, “The development of an observational instrument in order tomeasure character strengths", Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol 197, 2015, pp. 11261133. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.363; O. Boe, H. Bang & F. A. Nilsen, “Selecting the most
relevant character strengths for Norwegian Army officers: An educational tool”, Procedia-Social and
Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 197, 2015, pp. 801-809. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.07.188; O. Boe, H.
Bang, & F. A. Nilsen, “Experienced Military Officer’s Perception of Important Character Strengths”,
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 190, 2015, pp. 339-345.
26
O. Boe & H. Bang, “The Big 12: The Most Important Character Strengths for Officers”, pp. 161173.

32

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)Table 2 Overview of selected character strengths categorized according to virtue
Courage
Wisdom andJusticeTemperance Humanity
Knowledge
Bravery
Open-mindedness Teamwork
SelfSocial
regulation
intelligence
Persistence
Creativity
Leadership
Integrity/honesty Love of learning
Fairness
Perspective
As can be seen from Table 2, none of the character strengths from the virtue
transcendence, that is, Appreciation of beauty and excellence, Gratitude, Hope, Humor,and Spirituality was important for the officers at the NMA. The chosen 12 character
strengths have later been named “The Big 1227”.
A person can express his or her values through their character. This has been shown toplay an important role in aspects such as leadership, adaptability, and achievement28. But
within which types of areas is it possible to see this expression of character and thesecharacter strengths in military officers? And how is this connected to officer
development? An important note here is that your character strengths or possible lack ofcharacter strengths comes out in difficult and challenging situations and under unforeseen
conditions. It is in extreme situations that your true nature comes forward. Looking at
combat situations, Park investigated the content analysis of the narratives accompanying
U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipients29. Park found that 100 % of the recipientswere brave, and their next highest character strengths were Self-regulation, Persistence,
Leadership, and Teamwork. Matthews surveyed U.S. Army captains that just had retured
from combat rotations in Iraq and Afghanistan30. He was interested in which character
strengths these officers had used to deal effectively in combat. In descending order fromthe most used character strengths, the character strengths they used were Teamwork,
27

Ibid.
M. D. Matthews, J. Eid, D. Kelly, J. K. Bailey & C. Peterson, “Character strengths and virtues ofdeveloping military leaders: An international comparison ” ; S. D. Gayton & E. J. Kehoe, “Aprospective study of character strengths as predictors of selection into the Australian Army Special
Forces”, Military Medicine, Vol. 180, Issue 2, February 2015, pp. 151-157. doi: 10.7205/MILMEDD-14-00181; J. J. Picano & R. R. Roland, “Assessing psychological suitability for high-risk militaryjobs”, J. H. Laurence & M. D. Matthews, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Military Psychology, New
York, Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 148-157.
29
N. Park, “Congressional Medal of Honor recipients: A positive psychology perspective”, Paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.,
August, 2005.
30
M. D. Matthews, “Character strenghts and Post-adversity growth in combat leaders”, Paper
presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C.,
August 2011.
28

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)33

Bravery, Love, Persistence, and Integrity. When life itself is on the line, either your own
life or that of your fellow soldiers, or that you will have to take lives, these character
strengths seemed to matter most. Contrasting this, the least used character strengths incombat were Prudence, Spirituality, Curiosity, Creativity, and Appreciation of beautyand excellence.
The positive side of character strengths is that they can be developed through increased
vigilance and effort, and character strengths are a phenomenon that exists along with
objectives, interests and values 31 . This is clearly a continuation of what early
philosophers has written long time ago. Aristotle, for instance, discussed practical
wisdom32, Confucius, emphasized benevolence33, Cicero, regarded gratitude as the mostimportant virtue34, and Aquinas, who stressed the theological virtues of faith and hope35.
A point can here be made that these values are fundamental.

CHARACTER STRENGTHS IN THE NORWEGIAN ARMY SPECIAL FORCES
In a study of the Norwegian Army Special Forces, the CSQ was again used, resulting in
15 character strengths being identified as important. The same 12 character strengths
were found to be the most important for military officers as in the previously mentioned
studies at the NMA. However, in addition to the 12 most important character strengths,
it was also found that the character strengths Curiosity, Humility/Modesty, andForgiveness and Mercy were considered as important36. An explanation for this finding
might be that being selected for and serving in a military special unit is more demanding
and complex, and thus requires a wider range of character strengths than previously
identified in the studies at the NMA. A second possible explanation for this finding isthat the Norwegian Army Special Forces military officers tend to be older and probably
also more mature than the military officers at the NMA.

R. Biswas-Diener, T. B. Kashdan & G. Minhas, “A dynamic approach to psychological strength
development and intervention”, Journal of Positive Psychology, Vol. 6, Issue 2, 2011, pp. 106-118.
32
Aristotle., The Nicomachean ethics, D. A. Reees, ed., Oxford, UK, Clarendon Press, 1962.
33
Confucius., Analects, translated by D. Hinton, Washington, D.C., Counterpoint, 1992.
34
M. T. Cicero, Selected works, translated by M. Grant, London, Penguin Books, 1960.
35
T. Aquinas, Summa theologiae, translated by T. McDermott, Westminster, MD, Christian Classics,
1989.
36
O. Boe, F. A. Nilsen, O. Kristiansen, P. Krogdahl & H. Bang, “Measuring important character
strengths in Norwegian Special Forces officers”, EDULEARN Proceedings, 2016, pp. 1623-1631.
31

34

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)CHARACTER STRENGTHS IN STAFF STUDENTS VS CADETSThis study investigated whether there existed any specific differences in the 24 character
strengths between military cadets at the NMA and staff students at the NorwegianCommand and Staff College at the Norwegian Defence University College: NDUC. The
CSQ was again used to collect data on which character strengths were important for
military officers. The staff students scored significantly higher than the NMA cadets on
13 and lower than the NMA cadets on one character strength. For the remaining 10
character strengths Leadership, Open-mindedness, Persistence, Courage, Love oflearning, Fairness, self-regulation, Hope, Humility/Modesty, and Prudence, nosignificant differences were found between the staff students and the cadets. The staff
students scored significantly higher on the 13 character strengths Integrity, Social
intelligence, Perspective, Creativity, Curiosity, Forgiveness and Mercy, Kindness,
Vitality, Humor, Gratitude, Appreciation of beauty and excellence, spirituality, and love.
The only exception, where the staff students were found to score lower than the NMA
cadets was on the character strength Teamwork 37 . A plausible explanation for thedifferences between the two groups is that the staff students are approximately 15 years
older than the cadets at the NMA and therefore probably have had more time andpossibilities to work on their character strengths and thus develop them over time. Thiscan be traced through the higher scores that the staff students gave to less importantcharacter strengths such as Humility/Modesty, and Forgiveness and Mercy, Kindness,
Vitality, Gratitude, Appreciation of beauty and excellence and Spirituality.

OBSERVING CHARACTER STRENGTHS IN FIELD EXERCISES
The Big 12 selected character strengths have been used to develop38 and to validate anobservational instrument to observe character strengths during field exercises at the
NMA 39 . The observational instrument is referred to as OBServation of Character
Strengths in Field: OBSCIF and, as far as the author is aware, this is the first objective
measuring instrument of character strengths found in the world. OBSCIF consists of 36
O. Boe, F. A. Nilsen, S. E. Østergaard & H. Bang, “Similarities and differences in character
strengths among junior and senior officers”, Journal of Military Studies, submitted.
38
O. Boe, H. Bang, & F. A. Nilsen, “The development of an observational instrument in order tomeas"; O. Boe, “Developing leadership skills in Norwegian military officers”.
39
H. Bang, O. Boe, F. A. Nilsen & D. E. Eilertsen, “Evaluating character strengths in cadets during a
military field exercise: Consistency between different evaluation sources”, EDULEARN Proceedings,
2015, pp. 7076-7082; H. Bang, D. E. Eilertsen, O. Boe & F. A. Nilsen, “Development of an
Observational Instrument (OBSCIF) for Evaluating Character Strengths in Army
Cadets”, EDULEARN Proceedings, 2016, pp. 7803-7808.
37

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)35

questions and it assesses a cadet’s behavior in relation to the Big 12 character strengths
that have been established as important for a military leader. The OBSCIF has proved toa very high degree to be able to predict the performance of the cadets during the Combat
Fatigue Course and other field exercises at the NMA40.
In a study using the OBSCIF, Boe, Davidson, Nilsen and Bang posed the researchquestion: to what extent does there exist consistency between NMA cadet’s selfassessment and their observed behavior?41 The cadets assessed themselves and wereassessed by their peers and by an instructor after having completed an extreme field
exercise, the Combat Fatigue Course. The results revealed that the peers and instructor
had a much higher consistency in the correlations than any of the other combinations.
For the peers and instructor, the correlations were significant for the ten character
strengths Leadership, Integrity, Persistence, Bravery, Teamwork, Self-regulation,
Perspective, Creativity, Love of learning, and Social intelligence. The character strengths
Fairness and Open-mindedness were not significantly correlated between peer cadets andinstructor ratings of the cadets. This might be due to possible challenges to observe any
behavior related to these two character strengths during a field exercise. The cadet’s selfassessment correlated with their peers-assessment on seven out of the 12 character
strengths, Leadership, Persistence, Open-mindedness, Teamwork, Perspective, Love oflearning, and Social intelligence. On the other hand, the cadet’s self-assessment and the
instructor’s assessments correlated on only four character strengths, Leadership, Integrity,
Self-regulation, and Perspective. The four character strengths on which the cadets had
rated themselves highest were Integrity followed by Teamwork, Persistence, and Love oflearning. The same four character strengths have been found to be rated the highest inother military studies using the same character strengths42. The findings from this study

40

H. Bang, D. E. Eilertsen, O. Boe & F. A. Nilsen, “Development of an Observational Instrument(OBSCIF) for Evaluating Character Strengths in Army Cadets”; O. Boe, S. E. Davidson, F. A. Nilsen& H. Bang, “A study of observed character strengths in military cadets during a combat fatigue course”,
ICERI Proceedings, 2016, pp. 6068-6077; O. Boe, B. A. Heiskel, Ø. M. Grande, F. A. Nilsen & H.
Bang, “Measuring character strengths: a methodological study of military cadets during a field
exercise”, ICERI Proceedings, 2016, pp. 6057-6067.
41
O. Boe, S. E. Davidson, F. A. Nilsen & H. Bang, “A study of observed character strengths in militarycadets during a combat fatigue course”.
42
A.C. Consetino & A. Castro Solano, “Character Strengths: A Study of Argentinean Soldiers”, The
Spanish Journal of Psychology, Vol. 15, Issue 1, 2012, pp. 199-215; S. D. Gayton & E. J. Kehoe, “Aprospective study of character strengths as predictors of selection into the Australian Army Special
Forces”; S. D. Gayton & E. J. Kehoe, “Character Strengths and Hardiness of Australian Army Special
Forces Applicants”, Military Medicine, Vol. 180, Issue 8, August 2015, pp. 857-862.
doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00527; M. D. Matthews, J. Eid, D. Kelly, J. K. Bailey & C. Peterson,“Character strengths and virtues of developing military leaders: An international comparison”.

36

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)thus supported that the OBSCIF functioned well for observing character strengths throughbehavior.

CHARACTER STRENGTHS AND SELECTION OF OFFICER CANDIDATESThe Norwegian Chief of Defence has stated: ‘[Military leadership] is about doing theuncomfortable and being able to cope with it, overcoming powerlessness, and avoiding
emotional breakdown. Military leadership will demand a robustness in order to think
clearly and effectively, and cope with one’s feelings when facing complex and difficult
situations’ (authors’ translation)43. The selection process to the NMA, as well as to theNaval Academy and Air Force Academy in Norway, uses a variety of measures in order
to find the best possible officer candidates. For instance, IQ tests, personality tests, aninterview, prognoses of leadership and academic potential based upon previous
performance and physical tests are used for this task. Still, it is hard to predict among theselected officer candidates who will be the most successful in his or her job as an officer.
Previous attempts to identify suitable individual traits and to predict performance in the
military and in other high-risk organizations have usually been based upon measurementsof personality44. One challenge with this is that personality is about differences between
individuals when it comes to how one reacts to circumstances, while character is about
the values that govern the actions and behavior. In a meta-analysis conducted by Picano,Roland, Rollins, and Williams it was found that personality and general mental ability
could account for only 15 % of the variance in ratings of the suitability of applicants forhigh-risk occupations45. 80 personality and intelligence measures were examined in thismeta-analysis. On the other hand, character strengths can be developed through increased
vigilance and effort46.

43

Forsvarsstaben, “FSJ grunnsyn på ledelse i Forsvaret (The Norwegian Armed Forces Chief ofDefence basic view of leadership in the Armed Forces) ”, 2012, p.11.
44
W. P. Elsass, E. Fiedler, B. Skop & H. Hill, “Susceptibility to maladaptive responses to stress inbasic military training based on variants of temperament and character”, Military Medicine, Vol. 166,
2001, pp. 884-888; J. J. Picano & R. R. Roland, “Assessing psychological suitability for high-risk
military jobs”; J. J. Picano, T. J. Williams & R. R. Roland, “Assessment and Selection of High-Risk
Operational Personnel”, C. H. Kennedy & E. A. Zillmer, eds, Military Psychology: Clinical andoperational applications, New York, Guilford, 2006, pp. 353–370.
45
J. J. Picano, R. R. Roland, Rollins, K. D., & T. J. Williams, “Development and validation of asentence completion test measure of defensive responding in military personnel assessed for nonroutine missions”, Military Psychology, Vol. 14, 2002, pp. 279-298.
46
R. Biswas-Diener, T. B. Kashdan & G. Minhas, “A dynamic approach to psychological strength
development and intervention”.

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)37

USING CHARACTER STRENGTHS TO PREDICT ENTRANCE INTO A MILITARY
ACADEMY
Norway has three military academies offering basic officer education to cadets. The threeacademies are the NMA for the Norwegian Army, the Royal Naval Military Academy,
and the Royal Air Force Academy. Is it possible to use character strengths as a valid
predictor for entrance into these three military academies? In a study by Boe, Nilsen,
Wangberg, and Bang47 the purpose was to study whether the use of character strengths
was applicable for selection into these three military academies. Selection into the threeyear Bachelor officer’s course, named “GOU” in Norwegian was done by examining any
relationships between self-assessed character strengths and gaining entry into one of thethree military academies. The applicants used a well-known and psychometric validated
personality test known as “Values in Action Inventory of Strengths: VIA-IS48”. This test
measures a person's character strengths through self-reporting49. Data collection was
conducted during the “Joint Admission and Selection for the Military Academies” (FOS
KS in Norwegian) in 2015, where the respondents were the total number of applicants for
the GOU for that year. Independent samples t-tests, and later analysis of variances:
ANOVAS, were applied in order to find out if there were any differences between theapplicants that where offered the course, and those that were not. Scores on each of thesix virtues was constructed by taking a mean of the individual character strengths
belonging to the specific virtue. A self-assessed mean value was then obtained from eachof the six virtues. The analysis of the VIA-IS results revealed a significant difference
between the two groups for two of the core virtues, Wisdom and Knowledge and Courage.
Applicants being admitted to one of the three military academies scored themselves
significantly higher on these two virtues than applicants that were not admitted. This
result indicates that how applicants score themselves on the two virtues Wisdom andKnowledge and Courage can be used for selecting personnel for the GOU. For theindividual character strengths, the analysis of variance: ANOVAS further revealed
significant differences between the two groups for the strengths of Open-mindedness,
Perspective, Courage, and Social intelligence. This indicates that these strengths might
be applicable for the selection of personnel to the GOU.

47

O. Boe, F. A. Nilsen, M. Wangberg & H. Bang, “Character strengths as predictors for entrance
into a military academy”, Military Medicine, submitted.
48
VIA Institute on Character, Psychometric Data, 2016.
http://www.viacharacter.org/www/Research/Psychometric-Data
49
C. Peterson & M. E. P. Seligman, Character strengths and virtues.

38

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)USING CHARACTER STRENGTHS TO PREDICT PERFORMANCE
How important are the 12 character strengths for how the military cadets perform
academically and physically during the Bachelor’s programs at the NMA? In a study by
Bang, Boe, Nilsen and Eilertsen, the purpose was examine to what extent the 12 character
strengths could predict how well cadets succeed during their Bachelor programs50, and if
character strengths could outperform mental intelligence as predictor of cadet
performance?
The cadets’ character strengths were measured with the observational instrument(OBSCIF) filled out by peer cadets at the end of a combat fatigue exercise. The cadets’performance was measured by physical tests and grades from different courses of the
Bachelor programs. Mental intelligence was measured as a general ability score, basedon a combined measure of the performance on three tests: Arithmetic, Word Similarities,
and Figures. Analyses included partial correlations between the 12 character strengths
and cadet performance indicators, controlled for mental intelligence. Ten out of 12
character strengths – Bravery, Love of learning, Leadership, Integrity, Perspective,
Creativity, Self-regulation, Persistence, Open-mindedness, and Teamwork – correlated
moderately to strongly with how the cadets performed either academically or physically,
even when controlling for intelligence. The character strengths Fairness and Social
intelligence did not correlate significantly with any of the performance criteria. The
results indicates that character strengths as observed by fellow cadets are strong predictors
for how the cadets performed academically and physically during the Bachelor’s
programs at the NMA.

CONCLUSIONSThis chapter has dealt with leadership development, character strengths, and selection of
officers. Character strengths have been shown to be a relevant tool for leadershipeducation and selection of Norwegian military officers. The CSQ has proved itself to bevalid for finding out which character strengths are important for officers, and the OBSCIF
has been found to be a valid instrument for predicting performance in officers cadets.

50

H. Bang, O. Boe, F. A. Nilsen & D. E. Eilertsen, “Do character strengths predict how well militarycadets succeed during their bachelor’s program? ”, ICERI Proceedings, 2017, pp.7297-7302.

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)39

The differences found between the younger cadets at the NMA and the older Special
Forces officers and staff student at the Norwegian Command and Staff College makes
sense, as being older and more mature most likely will lead to changes in your values.
The results from the studies conducted at the NMA and described in this chapter indicatethat there seems to be a very strong consensus among Norwegian military officers (atleast) regarding which character strengths are seen as important for military officers.
However, more work will be needed, as the observational instrument is not yet fully
developed or validated, and the number of participants in the studies until now has been
low. Future research on character strengths should focus upon the whole spectrum ofleadership, from small unit leadership to high command in the military. This may reveal
if there are certain clusters of character strengths or specific character strengths required
for successful leaders at different levels of leadership.
Character strengths thus seem to be important predictors for how well cadets succeed
during their Bachelor’s programs, and they outperform mental intelligence as predictorsof cadet performance51. Military education programs should consider selecting cadetscharacterized by certain character strengths, and aim at further developing these character
strengths during the education/training process.
However, a challenge regarding the concept of character is that it is easy to talk about but
not so easy to know how to develop character. It is not so easy to know which character
strengths are the most important when selecting officers. Michelson has emphasized theimportance of taking moral decisions in modern warfare 52 . In his article, Michelson
criticizes the U.S. Army's character development program and questions whether the U.S.
Army's doctrine and the U.S. Army's existing methods for developing character are
sufficient.
Military education programs should consider selecting cadets characterized by certain
character strengths, and aim at further developing these character strengths during theireducation/training 53 . However, a careful remark must be made here, as one cannot
assume automatic equivalence between military personnel in various countries. This is51

H. Bang, O. Boe, F. A. Nilsen & D. E. Eilertsen, “Do character strengths predict how well militarycadets succeed during their bachelor’s program? ”.
52
B. M. Michelson, “Character development of U.S. Army leaders”, Military Review, Vol. 93, No. 5,
Sep/Oct 2013, pp. 30-39.
53
O. Boe, F. A. Nilsen, M. Wangberg & H. Bang, “Character strengths as predictors for entrance intoa military academy”.

40

Chapter 3 Leadership Development, Character Strengths, and Selection of Officers (Boe)because the value systems of the military are not independent from the associated culture
the soldiers wish to defend. And hence, they cannot simply be equated in terms of moral
value or character. The results discussed in this chapter deals with character strengths of
Norwegian military officers and sound judgments should be made when using the resultspresented in this chapter.

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)41

CHAPTER 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan SelfDefense Forces

Hitoshi Kawano
National Defense Academy

INTRODUCTION
In 2015, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the following speech at the opening ceremonyof WAW! (World Assembly for Women) in Tokyo:
The greatest challenge facing Japan is our declining population, brought about
by our aging society and falling birthrate. In the past, there was a widely-seen
tendency for a higher rate of female labor force participation to cause a lower
birth rate. And yet, in the present day, the developed nations leading the worldin the active engagement of women have both a high women’s labor force
participation ratio and a high birth rate simultaneously. In particular, thecountries of Northern Europe have been superbly successful at reconciling
economic growth and rising birth rates under the banner of active participation
by women1.
By proclaiming “Abenomics” is “womenomics”, Prime Minister Abe emphasized thatJapan not only intends to make the 21st century “a century with no human rights violation
against women”, but also promote “active engagement of women in society” (i.e. gendermainstreaming). It was the night of August 28, 2015. On the same day, “The Act on
Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace”, a new bill topromote gender mainstreaming, was approved by the National Diet. This legislation,
which took effect in April 2016, was the latest milestone in the historical development ofgender policy in Japan. As a result, in April 2017, Ministry of Defense issued “TheJapan Self-Defense Forces: JSDF Female Empowerment Initiative”. This initiative
1“Opening Speech by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Open Forum, World Assembly for Womenin Tokyo: WAW! 2015”, August 28, 2015. https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000096924.pdf

42

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)provides current guidelines for gender policies, and diversity management as well, in the
JSDF.
However, in order to fully understand socio-cultural significance of these relatively new
gender policy measures, we need to look back to the historical background of the politicaldevelopments which led to this point. In the following sections, I briefly review thehistorical processes of gender policy development in Japan for the last two decades.

SOCIO-CULTURAL BACKGROUND OF GENDER POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN
JAPAN
Although Japan has a long history of feminist movements, it was only two decades ago
when “gender equality” was clearly recognized as one of the politically critical issues by
the Japanese government2. It was in the middle of “lost decade” of the 1990’s when theJapanese economy collapsed after the booming 1980’s. In terms of structural change ofthe family style in Japan, the previously dominant type of “Employed Husband andHousewife” in the 1980’s equates to the number of “Employed Couple” type in 1991, andthe “Employed Couple”, or double-income family, as is the currently dominant household
type seen since the turn of the century (see Figure 1). The economic recession required
housewives to enter the labor force. A prospect of shrinking national population due tolow birthrate requires further female labor engagement. The more women work, themore women take security-related jobs.

2

Jennifer Chan-Tiberghien, Gender and Human Rights Politics in Japan, Stanford University Press,
2004, pp.1-3.

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)43

Figure 1: Number of households by income earner (unit: million)

Source: “Male’s Work and Life in Transition”, White Paper of Gender Equality, 2014, p.2.

When we take a look at the historical trend of female recruitment for SDF, it also clearlyreflects the structural change of the labor force in Japan. The percentage of female
personnel in the SDF has been less than 2% of total personnel until the 1980’s. However,gender policy of SDF gradually changed to accept more women. In 1985, the National
Defense Medical College first accepted women, and the National Defense Academy
followed by accepting women in 1992, at which point female personnel constituted 4%of total SDF personnel. In 2017, female SDF personnel are more than 6% of the total
in the forces (Figure 2). Given the 40% decrease of youth population (ages 18-26)
available for SDF recruitment, from 17 million in 1994 to 11 million in 2016, it is anurgent task for SDF to seek high-caliber human resources by accepting more women(Figure 3). It is no wonder the 2017 “Gender Empowerment Initiatives” for SDF female
personnel set forth the objective of recruiting 10% of women in 2017, so that 9% of thetotal SDF personnel will be women by 2030.

Figure 2 Female SDF personnel

44

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)Source: Defense of Japan 2017, p.406.

Figure 3 Youth population eligible for SDF

Source: Defense of Japan 2017, p.394.

Nonetheless, along with these structural changes in terms of labor force and family
economy, socio-cultural changes also took place in the last two decades. In particular,societal values and gender ideology have changed. According to an international
comparative survey, gender ideology of younger generations changed quite significantly,
and Japan is no exception. When the Japanese youth (ages 18-24) are asked if they agreewith the opinion, “Men should go to work while women should stay at home and takecare of the house”, only “20.6%” agreed in 2008, which is significantly less than “50.4%”

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)agreed in 19783.

45

The recent younger generations in Japan tend to have a more “genderequal” ideology than they used to. Compared to the Japanese youth, the United
Kingdom (22.5% agreed) has a slightly more conservative gender ideology, while the
U.S.A. (18.2%), France (14.8%), and Korea (12.4%) have a more liberal gender ideology4.
Another youth survey in 2013, comparing eight countries, uses the same question ongender roles. Among the Japanese youth of ages 13-29, 22.3% agreed with the opinion,
whereas: U.S.A. (26.9% agreed); U.K. (25.5%); Germany (14.2%); Korea (12.3%);
France (10.2%); and Sweden (6.6%), and who all therefore have a more liberal gender
ideology than the Japanese. However, the percentage of those who “disagree” with theopinion is least among the Japanese youth (38.7%), compared to 60-87% of “disagree”
in other countries5. In light of these results, the Japanese youth generation’s gender
ideologies are getting more liberal, but still considered relatively conservative comparedto gender ideologies of other countries’ youth populations.
In fact, Japan as a whole is not considered a highly gender equal society from a global
perspective. According to a report by UNDP on Gender Empowerment Measures in
2007, Norway ranked No.1, followed by Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, while
U.K. and U.S.A. ranked No.14 and 15 respectively, and Japan and Korea ranked No.54
and No.64 respectively, despite the fact that Japan ranked No.8 in terms of the Human
Development Index6. However, in terms of Gender-related Development Index shownin the same UNDP report, Norway ranked No.3, and Japan ranked No.13, in-between the
U.K. (No.10) and U.S.A. (No.16), while Germany and Korea ranked No. 20 and No.26
respectively7. In addition, in terms of Gender Inequality Index in 2015, Norway ranked
No.6, Germany and Korea ranked No.9 and No.10 respectively, while Japan ranked No.21,
and the U.K. and U.S.A. ranked No.28 and No.43 respectively8.
This statistical data suggests that Japan cannot be considered a highly gender equal
society despite being a high ranking country in terms of the Human Development Index.
Current political initiatives for promoting gender equality and gender mainstreaming need3

The 8th World Youth Survey, 2009.
http://www8.cao.go.jp/youth/english/worldyouth8-e/html/2-7-5.html#1
4
Ibid.
5
The International Survey of Youth Attitude 2013.
http://www8.cao.go.jp/youth/english/survey/2013/pdf/part2-1.pdf
6
See Table 28 Gender-related Development Index, and Table 29 Gender Empowerment Measure,
Human Development Report 2007/2008, UNDP, 2007, pp. 326-333.
http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/268/ hdr_20072008_en_complete.pdf
7
Ibid., Table 28.
8
See Table 5 Gender Inequality Index, Human Development Reports 2016, UNDP.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/composite/ GII46

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)to be regarded as continuous political efforts made by the government and the legislatures,
taking into account the changing social values and gender ideologies, to further improve
the above mentioned socio-cultural climates in contemporary Japan.

DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER POLICIES IN THE JSDF
In this section, a general overview of gender policy development within the JSDF isoffered. As mentioned above, the JSDF tried to recruit female personnel intensively
during the economic recession of the 1990’s. As a result, the percentage of female
personnel in the JSDF increased from about 2% of total personnel until the 1980’s toabout 6% in the last few years. However, according to a NATO report on gender policies
in member and partner nations, the average percentage of women in NATO militaries is“10.9%” in 2016, while it is 10.7% in Norway, and 6.1% in Japan9. In retrospect, “6.1%”
was the NATO average back in 2001, which is the lowest average since 199910.

Being

well aware of this situation, Japan enforced “new policies and legislation related to theimplementation of gender” in JSDF in 2016. Although there is a “quota system” forwomen, the Action Plan to Promote Women’s Participation and Work-Life Balance set
forth by the Ministry of Defense intends to increase the female ratio of all JSDF personnel
to “more than 9%” by 2030. In order to reach the target, “more than 10%” of the newly
recruited JSDF personnel had to be women after 2017. In addition, the percentage offemale JSDF officers is expected to surpass the current ratio of 3.1% by 202011.
The “2016 Summary of the National Reports of NATO member and partner nations to
the NATO Committee on Gender Perspectives” is a comprehensive review on
implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution: UNSCR 1325 on
Women, Peace and Security in 2000 and related resolutions in the armed forces ofmember and partner nations. Although Japan recognized the global significance of
this UNSCR 1325 in early 2000’s, it was only in 2014, that a female JSDF officer was
assigned as an advisor to the NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for
Women, Peace and Security. The move was a direct result of a strong political willbased on the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Program between Japan andNATO, which was signed by Prime Minister Abe and NATO Secretary General in May,

9

See Summary of the National Reports of NATO Member and Partner Nations to theNATO Committee on Gender Perspective, NATO, 2016, pp.9-11. https://www.nato.int/nato_sta
tic_fl2014/assets/pdf/ pdf_2018_01/1801-2016-Summary-NR-to-NCGP.pdf
10
Ibid., p.9.
11
Ibid., see the national report on Japan, pp.240-244.

Chapter 4

201312.

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)47

It was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that took initiatives in implementing the

UNSCR 1325. In the following section, I briefly describe developmental process of
the National Action Plan in implementing UNSCR 1325 in Japan.
NATIONAL ACTION PLAN IN JAPAN AND THE JSDF
In terms of preconditions for implementing UNSCR 1325 in Japan, there are some priorlegislations to be mentioned. In 1986, the Law for the Equal Employment Opportunityof Men and Women was enacted. The law was to ensure equal employment
opportunity for both men and women, while making it clear that any discrimination on
the basis of race, sex, age, physical or mental disability, religion, and national origin is
not tolerated. It was the first step toward gender equality in the later decades13 of the20th Century.
Another important legislation was the Basic Act for a Gender Equal Society in 1999.
It was the second step toward promoting gender equality in Japan, and paved a way toimplementing UNSCR 1325 in the early 21st century Japan. In fact, a basic idea of“gender mainstreaming” was already included in this law by advocating not only genderequality in terms of political, economic, and social aspects of human life, but also equal
participation in decision making processes at national and local governments andprivate organizations14.
These domestic gender equality legislations in Japan are consequences of international
development of gender mainstreaming and changing international norms led by theUnited Nations. The concept of “gender mainstreaming15” was conceived as early as
1985 at the Third United Nations World Conference on Women in Nairobi, and later
fully endorsed at the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing in
12“Dispatch of a female Self-Defense Force personnel to NATO headquarters”, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs HP. https://www.mofa.go.jp/press/release/press4e_000488.html
13
In 2006, the law was amended to expand the concept of sexual harassment to include female-tomale and same-sex harassment.
14“Article 5: Formation of Gender Equal Society shall be undertaken with the aim to secur
e opportunities for men and women to jointly participate as equal members of society in pla
nning and deciding policies of the State or local governments or ones of private organizations”, Basic Act for Gender Equal Society, Act No.78 of 1999.
http://www.gender.go.jp/english_contents/about_danjo/lbp/laws/pdf/laws_01.pdf
15
According to the U.N. Economic and Social Council in 1997, “gender mainstreaming” is definedas “the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including
legislation, policies or programs, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s aswell as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic and societal spheres sothat women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal is to achieve
gender equality”. http://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/ECOSOCAC1997.2.PDF

48

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)1995.

By adopting the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, gendermainstreaming was established as “a major global strategy for the promotion of genderequality16”. Five years later in 2000, the UNSCR 1325 was adopted, outlining theimportance of giving greater attention to gender perspectives in peace support
operations.
In compliance with these accumulated U.N. resolutions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
in Japan adopted the “Initiative on Gender and Development: GAD17” as new
guidelines for Official Development Assistance: ODA in 200518. The new guideline
clearly states that “Japan supports a series of international commitments that aim atachieving women's empowerment and gender equality”, and thereby, commits to“promote gender mainstreaming broadly in its ODA and throughout the process ofneeds assessment, policy formulation, project formulation, implementation, monitoringand evaluation19”.

The importance of gender mainstreaming was first recognized in

the field of international development in Japan.
Meanwhile, the 1999 the "Basic Law for Gender Equal Society" stipulated that Japan
shall make efforts to take necessary measures for promotion of international cooperation
related to the creation of a gender equal society. In 2002, female GSDF personnel took
part in the U.N. peacekeeping operation in East Timor, for the first time as members of
the GSDF unit. In 2004, female SDF personnel also took part in humanitarianassistance and reconstruction support operations in Iraq by SDF. It is a well-known
fact that in Iraq, both SDF operations and ODA projects constitute the major parts ofJapan’s contribution to humanitarian and reconstruction assistance activities.
In 2013, another pivotal step toward gender mainstreaming was taken. The so-called
the “Women Shine” Initiative was adopted as a new gender empowerment policy by thegovernment of Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a pledge at the General
Assembly of the United Nations that Japan will empower women for the growth of theJapanese economy, and further strengthen cooperation with the international community,
16

Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, Gender
Mainstreaming: An Overview, United Nations, 2002, p.5.
17This Gender and Development: GAD approach is a revised approach from the previous Women in
Development: WID approach which focuses on integrating women in the development areas ofeducation, health, and economic and social participation of women. The GAD approach emphasizes
empowerment of women who are economically and socially disadvantaged, while paying attention to
the role of men in eliminating gender inequality.
18“Initiative on Gender and Development: GAD”, ODA, MoFA, 2005.
https://www.mofa.go.jp/ policy/oda/category/wid/gad.html
19
Ibid.

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)49

while assisting developing countries, with the belief that creating "a society in which
women shine" will bring vigor to the world. He also added that Japan will work closelywith U.N. Women, and develop a National Action Plan: NAP on Women, Peace, andSecurity. As a result, the NAP of Japan was formulated in 2015, and the NAP Evaluation
Committee was organized in 2016. In 2017, the first evaluation report on NAP of Japan
was published20.
Although a detailed analysis and evaluation of the NAP per se is beyond the scope of thispaper21, it is important to note that promotion of gender mainstreaming, and ideas fordiversity management are clearly stated in the 2015 NAP22. These views are further
institutionalized into the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancementin the Workplace in 2016. This legislation marks the latest milestone toward further
gender mainstreaming in Japan. This 2016 Act requires the government agencies, local
governments and private sector corporations with more than 300 employees to collect andanalyze data on gender issues and working conditions, develop actions plans to improve
gender equality with concrete objectives and measures based on the data analyses, andmake public announcement by disclosing relevant data.
As mentioned in the
introduction section above, the Ministry of Defense issued “The JSDF Female Personnel
Empowerment Initiative” in April, 2017, as stipulated by the Act.
This 2017 Initiative provides current guidelines for gender policies and diversity
management within the JSDF. The Initiative emphasizes the value of promoting more
active roles of women in the JSDF, clarifies human resource management policy for
women focusing on improved work-life balance, with the goal of making the JSDF more
attractive and committed to gender equality. The Initiative also aims at increasing thepercentage of female JSDF personnel and opens virtually all positions in the JSDF towomen.
20

The NAP of Japan 2015. https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000101798.pdf; the Annual Reporton the National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, January-December 2015.
https://www.mofa.go.jp/files/000264424.pdf
21
For preliminary evaluation of the Japan’s NAP, in comparison with the U.S. and Australian NAPs,
see Jody Prescott, Eiko Iwata, Becca Pincus, “Gender, Law, and Policy: Japan’s National Action Plan
on Women, Peace and Security”, Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, No.17, 2015, pp.1-45.
22
The NAP states “In particular, attention should be paid to the expansion of women’s active
participation in all levels of decision making in the prevention and resolution of conflicts andpeacebuilding. It should be noted that women and girls are not all the same, and some of them may
become more exposed than others to discrimination and violence due to their various attributes. This
National Action Plan should be implemented with due consideration given to the diverse and uniqueneeds and vulnerabilities of groups such as refugees and internally displaced people due to armed
conflicts and heightened tensions; ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities; people with disabilities;
senior citizens; unaccompanied minors; single mothers; LGBT persons etc. (emphasis by author)”.
“Basic Ideas for the National Action Plan”, The Nap of Japan 2015.

50

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)Prior to the 2017 Initiative, the JSDF already took some actions to increase recruitmentof women. The Air Self-Defense Force abolished the gender quota system for virtually
all recruitment categories, and the Ground Self-Defense Force increased the number offemale recruits for non-commissioned officer candidates and SDF personnel candidates
from 770 to 930 in total in 2016. At the National Defense Academy: NDA, the female
recruitment quota of 40 was increased to 60, out of 480 in total new recruits in 2016. As
a result, the percentage of female cadets at NDA increased from 8% to 13%.
The 2017 Initiative also mentions challenging issues for enlightening male gender
ideology within the JSDF, which has been a male-dominant organization for more thanhalf a century. In order to promote gender mainstreaming in the JSDF, reforming
organizational culture and organizational values, as well as individual outlook on gender,
is a difficult but important task to be achieved. Some enlightenment seminars on genderissues for top leaders and executive officers of JSDF are held, but the opportunities arelimited. As Prime Minister Abe told to the top JSDF leaders in 2016, the mostchallenging issue is “the persistent male-dominant working culture” within the JSDF.
The key is how we can change the existing organizational culture effectively 23 . A
commentator on gender situation in contemporary Japan also points out that the male top
leaders’ ways of thinking needs to be changed in order to change Japan’s “outdated”
corporate culture24.

CIVIL MOVEMENT FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND MALE ENGAGEMENT
However, in addition to these political initiatives, there are some civil movements forpromotion of male engagement among Japanese men. For example, there are two goodpractice cases: 1) Ikumen and Ikuboss movements, and 2) “Declaration of Action” by agroup of male leaders.
IKUMEN AND IKUBOSS MOVEMENTS
In their edited book in 2017, Cool Japanese Men, Brigitte Steger and Angelika Kochargue that the contemporary notion of the Japanese “cool” men includes “those who
manage to juggle successful careers with fatherhood”, as most symbolically expressed
23

Prime Minister Abe’s remarks are cited in the SDF Female Personnel Empowerment Initiative.
Comments made by Prof. Mari Miura at Sophia University, cited in The Japan Times, August 28,
2015.
24

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)51

the new word of ikumen, which means the men who proactively engage in childcare (ikuji
in Japanese) and most importantly enjoy doing it as fathers25. In 2010, Ministry of Labor,
Health, and Welfare launched the “Ikumen Project” to promote proactive fathering inJapan, and encourage Japanese fathers to take paternity leave. In 2014, NPO Fathering
Japan (est. 2006) started the “Ikuboss Project”. The word “ikuboss” means a boss whocares about his/her subordinates’ work-life balance, while enjoying both work and private
life by his/herself26. The ikuboss project is an attempt to change mindset of the older
generations who tend to have conservative gender ideology, and thereby, hinder theikumen movement. It can be recognized as a part of larger social movements forpromoting gender equality and empowerment of women, while promoting maleengagement. Hundreds of business corporations and local governments have joined the
project according to Fathering Japan’s website homepage27.
“DECLARATION OF ACTION” BY A GROUP OF MALE LEADERS
On the other hand, the Japanese government also supports and encourages maleengagement. In 2001, the Council for Gender Equality and the Gender Equality
Bureau were established in the Cabinet Office. Additionally, the Headquarters for
Creating a society in which All Women Shine was created in October 2014 to promoteempowerment of women in Japan. The Gender Equality Bureau and the Office of thePrime Minister assisted corporate male leaders’ efforts to enhance empowerment of
women, and as a result, the “Declaration of Action by A Group of Male Leaders Who
Will Create a Society in which Women Shine” was announced in June 2014. The
Declaration of “Taking actions and sending messages ourselves” states:
We will set goals as to the promotion of women in our company, carry out
measures to achieve the goals, regularly ascertain and make public the state ofprogress in achieving them, and continuously improve the measures being made.
We will send our messages to the whole society, in our own words, about how
important women’s contribution is to our company.
We will change the mindset of male middle managers in our company by sending
the message that different view creates better values in an organization.

25

Cool Japanese Men: Studying New Masculinities at Cambridge, Brigitte Steger and Angelika Koch,eds., Lit Verlag, 2017, pp. 7-26; Cool Japanese Men, Hannah Vassallo ed., “Ikumen: Ideologies andRealities of Japan’s ‘New Papas’”, pp.27-84. The word Ikumen derived from Ikemen, which means
cool or handsome men in Japanese, and entered into colloquial Japanese vocabulary in the 2000’s.
26
See the following Ikuboss Project site: http://fathering.jp/ikuboss/
27
Ibid.

52

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)We will confirm that women are participating in all of the opportunities that weare involved in, and emphasize the importance of their participation28.
The number of male leaders who support the declaration counted 140 in 2017, and grew
to 160 as of February, 201829. The male leaders include not only prominent corporate
CEO’s, but also municipal governors and mayors. In order to let the Japanese women
really shine in society, active male engagement is the key factor required to make it
happen.

CONCLUSION
The JSDF Female Empowerment Initiative also affects the NDA of Japan. It mentions
that the number of female cadets at NDA was increased from 40 to 60 among the 480 new
cadet cohort, which meant the percentage of female cadets increased from 8% to 13%.
The NDA recruitment policy is in compliance with the Initiative that requires thepercentage of newly recruited female SDF personnel to be at least 10%. By encouraging
female cadets to play active roles in every aspect of cadet life, the joint-service academy
tries to enhance gender mainstreaming on campus. Some female cadets have assumed
top leadership positions of the Cadet Corps, including the commander of the entire Cadet
Corps. It should also be noted that foreign cadets constitute about 6% of the Cadet Corps.
Not only gender mainstreaming but also diversity management are practical issues for the
cadet leaders to take into account. Such leadership experience at the military academy
will prepare the cadets to be effective and mindful SDF leaders with cross-culturalawareness and nuanced gender perspectives.
In conclusion, the points argued above can be summarized as follows. First, as to thechanging socio-cultural context in Japan, we saw structural trends of labor force shortage,increasing number of double-income families, which led to increased female labor force
participation. The youth generation in Japan tend to have a relatively liberal gender
ideology compared to the older generations, but still somewhat conservative incomparison with the youth population in other countries. Second, regarding genderpolicy, there is shifting emphasis from equal opportunity and gender equality to gender
empowerment, gender mainstreaming, and improving work-life balance. Third, Japan’s
NAP is gradually put into motion, but it needs further improvement. It also includes
28“Declaration of Action by a group of male leaders who will create a society in which women shine”.
http://www.gender.go.jp/english_contents/mge/declaration/pdf/declaration.pdf
29
In December 2017, a report "Male leaders’ challenges to promote women’s active particip
ation in Japan” was published.
http://www.gender.go.jp/english_contents/mge/declaration/pdf/male_leaders_report_en_2016.pdf

Chapter 4

Gender Policy and Diversity Management in the Japan Self-Defense Forces(Kawano)ideas for diversity management by mentioning LGBT issues.

53

Forth, a most recent

significant gender policy development is the “SDF Female Personnel Empowerment
Initiative 2017”, which effectively opened almost all positions for women30. Fifth, there
is increasing awareness of the importance of “male engagement” led by the public andcivil movements, such as “Declaration of Action” by male public and private leaders, andthe Ikuboss Project.
Later in 2018, after 3 years of implementing the NAP of Japan 2015, an evaluation reportwill be issued. We look forward to forthcoming report so that we can have better ideas
about how best we can develop current and future leaders of the JSDF.

30

On December 21, 2018, the Ministry of Defense announced that female SDF personnel would beallowed to serve on Maritime Self-Defense Force submarines, ending a policy of male-only crews.
As a result, virtually all positions are now open to women except for the Tunneling Units and parts of
the NBC Weapon Defense Unit of the JGSDF due to labor legislations.

54

Chapter 5

Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)

CHAPTER 5

Gender Issues and Initiatives in the Japan Ground SelfDefense Force: A Commander's Viewpoint

Hisanori Fukada
National Defense Academy

INTRODUCTION
The security situation of the environment surrounding Japan has increased further the
responses required by the SDF1 for various duties. It is therefore necessary to secureand nurture high-quality human resources. It is predicted that the SDF's humanresources will be affected greatly owing to the declining birthrate and advanced academic
progress of school students (who therefore shun the military option of employment), as
well as the strong economy and employment situation in recent years in Japan2. The
SDF therefore needs to be flexible to make use of diverse human resources now morethan ever. Doing so will ensure that it can continue to work in various circumstancesand fully demonstrate its abilities.
In the SDF, women (who account for half of the general population) are not fully utilized
as a human resource at present. We should therefore promote further expansion of their
recruitment in order to promote the Ministry of Defense’s April 2017 policy: “Initiativeto Promote Active Engagement of Female SDF Personnel – Aiming for Attractive SDF
that Adapts to the Times and Environment.3”
The aim of this paper is to consider the challenge of how to manage the struggle of beinga leader: in promoting successful female personnel with work/family conflicts and1
2

SDF stands for the Self-Defense Forces as military terminology.

The population from 18 to 26 years old have decreased by about 40%, from about 17 million in FY
1994 to about 11 million in FY 2016.
3
Ministry of Defense, Defense of Japan 2017, August 2017, p.405. It is also referred as “the2017 JSDF Female Empowerment Initiative”.

Chapter 5

Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)55

managing the general direction of the SDF in its response to creating an environment
wherein female staff can fulfill their potential. Firstly, I shall outline the tasks andcountermeasures concerning the promotion of the activities of female personnel as a casestudy in the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF).

CURRENT SITUATION AND TASKS IN THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT OFFEMALE GSDF PERSONNEL
The female personnel in the GSDF, including nurses and medical staffs of doctors, total
about 8,000 people. Given that 54% 4 are married, achieving work-life balance has
important significance if they are to continue working productively. Next, looking atcomposition by age: 9% are teens, 37% are in their twenties; 27% are in their thirties;
23% are in their forties and 4% in the fifties5.
Moreover, the over 30’s age group constitutes 54% of the total. They are expected to be
most active as the mid-level of the troops and are given a job title, and they become busy
as administrators and responsible persons. In addition, since the average first marriage
age of the female personnel is 29, and the average first childbirth age is 306, the busy
periods of living such as marriage, childbirth, and childcare overlap with the busiest
periods of working life which will, evidently, directly affect any harmonious work-lifebalance.
In terms of rank composition, Privates are 17%, NCOs are 55%, and Officers are 28%7.
In other words, NCOs who are the driving force of the troops occupy 55% of the troop
total. The occurrence of long-term absence such as field exercise, readiness issues,disaster relief operations are irregular and difficult to predict. Since there are manyfemale personnel who are required to respond as soldiers while also trying toacquire/create a stable living environment. The environment which creates a goodwork-life balance should be maintained every day. This issue is so important, yetneglected, it can be considered an emergency.
Looking at the situation of early retirement of GSDF personnel by gender, the average
4567Ground Staff Office, Official provided materials, March 2017.
Ground Staff Office, Official provided materials, March 2017.
Ground Staff Office, Official provided materials, March 2017.
Ground Staff Office, Official provided materials, March 2017.

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Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)

turnover rate in the past five years is about four times that of female officers to maleofficers. It is about three times that of female NCOs against male NCOs8. The reason
why male personnel have early retirement accounts for more than half of the 54% whoare employed in other jobs. On the other hand, female personnel also find employment
in other jobs (as much as 27% of them), but marriage and family circumstances constitute
39% of the reasons for early retirement. Family and living circumstances are the mostnumerous for females, but for males in the GSDF it is only 7%. From these facts, it isunderstood that the family circumstances directly influence the continuation of duties forfemale personnel.
I would now like to assess the current situation of female personnel in the field. In July
2017, the first major female officer cadet finished the training course of the anti-tankhelicopter pilot at the Aeromedical School of the GSDF, and she is expected to be an
active pilot for an anti-tank helicopter in the future9. In June of the same year, the private
female personnel became the first to be assigned to the infantry company of the infantry
school regiment in the GSDF.
The branches of the GSDF are divided into 16 occupations. The proportion occupied
by female personnel differs depending on the type of occupation, female personnel arelocated in all occupations as present. More than 10% of female personnel are in the six
branches of signal corps, quarter master, transportation, finance, medical, band, and manyfemale personnel are placed in so-called combat service support areas10. On the other
hand, 5% or less are infantry, armor, field artillery, chemical, military police, andassignment in combat areas are still not enough.
The allocation ratio as seen by branch shows that a tendency almost similar to the
proportion of female personnel. Signal corps shows high numbers for both theoccupation and the allocation ratio. It is considered to be a job type corresponding to
the ability and characteristics of female personnel in particular.
Regarding the career management of the female personnel, the average age of a firstmarriage is 29 years old; and the average age of having a first child is 30 years old.
There is no difference between male and female with regards to the potential career path89Ground Staff Office, Official provided materials, November 2017.

Jiji Press, Newsletter, July 14, 2017.
Infantry, Armor, field Artillery, etc. are called as combat branches. Engineer, Air Artillery, etc.
called as combat support branches. Quarter Master, Finance, Ordinance, etc. called as combat
service support branches in the Ground Self-Defense Force.
10Chapter 5

Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)

57of the military services. Looking at the career management of an officer about the ageof 30, they will be promoted from First Lieutenant to Captain11, if they are a college
graduate, and enter the advanced officer's course for each branch12, while applying for
the Command and General Staff course 13 . They will be placed in a particularenvironment such as the intake level of a military school and be examined while
undertaking further advanced work and being promoted.
NCOs differentiate their career paths by their abilities by around 30 years old. They will
be promoted from private to sergeant at the age of 20. In that case, they will receive
about 6 months of education at the enlisted training school and each branch's respective
school. They will be given a position as a sergeant and will work in the unit after
graduation from school. Before the age of 30, they will become a sergeant as a memberof mid-level personnel in the sections, squads, staff, etc. Also, they will be promoted tosergeant first class depending on their abilities.
After their promotion, they study the middle - enlisted course in each branch school forthree months. It is very important for female personnel in their thirties to choose theircareer path or their life such as marriage and childbirth. Then, it becomes issues forfemale personnel about their career path.
For female personnel, there are organized frameworks which permit flexible response to
their family commitments. However, if they choose to delay the commencement of theirformal (academic) training, its completion may end up being delayed, and in some cases,
it will negatively impact upon career opportunities and associated potential trajectories
for promotion, advancement etc.

ORGANIZED INITIATIVES ON THE WORKING ENVIRONMENT OF FEMALE
11

All of Captains who graduate from the National Defense Academy or civilian universities
promote at once basically.
12
The officer cannot select the timing of entrance for the Advanced Officer's course, because thatcourse is occurred by each branch's school, and they enter that course as same classmates. The
duration of that course is for 6 months. They live in the remote area from their units.
13
The entrance examination of the Command and General Staff course is occurred once a year for
the fourth consecutive year (the first examination and the second exam after passing the first exam)
after promotion to Captain. This course is very important for officers to become higher assignment
and position in the future. So, they have to try to study for the entrance examination in the ordinary
duties.

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Chapter 5

Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)PERSONNEL IN THE GSDF14
Looking at initiatives in the GSDF, it promotes values and consciousness through lectures
given to commanders in each unit and also creates a work environment that is compatible
with childcare and nursing care. The GSDF is promoting various initiatives, such as
improving MWR 15 services related to families and utilizing outsourcing to improveviability of working style reforms 16 . The GSDF is also striving to promote “worksystem reforms,” “reform for compatibility with childcare and nursing care,” and “reform
for promoting the success of female personnel” as three key reforms.
First of all, regarding the work style reform, the GSDF explains to commanders thereform of values and consciousness necessary by utilizing collective gender equality
training. It uses posters for creating awareness of work reform in the workplace, tohighlight weaknesses so that they may be strengthened, and plans to improve working
environments by promoting “Yu-Katsu”17, a flextime system, an early withdrawal work
system and all from the viewpoint of flexibility of working hours and places.
In order to implement reform which is actively compatible with childcare and nursing
care, the GSDF will promote concern regarding male members family lives by promoting
conscious reforms of commanders’ attitudes, and distribute handbooks etc. to that effecte.g., e-mail magazines to parents who use childcare as well as promoting in-house nursery
facilities and their improvement including the GSDF babysitter system.
The female target ratio should be set at 9% or more by 203018 for recruitment in terms ofreform to promote the success of female staff. Female personnel who have been forced
to retire owing to marriage or childcare can re-enlist. In addition, the GSDF will
introduce the former re-appointment system, for the promotion of working activity via
various kinds of duties of female personnel and promoting career formation as anadditional form of support.

14

GSDF stands for the Ground Self-Defense Force as military terminology.
MWR stands for the Moral Welfare Recreation as military terminology.
16
Ministry of Defense, Women's Self-Defense Forces Activity Promotion Initiative-Aiming for an
Attractive SDF that Adapted to the Age and the Environment-, April 201717
"Yu-Katsu (evening activities)" is an effort to start work early in the morning in summer withlong daylight hours, and to finish work earlier. This initiatives is to utilize the bright evening timeeffectively and to enrich the private life.
18
The proportion of female SDF personnel in the Ground Self-Defense Force is about 6% as ofMarch 2017, Ground Staff Office, Official provided materials, March 2017.
15

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Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)59

The spouses of married female personnel in the GSDF constitute 83% for military service
personnel and 2% for MOD 19 civilians, 2% for the other ministry civilians, 11% for
employees and self-employed person, 2% for others 20 . More than 80% of female
personnel are on duty within the same system. This shows that the various efforts
related to the work-life balance in the Ministry of Defense and the SDF have foundations
that function not only for female personnel but also for male personnel as spouses.
In the case of a couple having completely different workplaces and different forms of
employment, it is necessary to understand mutual workplaces and occupations, and if theworkplace system is different, how the difference may affect the work-life balance
between the husband and wife. The efforts to promote the activities of female personnel
in the SDF and to promote work-life balance are considered effective not only for thefemale personnel but also for her spouse, and it is important to understand thecharacteristics of them and to take various measures for promoting improvement for
female personnel in the general working environment.

CASE STUDY CONSIDERATIONS
It is important for female personnel to eliminate work-family conflicts in order to makeactive use of harmony between work and family in the SDF. It is therefore valuable
consider concrete case studies and to verify the actual real-world conditions of workfamily conflicts and the direction of initiatives related to alleviating or working around
this.
Case Study 1: Cases Where Family Problems Indirectly Influence Work Scenarios
This is a case of a married female senior NCO who is in charge of the general affairs in
the headquarters of the unit21, and her spouse is a senior NCO who works in the samegarrison, although the unit to which he belongs is different22.
The problem in this case was the work of her spouse.
19
20
21
22

The male spouse worked mainly

MOD stands for Ministry of Defense.
Ground Staff Office, Official provided materials, 2017.
The case is abstract expression to avoid individual identification in this paper.
Senior Sergeants include Master Sergeant and Sergeant Major.

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Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)in the administrative job at the headquarters of the troops, but there were few staff
members belonging to the headquarters. Under such circumstances, the spouse became
depressed in terms of mental and physical health due to the workload and stress of thehuman relationships, and who was hoping for the PCA (Permanent Change ofAssignment), but troops didn't allow his PCA. Following that, the female personnel ofthe concerned also experienced decline in her motivations to work which increased herfamily's anxiety each day.
In this case, there was no direct factor affecting the female staff member, but if we did
not resolve the problem of her spouse and left it as it was there was a possibility of her
falling into physical and mental illness. There was genuine concern about the effects on
her mind and body due to an increase in load and stress. This case was originally amatter of her spouse, but it was in consideration that approximately 80% of the female's
spouses were military service men. The issues and conflicts arose for male personnel as
their spouses were promoted in their military duties while maintaining their
responsibilities of supporting their husbands and families as the wife. Hence, this wasa problem that in this case could not be solved by themselves.
Here, we confirm superior's initiatives in this case. At first, the female personnel
changed her attitude to work and to the workplace day by day. Therefore, it wasnecessary to closely monitor the behavior of the personnel and for her to have a meeting
reporting to the superior every day, including discussion of the attitudes of personnel.
The meeting meant giving a report to the top commander who has a direct responsibility
for guidance on service. And it was important to respond as an organization to solve theproblem.
In this case, it was difficult to resolve the problem of the male personnel within the unit
to which the female personnel belonged, since the male personnel belonged to a unit
which was different from the unit to which the female personnel belonged. Therefore,
the commander who was the representative of the organization talked with thecommander under whom the male personnel served, and they recognized the present
condition of the male personnel and checked the current conditions of his troop andresolved the problem by commanders' discussions. As a result, the male personnel had
the PCA to the desired troop, and the problem of male personnel was resolved. The
female personnel showed her motivations to work more than ever, and grew to become aleader of female personnel in her troop.

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61

Case Study 2: Cases Where Family Planning Issues Affect the Continuation of
Female Civilians' Duties
This is a case of a married female civilian belonging to the garrison service support unit,
and her spouse who is an officer working at a different garrison.
The problem in this case was that they got married after his PCA, although they had met
when they were working in the neighboring troop. So, they became a geographicalbachelor to each other. Therefore, the female civilian and officer did not live together
after marriage, and they didn't get an unaccompanied duty allowance 23 . By living
separately, the female civilian and her officer husband perceived increased costs of living
as their burden. In addition, the officer also wished to have his PCA to the former troop
or neighboring troop in his career management, but there was also the possibility ofmoving to a distant unit continuously. They had continual anxiety that this would affecttheir family planning regarding childbirth, especially if the situation of this assignment
and the economic burden for female personnel continued. It was impossible to have her
PCA beyond the border of the Regional Army Corps, since female civilian are locally
hired. Hence, this particular female civilian was suffering from having to continuallychoose between her current work and family life by potentially opting for early retirement.
Here, we confirm the superior's initiatives in this case. Firstly, there are fundamental
institutional issues of marriage and geographical bachelorship, as well as the cause of the
career management of the officer and constraints of employment system on the female
civilian. These were issues that were difficult to solve by themselves because of theuncertainty of the period of being a geographical bachelor. Relative to this constant lackof certainty, the female civilian had the option of early retirement (but which, obviously,
was not her first choice).
The unit carried out the collective training for female personnel on a regular basis fromthe viewpoint of promoting the activities of female personnel24. There were discussions
and exchanges of views about the working environment of female personnel by female
personnel and talks with the unit commander. They discussed restrictions on matters ofconcern and pending issues of female personnel's work, including occasional personal

The condition of allowance for a geographical bachelor is to be resident together as couple.
They became geographical bachelors unavoidably, when they got PCA’s by order.
24
The regular collective trainings are usually carried out once a year.
23

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Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)issues and future matters to be considered and the potential direction of improvement atthat time.
This case was an example recognized by the unit commander through collective training
as an institutional problem of being a geographical bachelor combined with family life at
the female collective training. So, the commander responded with the PCA coordination.
As a result, the officer desired to be in a unit located in the same garrison area, and thiswas accepted- the troop adjustment was made based on this proposal. The female
personnel began cohabiting with the officer on the same garrison site, and they were able
to resolve their family planning issues this way.
Case study 3: Case Where Private Problems Directly Affected the Duties of theFemale Personnel
This is a case of a married female NCO, at the middle-level, who is in charge ofadministrative affairs in the headquarters of the troop with children and spouse.
Furthermore, she lives apart from her husband during divorce mediation.
The problem here was carrying out childcare and continuing to work normally while
practicing divorce mediation procedures with lawyers and others. As a result, thefemale personnel was in a state of stress on both mentally and physically, because it
required much use of private time alongside working hours. Her children were still inearly childhood also, with her remote parents were taking care of her children
occasionally, but she had to make a round trip to her remote parents' house. She could
not afford the long times necessary for these commutes; hence, there was a conflict
between time spent in the workplace and the home. As a result, her job performances
also lagged behind, and she looked like to be thoroughly exhausted.
Here, we confirm superior's initiatives in this case. First of all, her private issues werecausing problems and affect her job performance. However, given that these problems
involved divorce mediation and child care, it was necessary to respond carefully. Thus,
the commander designated a staff who consulted with her every day as a directly
responsible person, and was ready to offer various supports, including emotional support.
Also, there was a report given on her work load from the staff of the support staff. Withher understanding, the commander changed her duties so that she could give priority for
divorce mediations and childcare temporarily.

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Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)63

In this case, the commander gained information indirectly through the staff in charge of
supporting her, and facilitated support for the female personnel by sharing information.
It was necessary to grasp the usual human relations in the workplace of female personnel,
since it was difficult for the commander to respond to the work-family conflict of all
individual female personnel directly.
It was therefore effective to respond by
nominating a staff who would offer support individually when work-family conflictsarose. As a result, although it took time, the private issues of the female personnel wereresolved, and she was able to demonstrate her abilities as she had before, once again.

THE COMMANDER'S LEADERSHIP
CONFLICTSIN

RELATIONTO

WORK-FAMILY

It has been confirmed that the family domain and the work domain mutually influencework-family conflicts25, but the influence from the family domain to the work domain isdue to individual family circumstances. Case studies have been used to show theinfluences caused by family planning related to spouses, lifestyle events such as
geographical bachelorship and childbirth, and also the affects due to divorce problems
and childcare.
In other cases, there are problems of nursing care, inheritance problems, domestic
violence, etc. Therefore, the responses required to these also vary from those that canbe solved at the individual level to a level that requires support as an organization. Thus,
the commander should recognize that work-family conflicts affecting the work domainfrom the family domain have varying cases and degrees that vary from case to case, andthe individual response usually requires many hours. But the commander should
recognize that it is necessary to deal with them individually and carefully according to
the circumstances of each case.
In this chapter, the influence from the family domain to work domain in work-family
conflict was examined based on some case studies. However, family issues are alsoprivate issues. The right to privacy needs to be respected in some cases. There is apossibility that feelings such as a dislike to publicize these problems may exist, so there
are problems to be grasped here also as an organization but also at the individual level ofthe commander. Therefore, the commander should have a daily meeting for getting

25

Greenhaus, J. H., & Beutell, N. J., "Sources and conflict between work and family roles,"Academy of management review, 10, 1985, pp.76-88

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information about personnel, and an opportunity where female personnel can exchange
their opinions, and have meetings with commanders, gathering information and utilizing
CSM26. Furthermore, it is necessary for the commander to gather information by direct
or indirect measures such as designated individual support staff to grasp changes inemotions, and conflicts among personnel.
It is predicted that the work-family conflict related to female personnel cannot be resolved
by individual means alone, such as the organizational system and personnel management.
Therefore, the commander designates and supports the support personnel when acommander supports them organizationally in response to these events. It is necessary
for the commander to select them according to the characteristics of the work-family
conflict.
The commander needs to create a working environment where the female personnel caneasily work through various measures concerning the work-life balance in the Ministryof Defense and the SDF. The commander should understand those systems, and theimportance of work-life balance not only for the female personnel, but also the malepersonnel in accordance with the characteristics of the unit, and also make them utilize
these systems mutually. As a result, it is believed that the influence from the family
domain to work domain in work-family conflict decreases and the activities of female
personnel are likewise promoted.
Also, the female collective training is bothnecessary/effective in disseminating these systems and for exchanging information
between female personnel, to activate female activities and to improve them. It is also
an effective way for the commander to understand but also influence the thinking of
female personnel directly through discussions between the commander and female
personnel in the collective training.

CONCLUSION
In this article, the current situation and issues of the female personnel in the GSDF are
discussed. Specific examples were given via the case studies about the influence fromhome domain to work domain in relation to work-family conflicts and the leadership
required of the commander for resolving these conflicts.

26

CSM stands for Command Sergeant Major who is chief of sergeant in the unit as military
terminology.

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Gender Issues and Initiatives in the GSDF: A Commander’s Viewpoint (Fukada)65

In light of these considerations, the commander should have the recognition of casediversity, the need for individual responses, and the need for direct or indirect information
gathering and support systems. It is necessary to establish the timing of response in eachcase, to communicate the intentions with female personnel, and to foster an effective
working environment by sympathetic communication and understanding of the situation.
It is also important to disseminate and utilize the system for promoting the activities offemale personnel in the Ministry of Defense and the SDF. The commander's leadershipto implement the system is essential also. It will be necessary to disseminate the system
and measures on the treatment of female personnel to commanders in the future. In thisway, the Ministry of Defense and the SDF will be an organization that can function much
more effectively and reliably for female personnel.

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Gender Equality and Leadership in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (Furuta)

CHAPTER 6

Gender Equality and Leadership in the Japan Air Self-Defense
Force
Junko Furuta
Japan Air Self-Defense ForceREADINESS AND THE JASDF
The security environment surrounding Japan has become increasingly severe, and inrecent years, both the number and the duration of missions for the Ministry of Defense(MOD) and Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) are increasing.
To successfully
accomplish these increasing missions and to consistently respond to rapidly changing
situations, ensuring the preparedness and readiness of the SDF personnel has become
critical. In particular, the requirements for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF),
are considerably high. The reason for this high level of requirement stems from two
main factors; the character of air operations themselves, and the unique situation of
JASDF.
As you can easily imagine from aircrafts flying in the sky, air operations are basicallyconducted above the earth’s surface. This provides air power with relative advantages
and has helped create a mindset where it allows airmen to see conflict more broadly thanother forces’ soldiers. Broader perspective, greater potential speed and range, and threedimensional movement changed the dynamics of conflict in ways not well understood bythose bound to the surface. The result is inherent flexibility and versatility of operations,based on greater mobility and responsiveness. These are air power’s outstanding
attributes in both space and time, thus, air power operates in ways that are different fromother forms of military power 1 . More specifically, the essential property thatcharacterizes air power is the ability of air power to amass quickly at a selected time andplace2, requiring airmen to be superior in their overall agility. This is the first reason
JASDF, as an organization which employs air power, is required to have higher levels of
1

US Air Force Doctrine, Curtis LeMay Center, 2015.
http://www.doctrine.af.mil/Portals/61/documents/Volume_1/V1-D22-Foundations-of-Airpower.pdf
2
Karl P. Mueller, “Air Power”, RAND Corporation, 2010. https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reprints/2010/RAND_RP1412.pdf#search=%27character+air+power%27

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67

preparedness and readiness compared to its sister services.
The second factor is related to Japan’s exclusively defense-oriented policy. Since theend of World War II, Japan made a decision not to repeat the ravages of war and has
worked hard to build a peace-loving nation. Under this policy, the Government of Japan
has considered that use of force is permitted only when an “armed attack” against Japanoccurs. According to this governmental perspective, JASDF basically carries out
defensive air operations. Defensive operations are naturally passive operations.
Under offensive operations, forces can proactively select when, where, and how to project
power. On the contrary, defensive operations are conducted only after an adversarycommences a strike, meaning that JASDF has to maintain its high readiness continuouslyand “wait” for the right timing to exercise its power. Once there is an attack, JASDF is
required to respond to adversary’s actions as quickly as possible, to effectively protect
the lives and property of the Japanese people as well as its territorial land, water andairspace.
This requirement for high responsiveness of JASDF applies not only under contingencies
but also within peace time and so called “gray-zone situations”. JASDF uses radar sites
at 28 locations nationwide, along with early warning and control aircrafts, to carry out
warning and surveillance activities 24 hours a day. If any suspicious aircraft heading toJapan’s territorial airspace is detected, fighters and other aircraft scramble from air bases
within minutes.
One statistic that illustrates how this situation is getting more and more severe recently,
is the increase in number of scrambles conducted. JASDF has been scrambling its
fighter aircrafts since 1958, and in FY2016, JASDF fighters scrambled 1168 times, whichbroke the previous record of 944 times in 1984 (this is the most in the past 60 years).
These numbers clearly indicate, that the requirement of a quick response for the JASDF
has been getting more intense in recent years.
Given this changing environment, and along with the basic character of air operations, itis necessary for the JASDF to be able to seriously cope with any necessary demands on
the improvement of its readiness, and maintain its members’ mental and physical healthand strength, as well as high morale.

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Figure1 Number and breakdown of scrambles since the Cold War

Source: Ministry of Defense, “Defense of Japan 2017”, 2017.

JASDF’S EFFORTS IN MAINTAINING THE READINESS OF AIRMEN
Maintaining and improving the readiness of military personnel is achieved througheducation, regular training and exercises. For JASDF to succeed in this process, there
is one factor that must be taken into account: the increasing number of women in the force.
Since 1974, the JASDF has allowed women in the force, and after more than 40 years,
women now count for approximately 7.3% of the whole personnel. Although this ratio
is far lower in comparison to the United States Forces and other major forces of developed
countries, it exceeds the average for the three services of the Self-Defense Forces(approximately 6.1%). In 1994, after 20 years since women were first recruited, the firstwoman cadet entered the JASDF Aviation Cadet Course. It was in 2012 when woman
was first assigned as the Squadron Leader of a carrier aircraft unit. The most recent
news was in November 2015, when the JASDF removed the ban to assign women as
fighter pilots. Currently there is one member undergoing training, and it is expected that
she would be able to fly a fighter aircraft in FY2018 at the earliest. Starting from 2017,
MOD has planned to recruit women to ensure they account for more than 10% of the total
newly employed SDF personnel.
One background for this policy lies in the recovery of Japan’s economy and the upturn ofthe employment rate in recent years, which resulted in a harsh environment for recruiting
uniformed personnel. JASDF and its sister services can no longer depend only on “malehigh school graduates” but must seek for high quality personnel from different

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demographic backgrounds, including women.

69

Along with the shift of students’advancement into higher education in the Japanese society, it has become important for
JASDF to incorporate diversity into its human resources.
Will recruiting personnel from different demographic backgrounds, including women,
disrupt military performance and its readiness? Despite concerns that diversity willbring negative effects, findings show that diversity rather enhances organizational
performance. McKinsey & Company found that companies in the top quartile forgender diversity on their executive teams were 21 percent more likely to experience
above-average profitability than companies in the fourth (lowest) quartile3. As for the
military, arguments are often based on two assumptions: that cohesion is a key
determinant of unit performance, and that cohesion requires a certain degree ofheterogeneity. However, according to MacCoun, past studies have found no significant
net association between socio-demographic heterogeneity (because of gender, race, andother variables) and team performance4.
Having said that diversity possibly enhances the performance of its force, JASDF must
seriously cope with measures to improve the readiness of its personnel. Basically, it
would be important for JASDF to create an environment that enables staff, both male andfemale, to achieve balance between their mission as JASDF air personnel as well as theirlife as a family member ,whether as father or mother or neither.
There are several programs that JASDF is implementing, and the most unique is thementorship program. Generally, a mentorship is a relationship in which a person who
has more capability, knowledge or experience (mentor), helps or guides another person(mentee). The mentor does not necessarily have to be an older or a senior person, buthave to have a certain area of expertise. Recently large numbers of private companies
in Japan have adopted this system and it has seen significant positive effects. As for
JASDF, members are currently serving at 73 bases or sub-bases and most of the bases are
in remote areas. It is not uncommon that an airman finds it difficult to find a role modelof his or her career nearby. The mentorship program provides one solution to thischallenging environment. As of FY2017, there are approximately 250 members
3

McKinsey & Company, “Delivering through Diversity”, 2018.
https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Organization/Our%20Insights/Delivering%20through%20diversity/Delivering-through-diversity_full-report.ashx
4National Defense Research Institute, “Sexual Orientation and U.S. Military Personnel Policy: An
Update of RAND's 1993 Study”, Santa Monica, CA, RAND Corporation, 2010.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1056.html

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registered as mentors.

Mentees can contact a registered mentor, either on-line, on thephone or face to face, to seek advice on how to balance their career and private life fromthe mentor. JASDF is trying to expand the number of registered mentors as well as
mentees to fulfill the members’ needs, and hopefully sustain high mental health andreadiness of the force.
Another program is the substitute system for members on childcare leave. As more
women enter the force, it is potentially expected that more members will take child careleave. MOD is encouraging male staff to take child care leave to carry out their
responsibilities in family life, and this will also lead to an increase in the number of airmen
who will be temporarily absent from their position to take care of their family. During
these members’ periods of leave, the MOD has implemented a program where alreadyretired members can temporarily be recruited to substitute the post. With growing
number of missions, fulfillment rates of units have been a serious problem in recent years,
and how to efficiently substitute members on child care leave has been one of the major
concerns of squadron leaders in JASDF units. The substitute program has shed light on
this issue and there has been positive feedback not only from the units benefiting fromreceiving more personnel, but also from the recruited retirees who were seeking to makeuse of their professional experience and knowledge once gained in the force. In JASDF,
as of 2017, 45 retired members have registered as substitute member candidates.
However, an average of 140 members annually take child care leave, and JASDF needs
to raise the awareness of this program so that it could be used more effectively.
MOD is also developing nursing and child day care centers across the country. For the
JASDF, the first day care center was established in April 2016 at Iruma Base. The needfor an on-base child care facility in the JASDF is quite high. As mentioned before,
JASDF members are required to maintain high readiness, thus overnight shifts or on-callduties late at night are common in certain specialties in the force. Furthermore, it isimportant for JASDF members to secure support for child care under contingencies andnatural disasters when they are genuinely expected to take action, however on the other
hand, privately-owned childcare facilities generally may not necessarily provide therequired services at such short notice. Therefore, on-base facilities are designed to beable to respond flexibly in providing childcare services compared to those of the private
sector. Approximately 10 families are now utilizing the center in Iruma, and JASDF is
promoting further active use of the facility, as well as discussing the possibility of
establishing similar facilities at other bases.

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71

Figure 2 Day care center, “J-Kids Sky” (Iruma Base)

CHALLENGES AND THE WAY AHEAD
Despite these aforementioned efforts, there are several issues that need to be managed tomaintain combat-readiness while at the same time giving attention to promoting diversity
in JASDF.
At this point, most of the efforts are focused only on women. The Defense White Paper2017 addresses the need for “active participation of female personnel”, and uses two fullpages to discuss the need for career reform for the female members in MOD and SDF.
The words “gender equality” and “diversity” have not yet appeared (thus far) in the
document, which means there is still considerable room to expand the scope of efforts.
For instance, larger attention must be paid on how to incorporate LGBT members in theforce. Though the numbers are still few, it is a fact that LGBT members have come out
and requested more appropriate responses and improvements in their working
environments. Their request varies from hardware to software; for example, the need toestablish a comfortable locker room for all members, requests for a swift response inpreparing uniforms upon members’ transition from one gender to another, and how
commanders must take seriously good leadership in cohesion of units with LGBT airmen.
Commanders of JASDF have to broaden their mindset and not just think about female
members’ career paths, but also cope professionally and well with promoting diversity ina broader sense.
For promoting diversity in the force, there are several steps that JASDF has to take.
JASDF must first get hands-on experience with specific programs and organizations, but

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then step up to building a culture in the force that welcomes diversity and proactively
educates airmen on the effectiveness of inclusiveness. The enabler for building thisculture would be the leadership of commanders at all levels. As JASDF expands its
mission capabilities, it will be inevitable that changing its leadership style to make fulluse of the advantages of air power will become necessary. Leaders have to recognize
the differences among members of its force as assets that have the potential to improve
performance and hence proactively leverage diversity in support of the mission.
Especially, top leaders have the responsibility to make a personal and visible
commitments to diversity for these needed changes to take hold and be sustained.

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73

SEMINAR PROGRAMInternational Seminar on
Gender, Diversity, and Leadership Development
November 28, 2017
At the Conference Room No. 2 at the Head Quarter Building of National Defense
Academy, 1-10-20 Hashirimizu, Yokosukashi, Kanagawa 2398686 JAPAN

13:00
Opening, and Introduction of Participants
13:15-13:35
Prof. Glenn-Egil Torgersen: “Competence for the Unforseen – Diversity andCollaboration”
13:35-13:55
Senior Lecturer Roennaug Holmoey: “Reflections from NDUC and Teachingon Gender at the Norwegian Military Academy
13:55-14:15
Asc. Prof. Ole Boe: “Leadership Development, Character Strengths, andSelection of Officers”
14:15-14:45
Q&A and Discussion
14:45-15:00
Coffer Break
15:00-15:20
Prof. Hitoshi Kawano: “Gender Policy and Diversity Management in theJapan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF)”
15:20-15:40
Col. Hisanori Fukada: “Gender Issues and Initiatives in the Japan GroundSelf-Defense Force (JGSDF): A Commander’s View”
15:40-16:00
Lt. Col. Junko Furuta: “Gender and Diversity Policy in the Japan Air SelfDefense Force (JASDF)”
16:00-16:30
Q&A and Discussion

Contributors

73

Professor Glenn-Egil Torgersen
Dr. Glenn-Egil Torgersen is Professor of Education at the Norwegian Defence
University College, Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies. He is also Professor II
in Education at the University of Southeast Norway, Center of Emergency
Preparedness and Integrated Crisis Management. He was formerly a seniorresearcher in the Department of Man, Technology and Organization at the Institutefor Energy Technology (IFE, OECD Halden Reactor Project). He holds a PhD in
Psychology from NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Trondheim) and a Master’s Degree (Cand. Polit.) in Educational Science (Universityof Oslo). He has been awarded a Lifelong Membership of the Academy of the Royal
Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, and has been responsible for several
research projects and scientific publications and anthologies, including Pedagogikk
for det Uforutsette [Pedagogy for the Unforeseen] (2015) and Interaction:'Samhandling' Under Risk.
A Step Ahead of The Unforeseen (2018).
https://press.nordicopenaccess.no/index.php/noasp/catalog/book/36

Senior Lecturer Rønnaug Eli Holmøy
Rønnaug Eli Holmøy is Senior Lecturer in Education and Leadership at the Norwegian
Defense University College/ Norwegian Military Academy. From 2009-2013 / 2015 she
was the professional responsible for the teaching on Women, Peace and Security.
Cooperation with NATO's Special Representative on the topic was important fordeveloping and improving understanding of the subject. Holmøy´s current academic
responsibilities are connected to the Educational Leadership program, including
development work on the project “Reflection Beyond Practice”. For several years
Holmøy has had parallel assignments at the University in Oslo, there she has been field
supervisor for master students at the Department of Educational Science.

Professor Ole BoeOle Boe served as Associate Professor of Military Leadership at the Norwegian Defence
University College: NDUC in Norway in 2017 and 2018. Before that, he served at the
Norwegian Military Academy (Army) as Associate Professor of Leadership andLeadership Development from 2003 until 2016. He now serves as Professor of

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Contributors

Organization and Management at the USN School of Business at the University of SouthEastern Norway. Prof. Boe has co-authored the book The Lieutenant and the War (inNorwegian) and has written over 250 articles, research reports, and book chapters withinthemes related to leadership and leadership development, stress management, anddecision making. Prof. Boe previously served for many years as an operational officer(rank Captain) in a Norwegian military special unit, and he is also a graduate of theNorwegian Defence Command and Staff College. He is currently the editor of three
new books on military leadership in Norway.

Professor Hitoshi Kawano
Hitoshi Kawano is Professor of Sociology at Department of Public Policy, and Directorof Center for International Exchange at National Defense Academy in Yokosuka, Japan.
He received Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1996. His research interests include
military history, sociology of combat and peacekeeping, mental health, family support,
gender mainstreaming and diversity management issues within the Self-Defense Forces,
and civil-military relations in Post-Cold War Japan. His publications include “Combat
Leadership on Guadalcanal: In Extremis Leadership of the Japanese and American
Soldiers in World War II” in Leadership in Extreme Situations, M. Holenweger et al. eds.,
Springer, 2017.

Professor Hisanori Fukada
Hisanori Fukada is Professor of National Defense Studies at Department of Defense
Sciences, and an active duty COLONEL at National Defense Academy in Yokosuka,
Japan. His research interests include national security, military profession, militaryleadership, gender mainstreaming and diversity management issues within the GroundSelf-Defense Forces. He experienced a commander four times.

Lieutenant Colonel Junko Furuta
Junko Furuta is a commissioned officer of the Japan Air Self Defense Force: JASDF.
Since April 2018, she has been assigned to the National Security Secretariat, Cabinet
Secretariat. Her original specialty at the JASDF was "weapons controller", which is theContributors

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control of fighter jets and missile units during air operations. Furuta is also a specialist
in ballistic missile defense and has experience in commanding a missile surveillance unit
in Yokota Air Base. She has a MA in Security Studies from National Defense Academy,
Japan.

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for Global Security. The Center designs series of internationalseminars and other independent seminars. This series consists of theworking papers of these seminars. The views expressed in thispublication are solely of the authors, and do not necessarily represent
those of the institutions or governments of the authors.

CENTER FOR GLOBAL SECURITY
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