Salaries of Japan’s SDF Personnel to Increase in Fiscal 2027; Schedule Moved up by 1 Year

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:30 JST, December 23, 2025

The government decided at a ministerial meeting on Monday to increase the basic salary of Self-Defense Forces’ personnel in fiscal 2027.

As the SDF has faced a persistent shortage of members, the increase in pay, the schedule of which was moved up by a year, is meant to attract recruits and prevent members from leaving.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi directed the ministers to proceed with the revision of pay grade which serves as an indicator for determining basic salaries, saying, “I want to implement the change one year earlier.” She added that something like this has never been done in the 70 years since the SDF’s founding.

Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi responded, “We will implement the revision within fiscal 2027.”

An SDF member’s pay grade is determined by their rank, capability and achievement, and is aligned with that of public security officers, such as police.

SDF salaries have always been revised in conjunction with national public employees’ salary revisions, which are done based on the recommendations of the National Personnel Authority. However, revisions to just SDF salaries have never been done before.

The government initially announced its goal to implement the pay grade revision in fiscal 2028.

However, since Takaichi has made it clear that her Cabinet will revise the three security-related documents, including the National Security Strategy, within fiscal 2026 and have them take effect the following fiscal year, the defense budget for fiscal 2027 is expected to increase. Due to the changes, the government decided to move up the schedule for pay grade revisions as well.

The Defense Ministry will begin discussing how much the pay increase will be while looking at other countries’ salary systems.