Woman Soon on Operational Japanese Submarines

Woman have been on some European submarines since the 1980s, on Australian from 1999 and the US subs since 2011 (see). It is the Japanese Navy that will be the first Asian navy to deploy women on an Operational submarine - probably in 2022.

Following the “Women Good on Subs” article Anonymous provided very interesting comments and links on February 17, 2021 (8:43AM and 12:40PM) on women soon to be on operational Japanese submarines.

On January 22, 2020, the first female Naval Officer (above) joined the Submarine Training Center (STC) at Japanese Navy Base Kure (Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture)(Photo courtesy Japanese Navy - see Japanese Navy document STC48). As a submarine officer takes longer to train than Petty Officers or Seamen (below) she may still be in training for an extra year until JS Taigei (below) is ready.

(Group photo of 4 female Petty Officers. Photo courtesy Japanese Navy. See individual photos by scrolling down at STC48)

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Then, on February 26, 2020, four female Petty Officers (above) and one female leading seaman joined STC for training. See Petty Officer rank insignia here.

ASAHI SHIMBUN reported that on October 29, 2020 training of the 4 female Petty Officers and one female leading seaman in training submarine JS Michishio (TSS-3609) finished, ie. they won their Dolphins (see photo) at Japanese Navy Base Kure. 

Their joining an operational submarine has been postponed because the current Oyashio and Soryu class submarines are too small “to maintain privacy, but the Ministry of Defense lifted gender restrictions in 2018.”

JS Taigei (29SS), of the new Taigei-class, will be the first Operational Japanese submarine with the necessary larger size and fitout facilities (sleeping room/shower section) for women (see Japanese Navy document).

PETE COMMENT

To meet Taigei’s commissioning objective “around March 2022” Taigei might be handed over to the Japanese Navy for working-up testing and training later this year (2021). So the first 5 female submariners may join Taigei later this year and may then be on Taigei when it becomes operational in 2022.

I’m guessing South Korea's or Singapore's Navy may be the next navy in Asia to deploy woman on subs.

Anonymous and Pete