What was service life and social mobility like for Imperial Japanese Navy personnel?
Short answerIt was difficult and strongly constrained by class; breaking through social ceilings was far harder than in Britain, while long senior tenures gave individual chiefs unusually sustained influence.
NotesBritain retained strong class deference, but exceptional officers could sometimes cross the barrier, with still greater obstacles for women and minorities. In the Japanese system of this period, such movement was nearly impossible. Institutional rigidity also accompanied the long service of senior naval leaders, whose appointments could last far longer than the roughly three-year turnover common among British counterparts. A small number of long-serving leaders could shape Japanese naval policy and organizational culture for much of a decade.