The Defense Agency intends to include measures to improve the welfare conditions for members of the Self-Defense Forces in Japan's next five-year defense buildup plan for fiscal 2001-2005, agency sources said Friday.
The measures include increasing the amount of compensation for families of those killed in the line of duty -- currently lower than that for police officers and firefighters -- and the creation of educational loans for such members' children.
More than 1,700 SDF members have been killed on duty since the forces' predecessor was created in 1950.