During the interview, Commander Otani was cautious in providing specific examples of the gender discrimination that she and her female colleagues might have experienced in the MSDF.

However, after describing the moment as a junior lieutenant officer when she was asked when she was quitting her job after marrying, she said: “Back then, people were just not used to working with women so they did not know how females would work. So I felt responsible as a female officer to show everyone - with my own work ethics and attitude – that I could do the same jobs that my male colleagues could do too.”

As the mother of a daughter, plus having been married twice (her current husband is a fellow destroyer captain), Commander Otani is acutely aware of the modern day struggles facing working women trying to balance family with careers.

“My work is on a ship, so I have to be away from my family for many months at a time,” she said. “So I might have to ask my parents to help take care of my children. I feel the dilemma of not being there to raise my child.”

Among the biggest challenges facing women in the armed forces was not the task of creating gender-balanced policies – but the challenges of implementing them in a famously hard working culture, according to Commander Otani.