In 2022, the Japanese government published three defense and security policy documents with the common goal of amplifying the country’s defense architecture and involvement in international security efforts. This amplification has in itself raised academic debate on whether the country is shedding its pacifist skin altogether or not, or changes to the country’s international identity through the new security posture. Less attention has been directed towards the policies’ identified challenges to reach the goal of a stronger defense, for example the country’s low birth rates, and difficulties in recruiting and maintaining personnel for their defense organization, the Self Defense Forces (SDF). Recognizing that these challenges are intertwined with dimensions and ideas of gender and that policy is constitutive of identity construction, this thesis analyses the discourse of one of the three documents through the frames of feminist security studies and ontological security theory. The findings in the analysis suggest that ideas of gender play a significant role in the identity construction of Japanese security policy. Moreover, the findings indicate that more than strengthening conventional military capabilities, efforts to enforce gender equality and strengthen women’s agency in Japan are necessary to resolve the country’s issues of recruitment and low birth rates.