Japan appears to be preparing for future wars with fewer soldiers at its disposal by turning to the “future” of warfare: drones. On Aug. 4, Japan’s Cabinet adopted its 2026 defense white paper, which places drones and AI-enabled systems at the center of the country’s defense strategy. Japan’s aging population and demographic woes are not new phenomena, and many have likely heard about them before. Japan’s turn toward unmanned warfare is a sensible response to the rewriting of conventional warfare by the Ukraine war, and also the demographic reality. But drone systems alone cannot produce the future generations upon which a military — and ultimately, a nation — depends.