The Standard, or Type "B" division was organised as: Total personnel (19,770)[2][3] It was common for a Mountain Artillery regiment, with a total of 3400 men and 36 x Type 94 75 mm Mountain Guns, to be substituted for the Field Artillery regiment, especially for operations in rough terrain.
The IJA maintained two types of Independent Regiments, both were used to provide garrisons in occupied areas.
Similar to German Kampfgruppen, these detachments were usually a force of infantry, artillery, armor, and other support units which were temporarily assigned for independent action and had a special mission.
[5] Kempeitai Auxiliary units consists of regional ethnic forces in occupied areas.
Troops supplemented the Kempeitai and were considered part of the organization but were forbidden by law to rise above the rank of Shocho (Sergeant Major).
According to United States Army's TM-E 30-480 Handbook On Japanese Military Forces, there were over 36,000 regular members of the Kempeitai at the end of the war; this did not include the many ethnic "auxiliaries".
Taiwanese and Koreans were used extensively as auxiliaries to police the newly occupied territories in Southeast Asia, although the Kempeitai recruited French Indochinese (especially, from among the Cao Dai religious sect), Malaysians and others.
Upon reaching the age of 40 in peace-time, all soldiers in Classes I and II would be placed on the national service list and released from regular duties.
Before then, only a proportion of the secondary reserve service had been called to active duty, during the Russo-Japanese War.
Sole supporters of families and criminals sentenced to over six years penal servitude were automatically listed as Class IV-D and exempted from all service.
Students at certain higher secondary schools were classified as Class V-E until they had finished their studies or upon reaching the age of 27, whichever came first.
From December 1927, conscripts who had completed a course of study with the requisite marks at a government-run Young Men's Training Institute ("Seinen Kunrenshou"), the curriculum of which included 200 hours of military training, could have their period of active service reduced to 18 months.