The incident took place at a Japanese Self-Defence Forces facility in the city of Gifu on Wednesday, Aljazeera reported.
“During a live-bullet exercise as part of new personnel training, one Self-Defence Forces candidate fired at three personnel,” the Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF) said in a statement.
“The death of another person has been confirmed of the three who were shot at,” the GSDF added later after earlier announcing one soldier had died and two had been injured.
Government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno earlier said the attack happened at about 9.00 am [00:00 GMT] and a suspect had been arrested without giving further details.
Public broadcaster NHK reported the suspect was a teenage soldier and had fired an automatic weapon.
A local police spokesman who declined to be identified told the AFP news agency the suspect was an 18-year-old candidate recruit who was detained by other soldiers on the spot.
AMK/PR