Japan will send six Self-Defense Force troops next month to Nepal to participate in a UN military observer mission, Kyodo News reported Tuesday.

This would be the first overseas SDF mission since the upgrade of the Defense Agency to a ministry, as well as since the law to redefine international cooperation activities overseas as a main, rather than subordinate, duty for the SDF, took effect.

The six troop, set to leave Japan on Friday, will arrive in Katmandu on Saturday to serve in several locations as military monitors, according to the Defense Ministry. Their mission will continue until March 31, 2008, the report said.

Japan sent two fact-finding missions in late January and early March, to determine the dispatch situation for the SDF troops.

Source: Xinhua