Japanese lawmakers held the first meeting Friday to begin drafting a bill specifically for the dispatch of Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) ships abroad on anti-piracy missions, seeking wider global influence of Japan's military.
The project team of ruling parties is expected to reach a conclusion by around mid-March so that the government can submit the bill during the current parliamentary session, scheduled to run through early June, Kyodo News said.
U.S., European and Chinese vessels have all been dispatched to waters off Somalia to stop pirates who attacked more than 100 boats last year.
The Article 9 of current Japanese pacifist constitution after World War II only allows the MSDF to protect ships flying Japanese flags or carrying Japanese nationals.
Japanese officials and lawmakers have been discussing the dispatch of the MSDF to waters off Somalia to join the international effort, but no established legal framework exists for such a mission.
On Friday's meeting, project team members agreed to consider drafting an anti-piracy law in accordance with the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and agreed that maritime policing does not constitute the use of force, participants said.
However, they acknowledged that the government needs to be careful in making the law because such policing activity is primarily the coast guard's job.
Meanwhile, Thomas Schieffer, U.S. ambassador to Japan, told Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun in an interview published on Friday that Japan should join anti-piracy missions near Somalia no matter the step would violate the pacifist constitution.
"I hope Japan will make a contribution and will do more to help rid the world of this scourge of piracy that we're experiencing now," Thomas Schieffer said, adding "I don't know why it would take so long for Japan to defend itself against piracy."
"If they were the sailors of another nation, I can understand the problems that Article 9 of the Constitution would present," he said.
"Pirates aren't citizens of any country; they are outlaws. And the law, international law, gives any country in the world the authority to protect itself against pirates."
Kyodo said it is also expected to consider deploying the MSDF to waters off the coast of Somalia under the maritime policing provision in the Self-Defense Forces Law as a stopgap measure until the proposed bill is passed.
Japan has been steadily widening its role in global security issues by taking part in the reconstruction of Iraq and sending MSDF in refueling mission in the Indian Ocean to assist U.S.-led anti-terrorism in Afghanistan.
Source: Xinhua
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