Japan’s warships in the Middle East cast spotlight on Abe’s military ambitions
- The deployment has raised fresh speculation over the prime minister’s aim of revising Japan’s war-renouncing constitution
- Under Abe, Japan has bulked up its defence spending in response to China’s growing military clout and nuclear-armed North Korea
The government maintains the move is designed to enhance Tokyo’s intelligence-gathering capabilities after a series of attacks on ships that the United States and Britain have blamed on Iran, but analysts see it as an ongoing bid by Abe to ensure the country can have a traditional military.
The US-imposed constitution adopted by Japan after World War II forbids it from maintaining a military or using force internationally. Its Self-Defence Forces (SDF) protect the Japanese mainland and also support the approximately 50,000 US troops based there.
Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Tuesday informed his United States counterpart, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that Japan would redeploy a warship that is presently conducting anti-piracy sweeps around the Horn of Africa to help protect waterways off Oman. There are also proposals to support the operation by using patrol aircraft that are already in the region.
That vessel will be joined by another ship from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) before the end of the year.
The two warships will be authorised to use force to defend Japanese merchant vessels, Kyodo News reported, but Tokyo has made it clear that the MSDF ships will not be part of a naval coalition force that Washington is attempting to put together as tensions grow with Iran.