Aso negative about SDF dispatch to Afghanistan

TOKYO, Oct. 28 Kyodo - Prime Minister Taro Aso struck a negative note Tuesday on a possible dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces to Afghanistan, citing legal restrictions on their activities in the event of conflict overseas.

''We cannot dismiss the possibility that the SDF could be sucked into warfare.
There are differences of opinion on whether the Constitution allows us to fight
back by firing guns,'' Aso told a House of Councillors committee session.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura, Aso's right-hand man, also expressed
caution about the possible participation of the SDF in the activities of the
International Security Assistance Force in light of Japan's U.S.-drafted
Constitution which renounces war.
''When we consider our country's participation in the ISAF, careful
consideration would be necessary with regard to the Constitution,'' Kawamura
said at the upper house's committee on foreign affairs and defense.
Aso and Kawamura made the remarks at a time when the U.S. government has
sounded out Japan about sending ground troops to Afghanistan to help
reconstruct the war-torn country in addition to Japan's ongoing refueling
mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in
and near Afghanistan.
The prime minister and the top government spokesman attended the committee
session to discuss a government-sponsored bill to continue the refueling
mission next year.
The temporary law authorizing the refueling mission expires on Jan. 15, 2009,
and the bill aimed at extending the law for one year has already cleared the
House of Representatives, the more powerful lower chamber of the Diet.
Aso and Kawamura made the remarks in response to questions from ruling and
opposition lawmakers including Keiichiro Asao, the defense minister