Japan`s antipiracy mission uncertain as ruling bloc remains divided+

TOKYO, Jan. 7 Kyodo -
The ruling coalition decided Wednesday to launch a project team to discuss
dispatching Maritime Self-Defense Force ships to waters off Somalia on an
antipiracy mission, but obstacles abound as members of the parties remain out
of sync over the proper legal grounds for such a deployment.
The passage of a new antipiracy bill, which Prime Minister Taro Aso apparently
hopes to see passed by the end of the current parliamentary session through
June 3, is also by no means certain, as senior members of the main opposition
Democratic Party of Japan, which along with other opposition parties controls
the House of Councillors, appear reluctant to support the proposed legislation.
Aso is eyeing dispatching the MSDF under maritime policing rules in the
Self-Defense Forces Law as a stopgap measure until a new law passes the Diet,
but the use of such a provision has been brushed aside by his top defense
lieutenant and fellow Liberal Democratic Party member, Defense Minister
Yasukazu Hamada.
Hamada has pointed out that MSDF ships cannot protect foreign ships even if
they are dispatched, because maritime policing is only aimed at protecting
Japanese lives and assets -- namely, Japanese-registered ships or others with
Japanese crew on board.
The minister says such restrictions could be harmful to Japan's interests if
the MSDF is expected to, but cannot, protect non-Japanese ships in concert with
the navies of other countries.
Protecting non-Japanese ships in such a way could be construed as an act of
collective defense. Japan takes the position that it has the right to defend an
ally under attack under international law but cannot exercise the right under
its pacifist Constitution.
Farm minister Shigeru Ishiba, a former defense minister, also reportedly asked
Aso to give up the idea of an MSDF dispatch under the policing rules, saying
the provision does not have in mind a dispatch to waters off Somalia.
Meanwhile, the New Komeito party, the LDP's junior coalition partner, appears
largely accommodating over the maritime policing option, with Natsuo Yamaguchi,
secretary general of the party's Policy Research Council, saying, ''I've left
it up to the government to deal with it (the piracy issue) in accordance with
the existing law.''
Even opposition DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa has said there is ''no constitutional
question'' about a dispatch under the rules.
But when it comes to a new antipiracy law, support for it appears not to be
spreading so easily within the ranks of DPJ members.
''We should have a responsible debate after a House of Representatives
election,'' which must be held by September, Masayuki Naoshima, secretary
general of the DPJ Policy Research Council, said recently.
Although New Komeito has agreed to set up the project team with the LDP, its
position on enacting a new law remains unclear, with Yamaguchi saying
antipiracy measures are ''primarily the task of the Japan Coast Guard, and the
Self-Defense Forces are to supplement them.''
A senior Foreign Ministry official speculated that, with the lower house
election to be held by the fall, both the DPJ and New Komeito may not decide on
whether a new law is necessary until they have gauged public opinion.
Concerning setting up the ruling coalition project team, Aso told reporters
Wednesday, ''In a situation in which other countries including China have sent
navies (to the region), it is very important for Japan to think about what it
can do from the standpoint of protecting its people and property.''
As piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia have increased substantially
recently, countries such as the United States and members of the European Union
have begun sending their naval ships there to protect commercial vessels from
heavily armed pirates.
Japanese officials and lawmakers also began discussing the dispatch of the MSDF
to waters off Somalia on antipiracy missions, but no established legal
framework exists for such missions.
One possible legal basis is the maritime policing provision in the SDF law.
Such maritime policing is conducted by the military instead of the Japan Coast
Guard in situations that go beyond the latter's capabilities to protect
Japanese lives and assets.
Such policing, however, has restrictions on the use of weapons, which, in
principle, may be used only in self-defense or in emergency evacuations.
The range of policing will also be restricted in missions overseas because the
use of force against ships is limited to operations within Japanese territorial
waters, not waters off the coast of Somalia.
These restrictions have prompted a move to propose a new law that would make it
easier to dispatch the SDF overseas on antipiracy missions and allow it to
operate more effectively, but some critics have voiced concerns about the
compatibility of such a law with the constitutional limits placed on the SDF.
==Kyodo