A Perspective from Japan

Why Japan Wants to Send Its Troops to Afghanistan

 

Cultural News 2008 December

 

 

By Motoaki Kamiura, Military Analyst

Translated by Alan Gleason

 

   Few Japanese are aware that the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) wants to dispatch Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) troops to Afghanistan. The most likely candidates for deployment would be a GSDF transport helicopter unit or escorted transport truck unit.

 

   Surprisingly, the DPJ’s stance does not differ from that of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The rationale is that Japan would be contributing to the international community by sending its forces to Afghanistan. The problem is that Japan’s Constitution prohibits the “use of force as means of settling international disputes” (i.e., participation in war) by the Self-Defense Forces. The SDF is allowed to fight only for the purpose of “self-defense of the nation.”

 

    To avoid violating this stipulation, Japan wants to send SDF troops to regions that are at peace, not at war, to participate in peacekeeping operations (PKOs) by the United Nations. Currently Japan has forty SDF officers working with UN PKOs, the smallest number of any of the G8 countries, and 80th among all participating nations. By dispatching troops to Afghanistan, Japan hopes to burnish its international credentials.

 

    But before PKO forces can be sent to Afghanistan, the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency must agree to a ceasefire and formally ask the UN Security Council for assistance in restoring the security and infrastructure of the country. So the first condition for SDF deployment is a truce in Afghanistan.

 

    Furthermore, the Taliban would have to sever ties with Al-Qaeda and not interfere with the anti-Al-Qaeda operations of U.S. forces and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in the country.

 

      The UNSC is therefore contemplating the division of Afghanistan into two regions: one in which anti-terrorist operations against Al-Qaeda would continue, and one in which the PKO forces would operate. Under the terms of Japan’s UN PKO Assistance Law, it would be permissible to dispatch SDF troops to the PKO region only.

 

      The same approach is already being taken in Sudan. On October 4 the Japanese government made a Cabinet-level decision to assign two GSDF officials to the UN’s PKO headquarters in southern Sudan, where they will handle logistics and intelligence. However, government and anti-government forces are still at war in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Defining southern Sudan as a distinct region from the west is what makes PKO activities feasible in the south. Japan sent these two SDF officers to the south in anticipation of a larger deployment of SDF troops to the region in the future.

 

    The election of Barack Obama as president of the United States has increased speculation that America may wind down its war on terrorism. In anticipation of this, U.S. troops are stepping up their operations against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Realizing that it may not be able to defeat the Taliban, the U.S. Central Command has also approved the idea of a truce between the Taliban and the Karzai government.

 

    It is against the background of these developments that even the opposition DPJ has begun entertaining serious thoughts about SDF deployment to Afghanistan.

 

Motoaki Kamiura is a Tokyo-based military analyst. When the world is in crisis, he appears frequently on national television programs.

    Alan Gleason is an editor, writer, and Japanese-English translator. He lives in Tokyo.