The Japanese military may give logistic support to the United States in its campaign against terrorists in Afghanistan but will not venture near the frontline, a government spokesman said Tuesday.
"Whatever role the Self Defense Forces will play, they will not be in the battlefield. They will only be involved in rear-area activities," said Norio Hattori, deputy press secretary for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"We will act within the framework of the constitution. The constitution does not allow the use of force to resolve international conflicts," he said.
The spokesman also denied a report in the conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper that the United States had asked Japan to help transport wounded US soldiers from the front lines to US medical facilities in Japan.
Patrick Linehan, spokesman for the US embassy in Tokyo, also denied a Sankei report Tuesday that Washington had asked Tokyo to set up and run a field hospital in Pakistan, as the presence of Japan -- a major aid donor -- might not be as provocative as that of Americans.
"The United States has not asked (Japan) to do anything concrete yet," Linehan told AFP. "We don't know what we need Japan to do yet."
On Monday the Kyodo news agency said a Japanese destroyer armed with the Aegis combat system -- and three other naval ships with some 900 crew members aboard -- were set to leave as early as Thursday for the Indian Ocean where they would meet up with US naval forces led by the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.
It would be the first time armed Japanese forces were dispatched abroad in connection with a US military operation since the imposition of a post-World War Two constitutional ban on the use of force overseas, Kyodo said.
The September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have led Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to pledge a legislative change allowing Japan to provide logistical support to US forces.
Japan's parliament reopens Thursday and lawmakers are expected to take up the issue.
About 70 percent of the Japanese public favor mobilizing the military in a support role against terrorism, a poll by the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun showed Tuesday -- TOKYO (AFP)
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