Japan could offer limited logistics support to the United States for an eventual military retaliation for last week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a senior government official said Sunday.
"We cannot transport arms and ammunition. But we can transport other than that to areas distant from battlefields," Shinzo Abe, deputy chief cabinet secretary, said in a television interview.
But Abe, a key aide to Prime Minister Junichiro Kozumi, said Japan's role would be limited because the country's pacifist post-World War II constitution places tight restrictions on military activities overseas by Japanese troops.
"Japan is allied with [the United States], and we have to handle this situation, being fully aware that expectations are high," Abe said in another television interview.
But "our country will take action within the framework of the constitution," which bans Japanese soldiers from involvement in international conflicts, he said.
Taro Aso, a policymaker in Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Japan should provide logistic support to the United States in the event of US retaliation.
"Logistics is important," the LDP Policy Research Council chairman said.
Japan "is a country that can be relied upon for transporting large amounts of supplies," Aso said, referring to Tokyo's possible support through US military bases in Japan.
Koizumi said last week his government would continue backing the United States even if it used force in retaliation for the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington which left thousands dead.
"Japan supports the US stance that the United States never yields to terrorism," the premier said. "We also have to show our firm stance."
Despite pressure from Washington, Japan failed to send any personnel during the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Instead, Tokyo provided nine billion dollars in financial backing.
In 1992, Japan passed new legislation to allow Japanese troops to join UN peacekeeping operations. It sent some 1,200 soldiers to Cambodia, the first dispatch of Japanese troops abroad since the end of World War II.
Active participation in war is ruled out under the country's current constitution.
"The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes," Article Nine of the Constitution states.
"Land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized," it says -- TOKYO (AFP)
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