Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated Wednesday that Japan would not deploy Self-Defense Force troops to foreign countries or to their territorial waters if contentious security reform bills are enacted by the Diet.

The only possible exception in the Middle East would be mine-sweeping operations in territorial waters of nations along the Strait of Hormuz, through which 80 percent of crude oil shipments to Japan pass, he said.

"At present, I have no other example in my mind" in the Middle East, Abe told a Diet committee.