Once again there is political debate over military-related legislation under the shadow of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, and once again it has revealed confusion over the international law and constitutional issues involved. The debate is over the extension of the Antiterrorism Special Measures Law (ATSML), which is the legal authority under which the Maritime SDF (MSDF) is providing logistical and intelligence support in the Indian Ocean for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) operations in Afghanistan.

The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has announced its opposition to extending the law while the governing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has committed itself to either extending the ATSML or passing a new law in its place. The confusion revealed by their arguments has serious ramifications not only for the decision on the ATSML, but also for the broader discussion on constitutional reform.

There are a number of aspects of the debate that reveal this confusion, but here let us focus on just one — the significance of U.N. authority for the operations in Afghanistan.