The fierce "fighting" detailed in the recently disclosed daily activity logs of Self-Defense Forces personnel deployed to South Sudan as part of the United Nations-led peacekeeping mission has been rephrased as "armed clashes." Officials are concerned that escalation of hostilities between government and rebel forces could force Japan to pull out its troops under the terms of the law for its participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations. Opposition lawmakers accuse the government of trying to downplay the security situation in South Sudan to justify the deployment of SDF troops there — currently Japan's sole overseas peacekeeping mission.

Instead of playing with words to legitimize its actions, the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should look squarely at the security situation in South Sudan to review its continued deployment of the peacekeepers and its decision last year to add a new mission of rescuing other troops and civilian workers under attack, which brings the SDF personnel closer to possible exchanges of fire.

The 1993 law paving way for Japan to join the U.N. peacekeeping missions calls for a cease-fire agreement among warring parties as a key condition for the deployment of Japanese peacekeepers. Article 9 of the Constitution renounces "use of force as a means of settling international disputes," and the cease-fire requirement is meant to ensure that the Japanese peacekeeping troops would not use force as a result of getting caught up in the fighting between local warring parties.