Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Teijiro Furukawa indicated late July 9 that the need for the government to send Air Self-Defense Force planes to Cambodia to rescue Japanese people there has decreased.
Three C-130H transport aircraft were dispatched to Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, earlier in the day to stand by in case the more than 400 Japanese in Cambodia have to be evacuated. Furukawa said the government has not told the ASDF that the transport aircraft can stand down.
The aircraft were moved to Okinawa because it is the closest point in Japan to Cambodia, Furukawa said. Thai commercial planes have resumed traveling between Phnom Penh and Bangkok, and Cambodian private planes have started to fly between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Furukawa told a regularly scheduled news conference.