Senior government officials took pains Wednesday to keep the recent intrusion into Japanese territorial waters of suspected North Korean spy boats from becoming a catalyst for some legislators to galvanize the nation's legal defense frameworks.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka expressed reluctance toward the government reviewing the operating laws of the Self-Defense Forces anytime soon, suppressing calls for greater authority for SDF patrol missions.
Speaking before a special Lower House committee on Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines, Nonaka said it is SDF tactics, not laws, that should be reviewed in the wake of the SDF's failure to stop the two suspicious boats from fleeing into North Korea last week. "Our country's basic legal framework is already in good order. We should make efforts to come up with measures to cope with similar contingencies (under the current laws) by examining this incident," Nonaka said.