Japan's army has just over 1 million antipersonnel land mines in stock and plans to dispose of them by 2003, Defense Agency Vice Minister Seiji Ema said Monday.

Ema announced that the Ground Self-Defense Force had 1,000,089 land mines as of March 31 and that the agency will soon start asking private firms to dismantle the mines and dispose of them.

The agency is making the move in accordance with the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, in which 121 nations, including Japan, vowed to abandon use of antipersonnel land mines, which kill and maim indiscriminately.

Ema added, however, that the GSDF will "exceptionally" retain 15,000 of the land mines to help GSDF officers learn land mine-blasting skills and to help develop technology to detect and dispose of land mines.

The vice minister also said that the GSDF plans to introduce alternative weapons -- now under development -- that would be able to distinguish between combatants and noncombatants and react only to enemies.