Three Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels will leave Kobe next week to deliver 500 makeshift shelters to earthquake victims in Turkey, Defense Agency chief Hosei Norota announced Friday.
Leaving port on Sept. 24, the MSDF ships are scheduled to arrive in Turkey Oct. 19 to deliver the temporary dwelling units once used by Kobe-area residents made homeless by the Great Hanshin Earthquake in January 1995.
The three MSDF vessels to be dispatched are the 8,900-ton amphibious landing ship Oshumi, the 8,100-ton fast combat support ship Tokiwa and the 5,600-ton minesweeper tender Bungo.
The MSDF contingent, which will include 430 members, will call at Alexandria, northern Egypt, for replenishments on its way to Turkey and back. On the return trip, the vessels will also call at Singapore before returning to Japan in late November.
The idea of sending prefabricated shelters used after the Kobe quake to Turkey was brought up by Hyogo Gov. Toshitami Kaihara in late August.
The proposal, however, had been stalled due to the high shipping costs -- estimated at 350,000 yen per shelter by a private shipping firm -- that the Turkish government would have to bear.
Defense Agency chief Norota suggested to Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura earlier this month that the MSDF vessels be used for the shipment, saying those vessels are in operation all the time and their dispatch to Turkey would not require much additional expense.