The Self-Defense Forces are finally crossing the line to participate in a real war for the first time in their history, even though their role will be limited to logistic support.

As it turns out, breaking the half-century taboo under the war-renouncing Constitution to participate in a war only took a couple of months to achieve after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.

It was, however, the fruit of a decade-long government effort to gradually but steadily expand the scope of the SDF's activities in the wake of the Gulf War. The public's perceptions of the military have also drastically changed since that time.

When the U.S. launched its military campaign against terrorist targets in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, most major Japanese media expressed support or understanding and endorsed Japan's plan to cooperate in the effort.

Even the Asahi Shimbun, deemed the most left-leaning among the major national dailies, said in an editorial that the U.S. airstrikes were unavoidable, although every day it runs the opinions of intellectuals harshly denouncing the U.S. action.

The Yomiuri Shimbun, which boasts the world's largest circulation, advocated on its front page that Japan exercise the right to collective defense so that the SDF can help the U.S. military as its ally.

Amid the media's supportive stance there has been a change in public perceptions of security affairs.

Media surveys taken soon after the U.S.-led airstrikes began found that a majority of Japanese support SDF participation in the operations.

A poll by the Mainichi Shimbun, another major daily, found 57 percent of the respondents supported the government-sponsored bill to allow the SDF to be dispatched to offer logistic support, while 37 percent were opposed.

Opposition lawmakers have criticized Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government, saying its insistence on the SDF dispatch stems from bitters memories over Japan's failure to make a visible contribution to the multinational force that evicted Iraq from Kuwait in the Gulf War.

The public may not be dogged by the same misgivings as government officials, but their attitude has also significantly changed since the Gulf War.

In a 1989 government poll, only 22.4 percent of the respondents either actively or tacitly endorsed the SDF being dispatched overseas on United Nations peacekeeping operations, while 46.5 percent were opposed. Other surveys, conducted after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, also found a vast majority of the public opposed dispatching the SDF to help the multinational force.

Things changed after the Gulf War, when Japan, despite its massive financial aid, came under criticism for not committing personnel to the effort. Three major newspaper surveys found that between 61 percent and 75 percent of the public supported the dispatch of Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweepers to the Persian Gulf to help in the postwar stabilization effort. It marked the SDF's first mission overseas.

In 1992, opposition forces centering on the Social Democratic Party of Japan (the current Social Democratic Party) resorted to "ox walk" tactics to delay a vote in the Diet and demonstrate their opposition to a bill to allow SDF participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations. At that time, however, polls found more people supported SDF participation in U.N. peacekeeping than those who were opposed.

The end of the Cold War ironically found the SDF looking to expand its role from its original mandate of defending Japan from the Soviet threat.

Government surveys found more and more people wanting the military to include disaster relief and international contribution in its brief, while on a yearly basis, fewer prioritized its national defense role.

"Our main mission is national defense and no war is best," said Cmdr. Hiroshi Oka, who participated in the 1991 minesweeping mission in the Persian Gulf. "But we can make visible international contributions on missions overseas."

An MSDF public affairs official who recently briefed college students hoping to join the SDF about the military's activities, found many were interested in joining a force that makes international contributions.

Oka said one of the big changes after the Gulf War is that "people are now able to have frank discussions on security affairs."

Although most of the public apparently no longer have misgivings about the military in their midst, many in the SDF appear perplexed about their raison d'etre, now that the forces' tasks have been expanded, in the wake of Sept. 11, to include transport of supplies, humanitarian assistance for refugees, medical aid and guarding U.S. military installations in Japan.

The generation that experienced war, however, tends to be more cautious. Hiromu Nonaka, a 76-year-old key member of the Liberal Democratic Party, often voices reluctance to hasten debate on dispatching the SDF to aid in the U.S.-led war effort in the name of international contribution.

He told a TV program last month that people of his generation must have the courage to ensure that Japan doesn't rush headlong into conflicts overseas.