Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani said Monday that the softened weapons-use rules being proposed for Self-Defense Forces personnel engaged in U.N. peacekeeping activities do not violate the Constitution.

The defense chief made the remarks during a plenary session of the House of Councilors, which is debating a bill to ease weapons restrictions on SDF personnel. The bill passed the House of Representatives on Friday and is likely to be enacted this Friday, as the Upper House is expected to pass it, lawmakers said.

The legislation would permit SDF members to use arms to protect not only themselves, but people under their control as well. It would only give them "a right that is natural for self-preservation. It would not constitute any violation of the Constitution," Nakatani said.

Japan's supreme law bans the country from using military force to settle international disputes.

Nakatani argued that the eased rules are also within the scope of the aims of the five principles for SDF participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations, including the condition that weapons-use be limited to the "minimum necessary" to protect the lives of personnel.

The bill would allow the SDF to expand its role in U.N. peacekeeping operations, but Nakatani said the government has not decided whether an SDF team would assume a greater role in Afghanistan, even if a U.N. peacekeeping force is dispatched there.

Regarding the fledgling state of East Timor, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said the government has not concretely studied the feasibility of letting an SDF team assume a greater role there.

Japan plans to send SDF troops to East Timor as part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission, mainly to take over operations being conducted by Pakistani and Bangladeshi forces. At the moment, those operations include building and repairing roads and bridges in areas bordering Indonesia's West Timor.

The bill would lift the ban imposed by the 1992 Law Concerning Cooperation for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and Other Operations, which governs activities such as monitoring ceasefires, disarming local forces, patrolling demilitarized zones, and the collection and disposal of abandoned weapons.

Until now, the SDF has taken part in less dangerous activities, such as building infrastructure and providing transportation and medical support.