Japan is considering sending Self-Defense Force members to Afghanistan early next year to supply nongovernmental organizations with mine-removal equipment and help them remove land mines, government sources said Thursday.
Japan hopes to send fewer than 10 SDF members to serve in an individual capacity and not as a military unit, the sources said.
It is still unclear when U.N. peacekeeping operations, which are expected to include SDF troops, will be launched.
Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani is expected to tell U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Monday in Washington that Japan will be actively involved in Afghanistan's reconstruction, the sources said.
The SDF members will be dispatched under a law allowing SDF personnel to be on loan to international organizations and foreign government agencies, the sources said.
A Diet bill passed Friday allows SDF units to take part in mine-removal activities as part of U.N. peacekeeping operations.
Meanwhile, a newly introduced law enabling Japan to provide logistic support to the U.S-led campaign in Afghanistan limits any SDF dispatch to noncombat areas.
Afghanistan's Taliban forces have all but collapsed as a result of the U.S. military campaign. But fighting against Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts is expected to continue for some time.
The United States began military operations on Oct. 7 in Afghanistan after the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and leaders of the al-Qaeda network.