With campaigning for the July 11 House of Councilors election officially starting Thursday, New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki says his party has to get the message out that the Self-Defense Forces will stick to humanitarian activities even after joining a U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.
"I understand (the public) is concerned that the word 'multinational force' gives the impression that the SDF are entering a new stage" in their overseas activities, Kanzaki said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.
He said the idea probably reminds people of the 1991 Gulf War, when a similar multinational force engaged in military strikes against Iraq. The SDF has never participated in a multinational force based on a U.N. resolution, as Japan cannot exercise its right of collective self-defense under the war-renouncing Constitution.