The government will study enacting a new law to send the Self-Defense Forces to Afghanistan to help the war-torn country rebuild, Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma said Friday.
The government will also consider revising the current special antiterrorism measures law as an alternative to enable the SDF to provide such help, Kyuma said after meeting with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at NATO headquarters in the Belgian capital.
During the meeting, Kyuma told Scheffer that Japan will look into the possibility of the SDF supporting the reconstruction of Afghanistan, according to Japanese officials.
"Japan wants to consider to what extent its Self-Defense Forces would be able to extend support for Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts" under the constraints of the war-renouncing Constitution, the officials quoted Kyuma as telling the NATO official.