The government submitted a bill to the Diet on Friday to enable the Japan Coast Guard to inspect ships suspected of carrying banned cargo to and from North Korea.

The bill, which was approved by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's Cabinet on Friday morning, will not involve the Self-Defense Forces, unlike a similar bill submitted to the Diet by the previous government led by the Liberal Democratic Party.

This is out of consideration for the Social Democratic Party, one of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's two junior coalition partners, which opposes SDF involvement in such inspections.