The government panel on security issues will propose that Japan help defend not only the United States but also other allied nations by exercising the right of collective self-defense, the panel's acting chairman said Tuesday.

Shinichi Kitaoka, president of the International University of Japan, said in an interview that the panel will state in a forthcoming report that Japan can exercise the right when "countries with close ties (with it)" are under attack and it is deemed Japan could also come to harm.

Collective self-defense is the concept of a nation coming to the aid of another that is under attack.