Days before the opening of this year's ordinary Diet session, Lower and Upper House security committees held special sessions focusing on Japan's controversial dispatch of a naval unit to the sea off Oman and Yemen amid still-high military tensions between Iran and the United States.
Friday's parliamentary debates made at least two things clear while underlining tough legal questions confronting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration amid the Iran-U.S. confrontation:
Firstly, Abe's government won't express any judgment on whether the U.S. assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was an act of self-defense as claimed by U.S. President Donald Trump, one of the world leaders closest to Abe.