The Japanese government, acting under a special antiterrorism law, decided Nov. 19 to extend Japan's logistic support for U.S. forces for six months through next May. The decision calls for dispatching a transport ship and an escort destroyer to deliver heavy machinery from Thailand to Qatar for airfield construction in Afghanistan.
In the event of a U.S. military strike against Iraq, this additional deployment of Self-Defense Forces vessels will be construed as indirect support for U.S. operations in the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. In this connection, whether to send a high-performance Aegis destroyer will again become a hot political issue.
The critical question for Japan is what kind of role it should play in the international coalition to fight the new threats of the 21st century -- global terrorism and the development and/or deployment of weapons of mass destruction by the countries that Washington calls rogue states.