Following the deaths of 10 Japanese working for the Yokohama-based JGC Corp. during the seizure by Islamic militants of a natural gas complex in the Sahara desert in Algeria, the Liberal Democratic Party and the government began discussing how to revise the Self-Defense Forces Law.
They are proposing changes that would allow the SDF to rescue Japanese nationals involved in emergencies abroad such as armed conflicts and terrorist attacks by expanding the SDF's transportation activities and liberalizing the use of weapons by SDF members.
Unfortunately the LDP and the government's move seems more like an effort to lay the groundwork for liberalizing the current strict restrictions placed on the use of weapons by SDF members in foreign countries.