Overseas land transport by SDF

The Abe Cabinet on April 19 endorsed a bill to revise the Self-Defense Forces Law to allow SDF members to use land vehicles to rescue and transport Japanese and other nationals caught in an emergency overseas.

The government hopes that the Diet will enact the bill in its current session.

At present, the SDF Law only allows use of ships and aircraft in such an operation. The government wrote the bill in response to the seizure of a natural gas complex in Ain Amenas in the Sahara desert in Algeria in January by Islamic militants, in which 10 Japanese were killed. But one wonders whether the revision will be really useful. There even is the possibility of putting both civilians and SDF members in harm's way.