Japan Press Weekly

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2010 November 24 - 30 [SDF]

Dispatch SDF medics to Afghanistan?

The government intention to dispatch medical officers of the Self-Defense Forces to Afghanistan is arousing criticism and concern within the governing party itself.

Prime Minister Kan Naoto the other day promised U.S. President Barack Obama that he would consider the dispatch of SDF medics to Afghanistan to cooperate in the training of the Afghan National Army by NATO forces and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). To push ahead with the dispatch plan, the Kan government is using a general provision of “education and training” in the Defense Ministry Establishment Act as an excuse and is attempting to not have to make a new law to cover the dispatch.

Japanese Communist Party representative Inoue Satoshi on November 17 at a House of Councilors Budget Committee meeting pointed out that 3,268 civilians in Afghanistan have already been killed or injured during the first half of this year alone and stated, “All of Afghanistan is a battlefield.” Inoue demanded that the government cancel the dispatch plan on the grounds that SDF officers under ISAF command would be in violation of the war-renouncing Constitution.

A conservative heavyweight in the Liberal Democratic Party who once served as the Secretary General of the former Defense Agency said, “It is very reckless of the Kan government to send the SDF to such a dangerous place without Diet deliberation.” He went on to say, “Being under control of the ISAF may be seen as an ‘integration of the use of force’ which conflicts with the Constitution. The ‘education and training’ provision in the Defense Ministry Establishment Act is subject only to SDF personnel. So it would be impossible to interpret this provision so it can be applied to the training of foreign troops.”

Even among the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, criticism is growing such as, “The promise Kan made to the United States was wrong in the first place because the party didn’t hold any in-house discussion at all.”

A DPJ member who is well-versed in issues regarding the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty said, “It’s not something like going to the rescue in quake-hit Haiti. SDF medics provide an important military function. So, before sending them to the battlefront, we have many hurdles to overcome. Our party leadership doesn’t seem to understand the seriousness of the matter. It is as a matter of course for some SDF officials to have a sense of resistance at a time like this.”
- Akahata, November 23, 2010