Military

DATE=11/16/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=JAPAN/MILITARY (S/L)

NUMBER=2-283225

BYLINE=AMY BICKERS

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Japan's cabinet has approved a plan for the nation's military to provide rear-guard support to the U-S-led war on terrorism. As V-O-A Tokyo Correspondent Amy Bickers reports, the plan outlines the country's first overseas, wartime deployment since World War Two.

TEXT: The military plan, drawn up in consultation with U-S defense officials, sets out Japan's contribution to the U-S-led strikes on suspected terrorist sites in Afghanistan.

Japan says it will dispatch six planes and five ships to several locations in Asia and the Middle East. Tokyo has already sent three warships to the Indian Ocean. It plans to deploy about 15-hundred military personnel.

Defense Agency Chief General Nakatani says Japan may send one of its four Aegis destroyers (prono: ee-jis), which have sophisticated radar systems and can launch numerous missiles at once.

/// NAKATANI ACT IN JAPANESE, FADE UNDER ///

Mr. Nakatani says that if he can get the support of the government, he hopes that it will consider including one of these vessels.

While most Japanese people support a rear-guard role in the war for the nation's troops, the deployment is controversial. While a new law allows Tokyo to provide non-combat support to the United States in the current military effort, the country's pacifist constitution bars Japan from taking part in overseas military conflicts.

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With most of Afghanistan now under opposition control, the role of Japan's Self-Defense Forces remains unclear. Tokyo says it is eager to help reconstruct the nation and will co-chair a multi-national meeting in Washington next week on the issue.

The Japanese government is eager to show it can offer more than financial support to the anti-terror campaign, as opposed to the Gulf War 10 years ago. Then, it helped fund the allied operation but only sent minesweepers to the Gulf when the fighting was over. (Signed)

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