Japan isn’t sending minesweepers to Middle East, says PM Takaichi

Japan wouldn’t be able to get involved in mine clearance as long as the conflict continues. Read more at straitstimes.com.

TOKYO – Japan’s pacifist Constitution wouldn’t bar the country from helping with mine clearance around the Strait of Hormuz at the conclusion of the war between the US, Israel and Iran, but Tokyo has no plans to deploy minesweepers to the region, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said.

Responding to questions in Parliament on March 12, Ms Takaichi said that while details about the possible laying of sea mines by Iran around the Strait of Hormuz are unclear, in theory Japan wouldn’t be able to get involved in mine clearance as long as the conflict continues.

That’s because doing so could be considered a use of military force against another country, which the Constitution disallows unless Japan’s own existence is deemed under threat.

If a war has been formally concluded, those mines might be considered abandoned, and could then be cleared without violating the Constitution, she said.

“It is extremely difficult in practice to predict at what specific point mines that were initially laid as part of an armed attack against another country would become abandoned mines,” Ms Takaichi said.

“In the light of that uncertainty, it is not envisaged that, as a preparatory step for removing mines, Self-Defence Force assets would be deployed to nearby areas,” she said.