Japan says bar high for sending warships to protect Gulf oil lane

Senior Japanese policy adviser did not rule out the possibility but said it has to be considered carefully. Read more at straitstimes.com.

TOKYO – A senior Japanese policy adviser said on March 15 the threshold is “extremely high” for Tokyo to send its warships to help protect a shipping lane for oil in the Middle East, hours after US President Donald Trump’s call for other countries to do so.

Two weeks after the United States and Israel attacked Iran, the Gulf region remained in the grip of the conflict, sending oil prices soaring as Iran has choked off the vital Strait of Hormuz and attacked Gulf energy facilities.

After earlier vowing that the US Navy would “very soon” begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, Mr Trump called for reinforcements on March 14 from countries including Japan.

The world’s No. 4 economy is the fifth-biggest importer of oil – 95 per cent of it from the Middle East and 70 per cent passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which is now effectively closed.

“I regard the threshold as extremely high” for sending Japanese navy ships to the region under existing Japanese laws, said Mr Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), on March 15 on public broadcaster NHK’s political debate programme.

“Legally speaking, we do not rule out the possibility, but given the current situation in which this conflict is ongoing, I believe this is something that must be considered with great caution,” he said.