Opposition Bloc to Seek Cancellation of MSDF Middle East Mission

Tokyo, Jan. 8 (Jiji Press)--Major Japanese opposition parties on Wednesday agreed to press the government to cancel its plan to dispatch Maritime Self-Defense Force units to the Middle East, following Iranian missile attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq on the day. Some in the ruling bloc have also started to express concern over the MSDF mission, which is intended to gather information to ensure sea lane safety in the region, as tensions are expected to escalate further if the United States and Iran engage in a cycle of retaliation. The missile attack followed the U.S. airstrike last week that killed a key commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. At a meeting on Wednesday, the parliamentary affairs chiefs of major opposition parties, including the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, agreed that they will call on the government to withdraw the Dec. 27, 2019, cabinet decision on the MSDF deployment. "The planned dispatch deviates from Japan's neutral stance (in its Middle East diplomacy)," CDPJ parliamentary affairs chief Jun Azumi told reporters after the meeting. "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's decision (on the MSDF dispatch) is wrong." "We can't expose Self-Defense Forces members to danger based on such vague legal grounds as 'survey and research,'" Democratic Party for the People leader Yuichiro Tamaki said at a press conference, referring to the Defense Ministry establishment law's Article 4, which is used by the government as the basis for the mission. "We are against the deployment." Former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who currently sits as an independent, said: "The situation has changed since the cabinet decision. It will become a major topic in the coming ordinary Diet session." The 150-day regular session of the Diet, Japan's parliament, is slated to begin on Jan. 20. The government's insistence on going ahead with the mission gives the opposition bloc further ammunition to grill it at the Diet, on top of the corruption scandal involving casino-featuring integrated resorts, in which Tsukasa Akimoto, a lawmaker of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, and a former member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was arrested last month for allegedly receiving bribes from a Chinese company planning to run a casino resort in Japan. The opposition side intends to press the government over the MSDF deployment issue at off-session hearings of the Lower House's Committee on Security and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, both slated for Jan. 17. Meanwhile, Fumio Kishida, chairman of the LDP's Policy Research Council, told reporters at the party headquarters that "preparations should continue" for the MSDF dispatch, suggesting that the mission will take place as scheduled. But some in the ruling party have voiced concern over deteriorating security conditions in the Middle East. One former cabinet minister noted Japan's alliance with the United States as a source of concern, saying that there is fear that MSDF members may become a target of attacks once they are dispatched on the mission. "So we need to be cautious." The MSDF units "can't go (to the Middle East) if it becomes a battle zone," a mid-ranking LDP lawmaker said. The LDP plans to discuss the issue at a joint meeting of the foreign affairs and other divisions of the party on Thursday. "The cabinet decision has been made, but we may have to consider delaying the dispatch depending on circumstances," a senior official of Komeito, the coalition partner of the LDP, said. "It's a difficult situation." END