Japan withdraws naval support for US war in Afghanistan

The law was the subject of weeks of parliamentary debate. Fukuda argued that as the world’s second largest economy, Japan must have a corresponding global military role. But the DPJ insisted the Afghan mission violated the pacifist clause of Japan’s constitution. Fukuda attempted to compromise with DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa last Tuesday but failed to reach agreement. With the DPJ threatening to oppose the law’s renewal in the upper house, the government allowed the legislation to lapse.

The collapse of the naval operation in the Indian Ocean is not only a blow to the fragile Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government, but points to a broader crisis of Japanese foreign policy. Former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi latched onto the Bush administration’s “war on terrorism” and backed the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, as the means for advancing his own plans for subverting the constitution’s pacifist clause, remilitarising Japan and adopting a more assertive stance in North East Asia.