Japanese Navy Sails To Combat Piracy

There is another aspect to this story that is not being discussed as much. The Japanese Navy is going on a security mission. By Japanese law they are not supposed to go out and hunt and kill the enemy. Japan did deploy troops to Iraq, but the mission there was clearly humanitarian in origin. Anyway perhaps they will be as successful as Dutch ships recently.

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Two Japanese destroyers set sail Saturday on an anti-piracy mission off Somalia, the Japanese defense ministry said.

The Japanese Cabinet approved the mission Friday. It marks the first policing action for the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF), whose major overseas missions have previously focused on background support such as transport and refueling, Japan's Kyodo news agency said.

The move comes after Somali pirates released a Japanese-owned vessel that was hijacked in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden in November, according to a nongovernmental group that monitors piracy. The ship was released last month.

Roughly 400 MSDF personnel and eight coast guard officers are aboard the two destroyers, each of which carry two SH-60K patrol helicopters and two speedboats, officials told Kyodo.

The Rules of Engagement are simple, they can fire in their own defense and fire warning shots at pirates. There is a currently a bill in the Japanese Diet that would increase the ships ability to attack pirates.


From the Japanese Constitution:

CHAPTER II: RENUNCIATION OF WAR

Article 9:

Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. 2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.

Obviously they maintain a military, even with America's security umbrella it was needed.