Roundup: Abe plans new legislation for SDF in rescue missions overseas

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told an Upper House session on Tuesday he plans to draft legislation to allow the nation's Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to be deployed overseas to rescue Japanese nationals deemed in danger.

The prime minister's calls for a new legal paradigm to permit the SDF to rescue Japanese nationals, comes on the heels of two Japanese nationals purportedly being kidnapped and executed by the Islamic State (IS) militant group recently.

"We will develop legislation to enable the SDF to rescue Japanese nationals on the premise that we can gain approval from the host country," Abe was quoted as saying in an Upper House session on Tuesday.

"It's unacceptable that we cannot protect the lives of Japanese nationals because of a flaw in the country's legal system," said Abe.

Abe, currently reworking Japan's decades-old pacifist security stance, as evidenced by last year's historic reinterpretation of Japan's war-renouncing Constitution, wants to see the SDF legally permitted to conduct rescue operations overseas.

Under the current law, Japanese forces are only allowed to transport Japanese nationals overseas, but the prime minister would like to see this extended to allow Japanese forces to operate along the lines and within the limits of a police force, though Abe said that if such operations were to be conducted, then "force", meaning the preemptive use of weapons by Japanese units, would not be permitted.

Under Japan's Constitution, as it currently stands, the use of force to settle international disputes is banned.

On Feb. 10, the government convened a panel to investigate Japan's handling of the recent hostage crisis, which apparently resulted in the Islamic State (IS) executing two Japanese nationals.

The current investigation into the kidnapping and killings by IS of Kenji Goto, a freelance war journalist, and Haruna Yukawa, a self-styled security contractor, will look into the fact that the government had knowledge of Yukawa being captured in Syria in August last year, with the outcome of the investigations aimed at protecting Japanese nationals from future act of terrorism.

Abe's speech made in Cairo during a recent Middle East tour during which he pledged 200 million U.S. dollars to help countries affected by IS-related conflict, is also being investigated.

Some experts on the matter have suggested that Abe's speech may have been a catalyst for the hostage crisis, as comments made by an IS member in a video posted to video hosting site YouTube before the slaying of Goto and Yukawa, were aimed directly at the prime minister and the people of Japan.

The committee members will also discuss appropriate first response procedures, should a similar incident take place again, as well as protocols for gathering and sharing information with the public, once a kidnapping has been confirmed.

Japan maintains its position that all money it has and will donate was and will be for humanitarian rather than military- related purposes and rejects claims by IS that the money was specifically contributed to help the eradication of the militant group, but the Islamic State has threatened Japan with further reprisals.

Japan suddenly became embroiled in some terrorist-related situations in Middle East and African nations at a time when Abe said he wants Japan to be a more "proactive" player in international affairs, and the leader has made no secret of the fact that he plans to bring about legislation and constitutional amendments to achieve this, defense analysts said.

A day after the new panel convened to investigate the hostage crisis, Japan's Cabinet approved for the first time a new charter allowing funds from the nation's Official Development Assistance program to be used to supply support to foreign military troops involved in exclusively non-combat operations.

The charter's approval by the Cabinet marks Japan's first amendment to its foreign aid charter since 2003 and lifts previous restrictions that were put in place inhibiting Japan from granting foreign militaries financial assistance that could be used to help bankroll international conflicts.

Senior government officials, like Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, have repeatedly maintained the Cabinet's stance that the revised charter is in no way a stepping stone for Japan to expand its global military presence, despite the prime minister, somewhat to the contrary, stating that he plans to steer Japan towards being a more "proactive" international force, as evidenced by constitutional reinterpretations last year, the creation of a National Security Council, and, a huge increase in the military spending in January, marking the nation's largest-ever defense budget and the biggest since Word War II.

Some 24-hours prior to Abe holding court in the Upper House on Tuesday, the SDF's expanded role overseas was already being put to the test in an evacuation exercise in Thailand to transport Japanese nationals by land in a mock-earthquake scenario.

It was the first time the SDF was allowed to transport Japanese nationals overseas in a training exercise since the Self-Defense Forces Law was revised in 2013, following a hostage crisis in Algeria.

Defense analysts maintain that following the huge budget increase, Abe's apparent disregard for the nation's Constitution and the Japanese leader wittingly thrusting the nation into international situations, such as those in some Middle East and African countries to which the government on Tuesday pledged financial aid of 15.5 million U.S. dollars to fight terrorism there, Abe is slowly but surely opening the door for Japan's remilitarization. Endi