TOKYO, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya said Friday there were no plans from the government here to dispatch Self-Defense Force (SDF) troops in response to the tanker attacks in the previous day near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iwaya told a press briefing on the matter that despite one of the tankers attacked was being operated by a shipping firm based in Tokyo, the situation did not necessitate Japan exercising its right to collective self-defense.
Under a controversial and widely opposed reinterpretation of Japan's pacifist Constitution five years ago, the government here decided that it could exercise its right to collective self-defense in limited circumstances.
These include allowing Japanese forces to provide logistical support and come to the aid of its overseas allies, as well as using armed support in circumstances when not doing so would endanger the lives and survival of the Japanese nation.
Iwaya, in this instance, said that the government had concluded that there was no threat to the survival of Japan as a nation and Japanese citizens' lives, freedom and the right to pursue happiness had not been undermined by the tanker attacks, and hence there was no reason to deploy SDF troops.
Iwaya said that it still remained unclear what kind of weapons were used in the attacks and who was responsible for them, but noted that had the circumstances seen many Japanese lives endangered the government's decision not to deploy the SDF could have been different.
None of the crew members aboard the Japanese-operated Kokuka Courageous tanker were of Japanese nationality and they all evacuated to safety after the vessel being attacked twice, its operator Kokuka Sangyo Co. told a press conference Friday.
The operator's president Yutaka Katada added that some of the crew members "witnessed a flying object" at the moment of the second attack, suggesting the vessel was not hit by a torpedo as previously thought.
Katada also said he thought it unlikely that the tanker was attacked because it was Japanese, as it was flying the national flag of Panama, not that of Japan, while it was sailing.
He said the company will "continue to operate its vessels around the Persian Gulf unless the sea route is blocked."
