Japan able to aid US ships under attack: minister
Japan's new policy on military action would allow its forces to come to the aid of a US naval ship under attack, Tokyo's defense minister said Friday.
In a visit to Washington, Itsunori Onodera cited the hypothetical scenario as he sought to explain the Japanese government's controversial decision to ease decades-long restrictions on the country's military.If US warships were sent to defend Japan, and those ships were attacked, the Japanese "constitution was interpreted to say we could not help that ship," Onodera told an audience at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.But taking action to assist an ally was "what an ally should naturally do," he said through an interpreter. "That's how this change in policy should be understood."Onodera said the change approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's cabinet on July 1 would bolster Tokyo's alliance with the United States, opening the way to new forms of military cooperation.
