Japan not mulling maritime ops despite Trump pressure over Hormuz

TOKYO: Japan said Monday it was not currently thinking about ordering maritime security operations, after US President Donald Trump called for other countries to send warships to help protect the Strait of Hormuz.

“In the current Iran situation, we are not at the moment considering issuing a maritime security operation,” Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told parliament.

Trump called for reinforcements on Saturday from countries including Japan after earlier vowing that the US Navy would “very soon” begin escorting tankers through the vital shipping lane for oil in the Middle East.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Monday that she had not received a request from Trump.

“The question is what Japan should do on our own initiative and what’s possible within our legal framework, rather than what’s requested by the United States,” she told parliament. “We have asked various sections of various ministries to discuss this.”

Any maritime security operation would be “extremely difficult legally”, she added.

Sending its Self-Defense Forces abroad is politically sensitive in officially pacifist Japan, as many voters support the US-imposed, war-renouncing 1947 constitution.

Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Sunday the threshold was “extremely high” for Tokyo to send in its warships.

The world’s number-four economy is the fifth-biggest importer of oil, with 95 percent of it coming from the Middle East and 70 percent passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has effectively closed the strait in retaliation for the US-Israeli war against Tehran.