TOKYO, March 16 — Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has said that the country is considering what it can do within its legal constraints to ensure the safety of Japanese-related vessels and their crews in West Asia amid the United States (US)-Israeli war with Iran.
Kyodo News Agency reported that she made the remarks during a Parliamentary session today after US President Donald Trump demanded on social media that other nations, including Japan, deploy warships to the Strait of Hormuz to secure oil shipments.
When asked by an Opposition lawmaker whether Japan would deploy Self-Defence Forces vessels, Takaichi said it is hard to answer a hypothetical question since the US has yet to make such a request, but that her government is mulling "necessary responses."
She added that she will convey Japan's views on the situation in West Asia to Trump when they hold summit talks scheduled for later this week in Washington.
At the session, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the government has no plan "as of now" to send the SDF to West Asia, on which Japan depends for over 90 per cent of its crude oil and 11 per cent of its liquefied natural gas.
On Saturday (March 14), Trump said that he wants Japan and other nations to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz to ensure the safety of the vital energy shipping route, which Iran has effectively blocked in response to attacks launched by the US and Israel late last month.
