From the Yomiuri Shimbun: Bill would require MSDF mission reports.

     Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Tuesday drew up an outline for a new bill that would extend the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean.

     Key elements of the new bill would restrict the MSDF's activities to refueling and supplying water to vessels of other countries, and would require the government to periodically report on the MSDF's activities to the Diet.

     On Tuesday, the government and the ruling parties reached a broad agreement on the outline of the bill, government sources said.

     A clause in the current Antiterrorism Law that requires Diet approval for the activities likely will be scrapped.

     The DPJ seems to get some, but not all of what it wants in this bill.  They would be kept in the  loop but they would, quite rightly not have a veto over the operations themselves.  Really this whole flare up is due in part to the fact that the exsistence of article nine means that their is no one person or entity that is readily identifiable as the civilian comander and chief of the Japanese military.  In a more normal constitutional monarchy this would typically be the Prime Minister, acting on behalf of the sovergien.  But it is all up in the air right in Japan.  This is something that needs to be corrected, because if a war were to break out that pulled in Japan the current situation would have far too many chefs in the kitchen.

And some more evidence for the continuation of the JMSDF's mission in the Indian ocean. MSDF pullout would hit antiterror efforts.

     The legal authority for the Maritime Self-Defense Force's logistical support operations in the Indian Ocean, primarily involving the refueling of warships that form the multinational force patrolling the region as part of the war on terrorism, looks set to end next month.

     In mid-September, reporters were shown the MSDF's activities in the Indian Ocean ahead of a Diet session in which the ruling and opposition parties were to debate whether the Antiterrorism Law should be extended.

     The first-hand look at the operations, conducted as part of the ongoing antiterrorism efforts, help answer questions arising from the military tie-up with the multinational force and clarify Japan's national interests.

     During the press briefing on the Indian Ocean, the Tokiwa, an MSDF supply vessel, provided fuel to a Pakistani Navy destroyer in the Arabian Sea, north of the Indian Ocean. At sea, the blazing sun had sent temperatures soaring to 39 C. From the bridge, an MSDF officer spoke in English over a walkie-talkie to guide the Pakistani warship in. The ship approached the stern of the Tokiwa then drew up on its starboard side.

The Towada class AOE JDS Tokiwa at sea.

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