Japan’s Parliament Delays Decision on Joining U.N. Forces
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TOKYO — Parliament decided Friday, the last day of its current session, to postpone deliberations on a bill that would allow Japan to send troops abroad for United Nations peacekeeping operations.
The measure, proposed by the governing Liberal Democratic Party, is believed to stand a good chance of passage, but a demand by the opposition Democratic Socialist Party that any troop deployment require parliamentary approval has held up debate.
The bill is controversial because Japan’s constitution bans the use of force overseas. Japan’s only military activity abroad after World War II has been a single dispatch of minesweepers after the Gulf War.
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