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On July 26, Japanese Senate passed a bill for sending about 1 000 troops to Iraq to help with the reconstruction there in November this year. The troops will provide American and British allied forces with logistic support.

There was a period of chaos for this bill in Japanese parliament. Opposition and ruling parliament members jostled against each other and the vote was delayed until early next morning when the bill was finally approved by 136 to102. According to the bill, Japanese forces could only move in non-fighting areas. But when asked where these areas were in turbulent Iraq, Japanese Prime Minister answered: "How should I know where they are…" ,which became the butt of jokes on him in Japanese media. Nonetheless, Japan made its third breakthrough in its efforts to send troops abroad.

Gulf War: keep a low profile in peacekeeping

Japan's first step to send out troops started in the Gulf War in April 1991 when Japan sent its minesweepers to the Persian Gulf to take part in the multinational minesweeping missions. That was the first time Japanese forces were sent overseas since the World War II.

In 1992, Japanese parliament passed UN Peacekeeping Activities Assistance Act. With the Act, Japan sent military engineers to Cambodia to help reconstruct roads and bridges, to Mozambique, Rwanda, East Timor and even to the Golan Heights in the Middle East. In all, more than 20 groups of troops (more than 2 000 person-times) went out of Japan on various missions since 1992.

Few people paid attention to so many Japanese troops sent overseas. One reason for this was that Japan adopted a low profile strategy:UN first proposed peacekeeping missions, and then the destination country requested Japanese troops. Japanese troops only carried out noncombatant missions, avoided fighting areas and provided humanitarian aides, etc.

Afghanistan War: break peacekeeping limitations

This was the second step of Japan towards its aim of sending troops abroad freely.

After the September 11th terrorist attacks, Japanese parliament passed three acts in a row: Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Act, Amendments to Militia Law, and Amendments to Sea Security Office Law, which included unprecedented provisions in UN Peacekeeping Activities Assistance Act.

The September 11th Event gave Japan an opportunity to revise its defense policies and Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Act was the first law that allowed Japanese troops to be sent to foreign land during times of war. During the Afghanistan war, Japan dispatched 3 destroyers, 2 depot ships with more than 1 200 troops to the Indian Ocean. Almost every day during that time Japanese cargo planes packed with supplies for American troops took off from a military airport in Tokyo to fly to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The active role of its armed forces in the war was rare in more than 50 years after Word War II. Some Japanese people said that Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Act had nothing to do with anti-terrorism but was a law that allowed Japanese troops to join wars.

Iraq War: get into the war zone

The Iraq War was the third step. As a matter of fact, Japan did not bother to have aid requests from UN or the destination country when sending out its navy to do "logistic services" for U.S. troops in the Afghanistan war. Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Act shows that Japan needs no UN request when dispatching troops overseas, that the area of its troops' activities are not restricted to non-fighting zones and that its missions are not just humanitarian aids.

"Have Trouble": a vague and troublesome definition

In the past few years, it has become much easier for Japan to send its troops abroad. And this process is associated with wars and Japanese dream of becoming a world power.

For the past decades, Japan has fussed with its own definition of "have trouble". "When do you 'have trouble'"? A Japanese constitution scholar says that the definition is vague and troublesome. "It can be explained in three ways," he says: " Number one, the trouble has happened: Japan is under attack. Number two, the trouble is expected to happen: Japan will be attacked. Number three, the trouble happened as expected." He concludes that these definitions can make "no trouble" turn into "have trouble".

On May 15, 2003, the House of　Representative of Japan passed a package law, which, as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi commented meaningfully, "is a milestone in the history of Japanese politics".

After the September 11th attack, the U.S. adopted a pre-emptive strategic approach and Japan's "have trouble" policy not just deals with the trouble it means in the past but also is relevant to the trouble that Japan is under external attacks from armed forces and even the trouble that Japan thinks will trouble it: it will be attacked by armed forces. All this means that Japan can send out its troops to "defend itself" if it is "in danger of being attacked".

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