Japan Backs Out of Supporting Coalition

Japan backed out of an earlier commitment to dispatch its Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to Afghanistan now that the security situation has declined. Nonetheless, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's ruling party plans to extend a special law for another year that allows the SDF to continue refueling mission past January in the Indian Ocean to support the Coalition. Japan's war-renouncing constitution limits the SDF's use of arms outside of Japan which is of course a limitation that does not hinder AQAM (al-Qaeda and Allied Movements).