Considering What Can Do to the Situation in Hormuz

As President of the United States, Donald Trump, demands some countries to help his Navy to protect ships going through the Strait of Hormuz, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is facing a big question: Can Japan do it? While she recognizes the U.S. as the incompatible ally for Japan, there are legal restriction for Japan to send troops to a battlefield. Coming summit meeting with Trump in the U.S. later this week may cause Takaichi’s headache. 

Trump described in social media that countries affected by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, including Japan, would be sending warships to keep the strait open. Trump also told the press that Washington had contacted seven countries to secure the key sea lane. “I think China should help too because China gets 90 percent of its oil from the straits,” said Trump to Financial Times.

 

Takaichi has been refusing legal assessment of U.S. attack in Iran, otherwise accusing Iran of its plan to develop nuclear weapons. In the discussion at Committee on Budget in the Upper House on March 15, she revealed that her government was considering what it would be able to do. “We are discussing on legal basis, what is going on, what can we do and cannot,” she said.

 

Under the security legislature of Shinzo Abe administration in 2015, Japan can use its force in “survival-threatening situation” as an exercise of collective self-defense right. But Japanese government does not recognize current situation in the Strait of Hormuz as critical for survival of Japanese people. Abe once told the Diet that Japan would not support a country that violated international law. Japan is skeptical about U.S. attack in Iran to be fully abiding by international law.

 

The 2015 legislation also provides that Japan can back up U.S. forces with munition or fueling fighter jet in “significant influence situation.” It is true that blockage in the Strait of Hormuz has significant influence to Japan’s economy. However, those supports can only be made in a situation no actual battle is ongoing. Japan knows that it is hard to say that no battle is waged in the strait. Although there is another one called “taking collective measures for international peace” situation, U.S. attack on Iran has no resolution of United Nations Security Council.

 

Self-defense Forces Act has a provision for “maritime security operation,” in which the government can send vessels of self-defense force. But the ships sent under the provision can only protect ships of Japan. Even if it sends ships to the Strait of Hormuz with that provision, they cannot protect ships of the U.S. or other countries.

 

Japan has an example in 2019, in which it sent vessels to the sea close to the strait in the name of research and study, when a tanker was struck with tension between the U.S. and Iran. But it is obvious that sending ships to the strait now cannot be a research or study of the region.

 

It is predictable that Trump will demand Takaichi to send Japan’s “warships” to the Strait of Hormuz to protect private ships going through the strait. Although the government of Japan is taking a position in which it will say what Japan can and cannot do, it is not easy to reject request from Trump, because Japan is so dependent on the U.S. in security or trade policies. 

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