Japan Says Bar Is ‘Extremely High’ for Deploying Warships to Protect Gulf Oil Route
Tokyo Weighs U.S. Request as Iran Conflict Disrupts Strait of Hormuz and Sends Oil Prices Higher
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — A senior Japanese policy adviser said Sunday that the threshold for deploying Japanese warships to help protect oil shipping lanes in the Middle East is “extremely high,” hours after U.S. President Donald Trump urged allied countries to assist in securing tanker routes through the region.
The comments come as tensions remain elevated in the Gulf two weeks after the United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran, triggering a widening conflict that has disrupted maritime traffic and driven global oil prices higher.
Iran has effectively choked off the vital Strait of Hormuz—a key passageway for global energy supplies—while also carrying out attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure.
Trump said Saturday that the U.S. Navy would “very soon” begin escorting oil tankers through the strait and called on other countries, including Japan, to provide additional naval support.
However, Takayuki Kobayashi, policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, signaled strong caution about such a move. Speaking on the public broadcaster NHK’s political debate program, he said Japan’s current legal framework sets a very high bar for overseas military deployments.
“I regard the threshold as extremely high” for sending ships from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to the region, Kobayashi said.
“Legally speaking, we do not rule out the possibility, but given the current situation in which this conflict is ongoing, I believe this is something that must be considered with great caution,” he added.
Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy, is heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil imports. Roughly 95 percent of its crude supply comes from the region, with about 70 percent passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
Despite that reliance, dispatching military forces abroad remains politically sensitive in Japan, where the U.S.-imposed 1947 constitution formally renounces war and limits the role of the country’s armed forces.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said last week during a parliamentary session that “nothing has been decided” regarding whether Japan would send naval vessels to escort tankers in the Middle East.
Takaichi is expected to travel to Washington later this week for talks with Trump, where security concerns in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the ongoing conflict with Iran are likely to be on the agenda.
Kobayashi said he hopes the visit will allow the Japanese leader to “ascertain what President Trump’s true intentions are” behind his call for allied reinforcements.
He also said the two leaders are expected to discuss how Tokyo and Washington can work together to ensure that “there would be no vacuum in the security framework of East Asia,” particularly as U.S. forces are reportedly being redeployed to the Gulf from bases in Japan and South Korea.