TOKYO - A senior Japanese policy adviser says the threshold is “extremely high” for Tokyo to deploy warships to protect oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, following a direct appeal from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Gulf region remains volatile after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, which has since restricted passage through the critical waterway. Oil prices surged as 70% of Japan’s imported crude-95% of which comes from the Middle East-transits the strait.
Takayuki Kobayashi, policy chief of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, emphasized legal and political constraints under Japan’s pacifist 1947 constitution. “We do not rule out the possibility,” he said on NHK, “but this must be considered with great caution.”
Prime Minister Takaichi, who heads to Washington this week for talks with Trump, has so far stated “nothing has been decided” on naval deployment. Kobayashi urged her to clarify Trump’s true intentions and ensure no security vacuum emerges in East Asia as U.S. forces redeploy from bases in Japan and South Korea to the Gulf.