Japan's lower house of parliament passed a bill on Thursday to expand its anti-piracy activities off the coast of Somalia, as donors met in Brussels to tackle the chaos underlying the rising tide of attacks in the region, Reuters reported. The new law will allow Japanese forces to protect non-Japanese ships and broaden the scope for using weapons beyond self-defence, a difficult issue under Japan's pacifist constitution. "These questions of order and security are extremely important for Japan, and the international community is expecting us to make an increased contribution," Prime Minister Taro Aso told a parliamentary committee. "I believe we have a duty to live up to that." Japan dispatched two destroyers equipped with helicopters to the Gulf of Aden last month to escort commercial vessels that are owned or operated by Japanese corporations, or carrying Japanese goods. Two Japanese intelligence-gathering planes are set to join the mission, probably next month.
