Japan may upgrade Defense Agency

TOKYO – Japan’s Cabinet today endorsed a bill to upgrade the Defense Agency to a full-fledged ministry, reflecting the military’s growing role at home and abroad.

The proposal is one of several government measures aimed at shedding Japan’s staunch pacifism of the decades since World War II.

Japan has been expanding the role of its troops while continuing to limit them to non-combat missions.

Some 600 Japanese troops are in Iraq helping with reconstruction, and Japanese vessels provide logistical support to operations in Afghanistan.

At home the government wants to make it easier for its military to fight if the country came under attack.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s ruling party has proposed revising the constitution, which renounces the use of arms to settle disputes.