The expanded mission parameters for Self-Defense Forces personnel dispatched to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan — coming to the rescue of others under attack — takes the SDF's overseas activities into new territory where the chance of engaging in combat will increase. It is the first concrete example of increasing the SDF's role in accordance with the security legislation rammed through the Diet last year by the Abe administration. The new mandate also comes at a time when it is increasingly in doubt whether the local situation in South Sudan warrants the deployment of SDF troops under the conditions spelled out in the law that paved the way for Japan's participation in U.N. peacekeeping duties.

Government officials take pains to downplay the added risk, restricting the scope of the new mission parameters and repeating that the peacekeepers will be pulled out if local conditions grow so bad that it becomes difficult for them to carry out their duties in safe and meaningful ways. Questions abound, however, over the government's very decision to maintain the dispatch amid a surge in fighting between the South Sudan government and anti-government forces — even though the 1992 law lists a cease-fire agreement being in place between warring parties as one of the conditions for Japan to contribute to a peacekeeping mission.

South Sudan is currently the only country where Japanese troops are taking part in a U.N. peacekeeping mission. It would be unwise if the government is keeping SDF units in the country as a showcase example of what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe touts as Japan's "proactive contribution to peace" and expanding their mission parameters for the sake of taking the first concrete action under the security laws, which significantly expanded the scope of overseas SDF activities.