The Democratic Party of Japan will agree to lift the freeze on Japanese participation in U.N. peacekeeping operations and relax conditions for use of weapons by Self-Defense Forces personnel when the ruling coalition decides to review the PKO law, DPJ sources said Sunday.
The DPJ, the leading opposition party, plans to approve amendments to a 1992 law that governs Japanese participation in such operations. The law, popularly known as the PKO law, bans the SDF from participating in a United Nations peacekeeping force (PKF) on the grounds that its help is needed elsewhere in other parts of a peacekeeping operation (PKO), the sources said.
The opposition party's decision comes amid moves by the ruling coalition -- the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party -- to review the PKO law, the sources said.