The Self-Defense Forces are finally crossing the line to participate in a real war for the first time in their history, even though their role will be limited to logistic support.
As it turns out, breaking the half-century taboo under the war-renouncing Constitution to participate in a war only took a couple of months to achieve after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
It was, however, the fruit of a decade-long government effort to gradually but steadily expand the scope of the SDF's activities in the wake of the Gulf War. The public's perceptions of the military have also drastically changed since that time.