New Komeito, the junior coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party, will conditionally accept a proposal by the LDP to upgrade the Defense Agency as a ministry, party sources said Sunday.
The LDP's administrative reform panel decided late last month to submit a bill to the Diet early next year to promote the agency, which is under the Cabinet Office, to Defense Ministry.
Komeito would accept the proposal on condition that peacekeeping operations and international disaster-relief activities be recognized as duties of the new ministry, the sources said.
In March 2004, three defense-related panels in the LDP agreed to submit a bill to upgrade the agency but later gave up the attempt because of concerns within the coalition.
The Defense Agency was launched in 1954 and was not made a ministry to reflect the war-renouncing Constitution.
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