Japan's Defense Minister Taro Kono says a Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer will start operating in the Middle East as soon as Wednesday.
The government dispatched the destroyer Takanami and aircraft to the Middle East for an intelligence gathering operation to safeguard commercial ships with links to Japan. The Takanami left the Yokosuka base, near Tokyo, on February 2.
A patrol plane unit of Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force is preparing for its intelligence-gathering mission in the Middle East.
The defense ministry announced that as of Monday local time, two P-3C aircrafts which departed from Japan on January 11 had replaced a unit engaged in anti-piracy activities off Somalia.