President Donald Trump has placed Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi under intense pressure to deploy warships to the Persian Gulf to help secure shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Financial Times.
The request has thrust Japan into a difficult position, forcing Tokyo to balance alliance obligations to Washington against constitutional constraints on military deployment and concerns about inflaming tensions with Iran, a crucial energy supplier.
According to the FT report, Trump made the request during a telephone conversation with Takaichi, emphasizing that countries dependent on Middle Eastern oil should contribute to protecting the maritime routes through which that oil travels.
The Strait of Hormuz has been closed to commercial tanker traffic since Iran implemented a blockade on March 1, following US and Israeli strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure. The closure has sent global oil prices soaring and created significant economic pressure on energy-importing nations, particularly in Asia.
Japan imports approximately 90 percent of its oil, with much of it historically transiting through Hormuz. The energy security implications of the crisis are severe for Tokyo, making the American request particularly difficult to refuse on purely strategic grounds.
However, Japan's post-World War II constitution limits its military to self-defense operations. While successive Japanese governments have gradually expanded the interpretation of what constitutes permissible defense activities, deploying warships to a combat zone thousands of miles from Japanese territory would test constitutional boundaries.
