'Why Japan Didn't Join Search for Abducted Nigerian Girls'

Japanese government Friday gave an insight to why it hasn’t offered any military assistance to Nigeria in its search for the over 2000 girls kidnapped from the Federal Government Girls College Chibok, Borno State, by members of the Boko-Haram sect. Japan however said it would support any United Nations (UN) activities in Nigeria by deploying its Self Defence Force through the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA). Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Environment in Japan, Ideki Makihara stated this while fielding questions from journalists during a media interaction yesterday in Abuja. Makihara who was a delegate at the World Economic forum for Africa (WEF) explained that the Japanese government since the end of World War II, has no standing army and would not deploy its local police to any mission beyond the shores of Japan. “I do not say that we want to do any help for the security, after the World War II, we set a new constitution, we are prohibited to have army. But we have a Self Defence Force, we always cooperate with the United Nations and our Self Defence Force is in South-Sudan. So if the UN has some activities in Nigeria, we will be able to cooperate with the UN activities", he said. He explained that it would be difficult for Japanese government to offer any military assistance to the Nigerian government without involvement of UN, but said Japan may consider technical assistance if required. "Without the UN decision, it is difficult for us to send our Self Defence Army, and we will never send our police to other countries, police is just for national security, that is our restriction under the constitution, but we may be able to send technology or machines,” he added. Also, the Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Ryuichi Shoji revealed that Japan was in the process of determining the nature of assistance it would offer to Nigeria through the ODA. “We have been discussing these issues; we are determined to help, like in the Mali situation, we provided a huge assistance but not directly to help directly in terms of military strength", he said. He added; "We provide humanitarian assistance and economic support. We are consulting with the UN to know in which field we can support that suit the UN-ODA activities, we are in the process to determine which project we are going to finance, through the UN-ODC in Nigeria,” Shoji said.