The Japan Times
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The government said Friday it will extend by one year the Maritime Self-Defense Force's antipiracy mission off Somalia, which had been due to end July 23. Piracy off East Africa is still rampant, officials said, and Japan will maintain its presence of two destroyers escorting merchant and other ships and two P-3C patrol planes for conducting surveillance from the air.
This is the third extension of the mission, which began in March 2009 initially based on the Self-Defense Forces law and later on the antipiracy law enacted that June.
The government set up a full-scale base for the SDF in Djibouti at the Horn of Africa in June 2011, expecting the mission to be prolonged.