About 350 troops from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces replace Japanese peacekeepers who were previously on the ground serving in the United Nations mission in South Sudan, an East African country in the midst of a civil war that has raged since December 2013. “But the government should also be aware of, and be accountable for, what it could possibly entail.”

The main objective of the newly deployed troops is to help rebuild infrastructure in the nation’s capital, Juba. For the first time since the end of World War II, when Japan enacted a law enshrining pacifism in its military, these peacekeepers will have the ability to use force to protect civilians, U.N. staff and themselves. However, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe argued that the broader military powers give Japan the ability to respond to growing threats, including China's growing military assertiveness and North Korea's nuclear ambitions. South Sudan seceded from Sudan in 2011 — a development greeted at the time with mass celebrations in the oil-producing state. Aid agencies and world powers promised support, but fighting, mostly along ethnic lines, erupted in 2013 after President Salva Kiir sacked his longtime political rival Riek Machar from the post of vice president.
A detachment of Japanese troops land in South Sudan to aid in U.N. peacekeeping operations, Japan's first such action since World War II.