Photo/Illutration Philippine soldiers unload relief assistance delivered by Self-Defense Forces aircraft in 2013. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Life-saving equipment used by the Self-Defense Forces in rescue missions during natural disasters is being provided to the Philippine military as part of the government's Official Development Assistance (ODA).

SDF members will provide training on how to use the materials, jacks, projectors and engine cutters, among other devices, according to the foreign and defense ministries.

Tokyo began providing the equipment worth about 120 million yen ($1.1 million) in March, based on a request from the Philippines. 

The project, the first of its kind in ODA terms, reflects the SDF's growing mission to stem Chinese maritime advances and help friendly foreign military forces to develop their capabilities within an ODA context.

A Cabinet decision in 2015 approved a Development Cooperation Charter as a substitute for the ODA charter as a way to more effectively utilize the program and bolster Tokyo's standing in the world.

It was done with the provision that Japan could support foreign military forces, strictly for non-military purposes, such as responding to natural disasters.

According to the Foreign Ministry, the government provided musical instruments to military bands in Papua New Guinea in 2017 and equipment to a hospital under military control in an unspecified country.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is scheduled to visit the Philippines, which is locked in a territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea, from the end of this month when the Golden Week break starts. The trip will also take him to India.

(This article was written by Tatsuya Sato and Naoki Matsuyama.)

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