TOKYO: A senior Japanese policy adviser said on Sunday the threshold is “extremely high” for Tokyo to send its warships to help protect a shipping lane for oil in the Middle East, hours after US President Donald Trump’s call for other countries to do so. Iran has choked off the vital Strait of Hormuz and attacked Gulf energy facilities. “I regard the threshold as extremely high” for sending Japanese navy ships to the region under existing Japanese laws, Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party , said.

The US president says he hopes China, France, Japan and South Korea will also send ships to defend the key oil shipping route.

“While it is not legally ruled out, given the ongoing conflict, it is something that should be judged carefully.”