Days before the opening of this year¡¯s ordinary Diet session, Lower and Upper House security committees held special sessions focusing on Japan¡¯s controversial dispatch of a naval unit to the sea off Oman and Yemen amid still-high military tensions between Iran and the United States.

Friday¡¯s parliamentary debates made at least two things clear while underlining tough legal questions confronting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe¡¯s administration amid the Iran-U.S. confrontation:

Firstly, Abe¡¯s government won¡¯t express any judgment on whether the U.S. assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was an act of self-defense as claimed by U.S. President Donald Trump, one of the world leaders closest to Abe.