The move supports Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign for broader military cooperation with Washington, amid fears of a potential missile threat from North Korea, and his drive to change the country's pacifist constitution, drafted by U.S. occupational authorities in 1947.
The current constitution bans the use of military force as a means of resolving international disputes, and Abe's government aims to amend articles that prohibit Japan from having its own armed forces.
The conclusions of a special committee, led by former Japanese ambassador to the U.S. Shunji Yanai, will be used during future discussions on constitutional changes in Japan.
Earlier this year Shinzo Abe, who has been vying for stronger military ties with the Pentagon since his election as premier in September 2006, used his Liberal Democratic Party's parliamentary majority to push for a national referendum on the broader use of the Japanese military.
The pervading view in Japan's leadership is that the outdated legislation hampers its cooperation with its ally the United States on a joint ballistic missile defense program, because the country is limited to cooperating in the early detection of potential missile launches by 'rogue states' - in particular North Korea - but is unable to shoot down missiles.
North Korea became one of Tokyo's biggest security worries after it test-fired a long-range ballistic missile over Japan in 1998, prompting Tokyo to begin researching missile defense.
Japan's determination to boost its missile defenses was strengthened after Pyongyang conducted a series of ballistic missile tests in July 2006, and an underground nuclear test explosion three months later.
Under a December 2004 missile defense cooperation arrangement with the U.S., Japan deployed a high-resolution radar last year that can detect incoming missiles at an Air Self-Defense Force's Shariki base in Tsugaru, about 360 miles northeast of Tokyo.
By 2011, Japan plans to deploy a two-tier missile shield combining sea and land-based systems.
The U.S. SM-3 interceptor missiles, to be deployed on five Aegis-class destroyers in the Japanese Navy, are designed to intercept incoming missiles in mid-trajectory, while the U.S. Patriot PAC-3 systems, deployed at four ground-to-air missile units, are set to shoot down missiles before they hit the ground.
