The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Tokyo

Japan would play a more active role in global security if the opposition wins upcoming elections and would also seek better diplomacy to bring peace to Afghanistan, the shadow defence minister said.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has been gaining ground in opinion polls, raising the prospect of the fall of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party which has ruled for all but 10 months since 1955.

Keiichi Asao, the defence minister in the Democrats' shadow cabinet, said he would maintain support for the United States-which stations more than 40,000 troops in officially pacifist Japan-but with a different attitude.

"The DPJ regards the the Japan-US alliance as very important," Asao told AFP in an interview. But we think that Japan should say what it needs to say to the United States. In return, we will be involved at the frontlines in UN activities.

"Our use of force will need to be endorsed not only by the United States but also by the international community as a whole, namely the United Nations," he added.

Japan has long pushed for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council to bolster its influence in global affairs. A previous bid to join flopped due to strong opposition by China, the only Asian nation in the elite club.

At 44, Asao is young for a Japanese politician. A former banker, he earned a master's degree in business administration from Stanford University in California.

Asao called for a new way of thinking about the Taliban, which is waging a bloody insurgency against Afghan leaders and foreign troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

"Theoretically we could join ISAF, but the party has not concluded on joining it because we don't think ISAF is contributing to building peace in Afghanistan," Asao said.