TOKYO, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Japan will send some 1,400 troops to tsunami-hit areas of Southeast Asia to deliver relief supplies, Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday.
This is the largest number of Self-Defense Forces ever sent overseas.
A C-130 transport plane carrying about 40 Air Self-Defense Forces personnel was expected to leave Japan Thursday for Utapao Air Base in Thailand to join U.S. troops already active in relief efforts.
The Defense Ministry is also working to order the formal dispatch of more than 200 ground troops and three maritime forces vessels by the weekend.
Ground troops, using helicopters to airlift relief supplies, are expected to provide medical care to help suppress epidemics on Sumatra, Indonesia's largest island.
Three ships carrying about 600 maritime forces personnel will also likely be dispatched to northern Sumatra, mainly to aid in transportation.
"There are as many as 13,000 U.S. troops in the disaster-hit areas," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters Wednesday. "It's likely there will be cases when a considerable number of SDF personnel must go and participate in relief activities."
