Today, 34 years ago, on April 24, 1991 (March 10, 1991), Japan sent a mining fleet to the Gulf. On April 24, 1991, the Japanese Security Assembly and the Interim Cabinet Conference officially decided to send a Marine Self-Defense Fleet to the Gulf Region. On April 26, a mining fleet of six mining boats and 510 officers was ordered to go to the Gulf. This was the first time the Japanese government had sent troops abroad since the end of World War II. This operation was strongly opposed by some opposition parties and mass groups in Japan. They held demonstrations or issued statements protesting the government's constitutional dispatch to the Gulf soldiers, calling on people to be vigilant about Japan's return to the old way of war. The Japanese government's action was also opposed by many