Three Japanese military ships left yesterday for the Indian Ocean to provide non-combat support for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan.
It was Tokyo's first dispatch of its military personnel overseas to be engaged in a military conflict since the end of the second World War.
The 8,100-tonne supply ship Towada of the Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) departed from Kure base in Hiroshima Prefecture, some 700km south-west of Tokyo, officials said.
"Towada left our base at 7:57a.m. (10.57p.m. Irish time) as scheduled," said Ms Rinako Hamaguchi, a spokeswoman for the base. "The ship will form a fleet with other warships and sail for the Indian Ocean."
An offshore demonstration was staged near the base, with some rubber inflatable boats carrying a banner: "Do Not Allow the Dispatch of Self-Defence Force Overseas." No one was arrested for the protest, police said.
Shortly following the first ship, the 5,650-tonne minesweeper tender Uraga left Yokosuka base in Kanagawa Prefecture, 50km south of Tokyo.
Some 500 people, including family members of naval personnel on board, gathered at the harbour to see the ship off by waving Japan's rising sun flags.
"I hope all of you will pursue your duty in an orderly way by working together with the international community to root out and prevent terrorism," the director general of the Defence Agency, Mr Gen Nakatani, said before its departure.
Dozens of demonstrators also staged a protest in Yokosuka, displaying banners which read: "Don't Go To The Battlefield." The two ships were to join a third, the 3,550-tonne destroyer Sawagiri, which left Sasebo base yesterday afternoon in Nagasaki Prefecture, 1,000km south-west of Tokyo.
The fleet, with a total crew of 460, followed the dispatch earlier this month of three MSDF ships to the Indian Ocean on information-gathering missions. Uraga, carrying relief supplies such as tents and blankets for Afghan refugees, is due to arrive at Karachi port in Pakistan in two weeks. The Towada and the Sawagiri are to offer fuel supplies to the US-military operations near Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.