TOKYO: Many members of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party called on the government Thursday to dispatch a Maritime Self-Defense Force unit to the Middle East as planned.

The MSDF dispatch should rather be materialized when tensions are heightening, they said at a joint meeting of the LDP's foreign affairs and national defense divisions, according to people with access to the meeting.

Opinions in favor of the dispatch were expressed after LDP policy chief Fumio Kishida said in his initial remarks at the meeting that the party "should closely watch local situations while expecting no escalation of tensions" between the United States and Iran.

Emerging from the meeting, former Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters, "To ensure the safety of Japanese vessels' navigation (in the Middle East), information gathering is very important."

The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decided to send the MSDF unit to the unstable region for "research and study" purposes.

Separately, at a joint hearing of major opposition parties, Shu Watanabe of the Democratic Party for the People, who once served as deputy defense minister, pointed out that the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated since the dispatch plan was given the cabinet's go-ahead.

Watanabe said the Japanese government "should pause and reconsider" the plan.

In a related development Thursday, Defense Minister Taro Kono visited MSDF Command and Staff College in Tokyo to watch a war game held in preparation for the proposed Middle East mission.

During the two-day exercise from Wednesday, the commander assessed situations and moved troops to cope with the situations. Communications procedures were also checked.

Jiji Press