Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Japan needs to re-examine the limits on the kind of support it can provide U.S. forces because of the growing threat from North Korea, said Yuriko Koike, special national security adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

``The threat is getting closer,'' she told reporters at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo today, referring to North Korea's recent nuclear test claim.

The Stalinist state said it carried out an atomic bomb test last week, raising calls in Japan to revise the country's purely defensive security policies. Abe said he wanted to rewrite Japan's constitution, which outlaws the use of force, when he replaced Junichiro Koizumi as head of government last month.

In 1999, the parliament passed legislation allowing Japan's Self-Defense Forces to provide rear-area, non-combat support to U.S. forces in response to an emergency situation in areas surrounding Japan. Before that Japan could provide support to the U.S. military only in the case of a direct attack.

``Whether or not we can limit our assistance to rear-area support, thinking geographically, is one of many issues we need to make clear,'' Koike said.

Japan's cabinet approved the extension of anti-terror legislation last week that has allowed it to send naval vessels to the Indian Ocean to support U.S. military operations in Afghanistan since 2001. The support which Japanese forces can provide is limited to non-lethal supplies like the provision of fuel, water and medical care.

Expiry Date

The Japanese parliament needs to enact legislation in the current session that ends in mid-December to prolong the law, which expires Nov. 1. Japan needs to examine what measures to take to protect itself, Koike said.

Koike, who served as environment minister under Koizumi was appointed as special adviser on national security to Abe on Sept. 26. Koike was given the task with setting up the Japanese version of the U.S.'s National Security Council, she said.

Koike was one of five special advisers appointed in September to ``strengthen the ability of the prime minister's office to make decisions,'' she said. Koike met with President George W. Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley in Washington on Oct. 3 to discuss North Korea's planned nuclear test and to improve direct dialogue between the prime minister's office and the White House.

To contact the reporter on this story: Finbarr Flynn in Tokyo at fflynn3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 13, 2006 06:43 EDT