Japan's Parliament has been debating legislation to allow greater cooperation with American troops in neighbouring crises.
Current guidelines provide for cooperation in crises directly involving Japan.
The new law, expected to be passed before Premier Keizo Obuchi goes to the US next Thursday for a summit with President Bill Clinton, would allow Japanese support such as minesweeping and US warships to use Japanese civilian ports. In relations with North Korea, the report raised Tokyo's concern over Pyongyang's missile development. North Korea stunned Japan by flying a missile over part of its territory last August. Pyongyang insisted that it was the launch of a small satellite into orbit. Kedo, grouping the US, South Korea, Japan and the European Union, is in charge of supplying the Stalinist state with light-water reactors under a 1994 deal between Washington and Pyongyang.