The 3,200-strong Central Readiness Force was formed last week, some two months after officially pacifist Japan created its first full fledged defense ministry since World War II.

“The Central Readiness Force is a unit which symbolizes the role that is required of our country’s defense capacity,” Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma said at a ceremony to launch the unit at Camp Asaka in Tokyo’s northwestern suburbs.

“It is equipped with high maneuverability to cope with new threats and plays an important role in international cooperation and activities for peace.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a message read at the ceremony, called on the unit to “be diligent in performing your duties with self-awareness about the importance of your mission.”

Abe has sought a larger military role for Japan and wants to rewrite the pacifist constitution imposed by the United States after World War II.

The unit will include specialists on biochemical weapons and a sub-unit, to be operational by March next year, that can be deployed to face terrorist attacks against Japanese cities.

It will also train troops on peacekeeping missions and serve as an advance team for deployments overseas.

The 300-strong Special Operations Group, which was formed in 2004 on the model of the U.S. army special missions groups Delta Force and Green Beret, has also joined the new unit.

The group provided four of its members to guard the commander of a Japanese force which was deployed in southern Iraq on a reconstruction mission for some two and a half years until last July.

Japan in January upgraded its overseas peace-keeping operations to consider them a core mission of the armed forces.

Deployments abroad had earlier been considered “extraordinary,” meaning that each one needed parliamentary approval.

Prime Minister Abe’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved the first deployment since the change, sending a handful of defense personnel to help monitor the cease-fire ending Nepal’s civil war.

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