GSDF destroyers as security for luxury cruise ships?

Kyodo News reports that the Japanese government considered using GSDF destroyer to escort luxury cruise ships as they passed the pirate-infested waters near Somalia:

The sources said the Japanese cruise ships were the Asuka II of NYK Cruises Co. and the Nippon Maru of Mitsui O.S.K. Passenger Line Ltd. with some 1,600 people in total on board. Both were on an around-the- world tour and planned to pass the high seas off Somalia in late April.

About one week earlier, the Japanese oil tanker Takayama came under a piracy attack in the waters in the region on April 21.

Although no one was injured in the tanker incident, it prompted the foreign, defense and transport ministries to sound out the prime minister’s office about letting an MSDF destroyer sail together with the luxury cruisers, the sources said.

The Prime Minister’s office eventually determined that there was no legal backing for such a move, so they asked the United States and Great Britain to protect the Japanese ships instead.