TOKYO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Six Ground Self-Defense Forces (SDF)troops left Japan on Friday for Nepal to participate in a one-year UN military observer mission, Kyodo News said.

    This is the first overseas SDF mission since the upgrade of the Defense Agency to a ministry, as well as since the law to redefine international cooperation activities overseas as a main, rather than subordinate, duty for the SDF, took effect.

    The six troops will arrive in Kathmandu on Saturday to serve in several locations as military monitors, the report said. Their mission will continue until March 31, 2008, the report said.

    Japan sent two fact-finding missions in late January and early March, to determine the dispatch situation for the SDF troops.