The then Conservative and Liberal Democrat opposition parties helped to highlight the emerging fissures between the military and their political masters under the previous Labour government, such as the row over whether there was a shortage of helicopters in Helmand.
US-Japan ties were strained somewhat under the previous Japanese Democratic Party (DPJ) administration amid a row over the relocation of a US military base in Okinawa.
Kuroda (6-2) struck out five and walked one in cooling off a club that had scored 33 runs in its previous three games and had won a season-high four in a row.