(Reuters) - Japan and the United States agreed on Wednesday to map out how they will work together if Tokyo needs to use force to help protect a friendly country under attack, as they update defense cooperation guidelines for the first time in nearly two decades.

The development follows Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's historic step away from Japan's post-war pacifism in July, when the Japanese government reinterpreted pacifist Article 9 of the constitution to end a ban that has kept its military from fighting abroad.

The interim report on the update, which is intended to give general direction of the revision, is attracting close attention from China and South Korea, which suffered from Japan's aggression before and during World War Two.

Tokyo and Washington also said they would build a seamless security framework to better defend Japan and extend the areas of cooperation to space and cyberspace.

"The two governments will take measures to prevent the deterioration of Japan's security in all phases, seamlessly, from peacetime to contingencies," the interim report said.

The United States is obliged to defend Japan under their bilateral security treaty.

The first guideline update in 17 years comes as Japan faces tough security challenges from an island spat with China and North Korea's missile and nuclear projects, and as the United States tries to shift its diplomatic and security focus to Asia.

When defense and foreign ministers from the U.S. and Japan, the world's largest- and third-largest economies, met in Tokyo last October, they agreed to update the defense cooperation guidelines by the end of 2014 to respond to the changing security environment in the region and beyond.

"These revised guidelines will capture the greater scope of our alliance cooperation, reflecting its more global nature," a senior U.S. State Department official said on condition of anonymity.

"By clearly describing how the United States and Japan will operate in each of these areas during peacetime, during low-level gray zone provocations or during an armed attack, the revised guidelines will provide the policy direction for a stronger alliance, more capable of deterring threats and contributing to global security," the official said.

China on Wednesday expressed concerns that the update would broaden the bilateral alliance beyond its historical mandate.

"The Japan-U.S. alliance is a bilateral arrangement set up under specific historical conditions. It should not exceed its bilateral scope and should not harm the interests of third parties, including China," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a news conference in Beijing before the interim report was released.

"We are paying close attention to Japan and the United States' relevant moves to adjust their defense cooperation guidelines," Hong said.

Some countries in the region including China, South Korea and Australia had been briefed on planned changes in the guidelines, the U.S. state department official said.

The new guidelines will specify bilateral cooperation in the event that a country close to Japan is attacked and the use of force allowed under the July decision to lift a ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense, or aiding an ally under attack, the interim report said.

In the new guidelines, Japan and the U.S. will also agree to cooperate in such areas as peacekeeping operations, maritime security and logistics support, in a bid to promote regional as well as global peace and security, the interim report said.

Efforts by Japan and the United States to strengthen their security ties could be put to the test soon as the United States carries out attacks on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, analysts said.

"The Obama administration has found itself having no option but to take military action, and it may turn into a quagmire," said Tetsuro Kato, political science professor at Waseda University.

"There is bound to be a request to Japan (for support), and that's the request Japan needs to meet."

(AP) — The victims include hiking enthusiasts from a major insurance company. Members of a group of nature lovers studying wild plants. A construction manager who snapped about 100 photos — found on his scratched and dented camera — to show his wife what she was missing because she had to work that day.

More than 50 people died when Mount Ontake, a popular hiking destination in central Japan, erupted without warning on Sept. 27 in the country's deadliest volcanic eruption since World War II.

Together, they paint a typical picture of weekend recreational hikers in Japan. A few children and senior citizens, but mostly middle-aged working people enjoying the first Saturday of the fall foliage season.

Most were between 30 and 59 years old, and lived within a few hours' drive or train ride from the mountain. Three were children, and only five were 60 or older.

"The best season for the leaves just started, the weather was beautiful, it was the weekend, and it was lunchtime," said Masahito Ono, a Nagano prefecture tourism official.

Hiking has become one of Japan's most popular outdoor activities. The core fans are middle-aged climbers with some experience, but there are a growing number of beginners: health-conscious senior citizens and fashionable women who sport a casual "mountain girl" look. The number of hikers in Nagano surged to 730,000 last year, a 30 percent increase from five years ago.

With modest slopes and a ropeway that takes visitors part way up, 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) Mount Ontake is one of the easier climbs in the region, recommended as a day-trip for beginners. Several hundred people are believed to have been on the mountain when it erupted at 11:52 a.m.

Rescuers have found 51 bodies, and at least a dozen other people are still missing. Most of the bodies were found at the summit, with others on a trail a short way down.

Hideomi Takahashi, 41, was among nine climbers from a major Japanese insurance company, Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Holdings Inc. They worked at two branches near Tokyo. Only three survived.

At Takahashi's funeral on Thursday, his family showed a close friend an iPhone with at least six photos from what would be the last few minutes of his life: a cotton candy-like cloud floating next to the mountain in a clear blue sky, a sacred gate to a mountaintop shrine, some of his colleagues making their way up. The last photo, apparently shot by a colleague, shows Takahashi standing next to the "Mount Ontake summit" sign, giving a thumbs-up.

"When I saw the iPhone still worked, I thought it's like a miracle," said the friend Hiroyuki, who asked that only his first name be used after he was criticized online for posting some of the photos on Twitter. He has since taken the tweets down.

Takahashi seems happy in the final photo, but he's not quite smiling. "Maybe he saw signs of the eruption," Hiroyuki said, adding he has trouble accepting that his best friend died, leaving behind his wife and two children.

Construction company employee Izumi Noguchi, 59, was climbing alone, as his usual hiking companion, his wife, Hiromi, had to work, she told Japanese broadcaster NHK and other TV stations. His compact camera was banged up, but the memory chip inside was undamaged. She printed all 100 shots. The last one is of an enormous plume billowing from the crater behind a mountaintop lodge.

"This is an amazing photo. But I wish he had fled instead of taking pictures. I'd rather have him back," Hiromi said. "I hope to hike up there someday, perhaps 10 years later. I want to see what my husband saw."

Yasuo Ito, 54, didn't even have time to eat the lunch he packed.

His wife, also named Hiromi, told NHK that Ito, a prefecture-funded housing agency employee, was among six members from a nature conservation volunteer group. Only three survived.

She identified his body Thursday and received his ash-coated knapsack. She pulled out a lunchbox, which survived despite cracks on a side, then opened the top. His handmade egg salad sandwiches were untouched.

"Poor thing, he should have eaten this," she said. "He must be getting hungry by now."

(AP) — Toxic gases and ash from still-erupting Mount Ontake forced Japanese rescue workers to call off the search for more victims Monday as dozens of relatives awaited news of their family members.

Rescuers found five more bodies near the summit of the volcano, bringing the death toll to 36. They have managed to airlift only 12 bodies off the mountain since the start of the eruption on Saturday because of dangerous conditions.

How the victims died remains unclear, though experts say it was probably from suffocating ash, falling rocks, toxic gases or some combination of them. Some of the bodies had severe contusions.

Survivors told Japanese media that they were pelted by rocks from the eruption. One man said he fled with others to the basement of a lodge, fearing that the rocks would penetrate the roof.

Yuji Tsuno, a veteran mountain photographer, was near the summit. After taking pictures of the initial explosion as ash and debris rained down, he quickly took refuge in a nearby hut, he told the TBS TV network.

About 20 minutes later, when the smoke partially subsided, he rushed out and began his descent. It was a gamble, but he believed it was his only chance, he said.

"I almost thought it was the end of my life," he said in the interview.

On his way down, he spotted a man heading up. "I told him to go down with me, but he said he had to check on his child up there. I couldn't stop him," Tsuno said.

The eruption caught seismologists by surprise. Although somewhat increased seismic activity had been recorded for about two weeks, there were no indications of a major eruption, said Satoshi Deguchi, a Japan Meteorological Agency official in Nagano prefecture. Typical signs, such as increased seismic rattling or underground structural movement, were not detected.

Japanese TV showed soldiers carrying a series of body bags on Monday morning to a military helicopter that had landed in a relatively wide-open area of the now bleak landscape, its rotors still spinning.

The bodies were flown to a nearby athletic field and then taken to a small wooden elementary school in the nearby town of Kiso, where they were being examined in the gymnasium.

Family members of the missing waited at a nearby municipal hall.

More than 200 soldiers and firefighters, including units with gas detection equipment, were part of the search mission near the peak, said Katsunori Morimoto, an official in the village of Otaki.

The effort was halted because of an increase in toxic gas and ash as the volcano continued to spew fumes, he said, adding that the rescuers reported a strong smell of sulfur.

The eruption was the first fatal one in modern times at the 3,067-meter (10,062-foot) mountain, a popular climbing destination 210 kilometers (130 miles) west of Tokyo. An eruption occurred in 1979, but no one died.

The mountain began erupting at perhaps the worst possible time, with at least 250 people taking advantage of a beautiful fall Saturday to go for a hike. The blast spewed large white plumes of gas and ash high into the sky, blotted out the midday sun and blanketed the surrounding area in ash.

Hundreds were initially trapped on the slopes, though most made their way down by Saturday night.

About 40 people who were stranded overnight came down on Sunday. Many were injured, and some had to be rescued by helicopters or carried down on stretchers.

Japan's Fire and Disaster Management Agency said 59 people had been injured, including 27 seriously. It was trying to determine if any people were still missing.