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Japanese extend Iraq mission

Peter Alford, Tokyo correspondent
December 09, 2004

JAPAN'S cabinet will today recommit the nation's troops to the Iraq war for another 12 months.

Ministers will decide after hearing a report from Japan Defence Agency chief Yoshinori Ono. who on Monday inspected security in Samawah, where the Japanese Self-Defence Force soldiers operate.

Between 500 and 600 troops are doing civil reconstruction work, such as rebuilding schools and repairing water supplies, in one of the safer southern parts of Iraq. The SDF is restricted by Japan's constitution from engaging in combat activities abroad, except in self-defence. The troops are protected by a Dutch contingent.

But the Dutch forces are to withdraw in March, and the Japanese have not been able to get an undertaking from any other ally to replace them. It is likely Iraqi police will have to take on the responsibility.

Security concerns, the murder of a Japanese hostage by terrorists six weeks ago and growing -- though not overwhelming -- public opinion against the commitment has made today's decision more difficult for Junichiro Koizumi's Government.

But Mr Koizumi is adamant the troops should stay in Iraq -- he is understood to have given an undertaking to US President George W. Bush -- and Mr Ono made clear he would recommend this to cabinet.

"While the security situation in Samawah is still unpredictable, it has become more stable," Mr Ono said after his visit on Monday. "It is important the SDF continues with its humanitarian assistance activities."

The Liberal Democratic Party's governing partner New Komeito, although closely associated with the pacifist Buddhist lay movement Soka Gakkai, has fallen into line.

"The security situation in Samawah is stable, people in Samawah welcome the Self-Defence Force troops," New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki said yesterday.

The first SDF contingent was sent to Iraq for 12 months by an initially dubious Government under strong pressure from the US, Japan's key ally and security guarantor in northeast Asia.

While the Government insists the issues of Iraq and the US alliance are separate, the Samawah deployment has become part of a push by LDP hawks to create a more "normal" military function for the SDF after 60 years of operating under the constraints of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution.

The progress of that effort will become clearer tomorrow when the Koizumi cabinet approves a new National Defence Program Outline -- essentially Japan's military policy framework for the next decade.

The outline should make clear the government and defence agency priorities on such potentially controversial issues as ballistic missile defence, long-range aerial capabilities, an anti-terrorist rapid response force, defence equipment exports and overall force size and structures.

But newspaper reports suggest the LDP has shelved a proposal for a ground-to-ground strategic missile system that would allow Japan to strike at military threats to its remote islands or on nearby foreign soil -- North Korea, for instance.

The reports say New Komeito has blocked the proposal and also insisted that the embargo on military exports remain, except where it would hinder Japan-US co-operation on ballistic missile defence.