Japan passes legislation to send troops to Iraq

Japan’s Parliament has approved a bill that authorises Japanese forces to help with reconstruction in Iraq, despite delaying tactics by the opposition that at one point deteriorated into a wild shoving match during a committee meeting.

It was a major political victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who has campaigned hard to send peacekeeping troops overseas as he seeks to raise Japan’s profile on the world stage and distance his administration from the “cheque book diplomacy” for which the world’s second-richest nation was criticised during the 1991 Gulf War.