Japan defence chief visits southern Iraq

Japan’s defence chief visited Japanese troops in southern Iraq amid rising expectations that Tokyo will extend its humanitarian mission there into next year, local news agencies said.

Defence Chief Fukushiro Nukaga left Tokyo on Friday for an unspecified destination. Defence Agency officials declined to confirm the reports that Nukaga was in Iraq, citing security concerns.

Nukaga arrived in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah by helicopter yesterday and inspected his troops on humanitarian mission there. He also visited a nearby junior school repaired by the Japanese troops and met British and Australian military officials to discuss the region’s security, public broadcaster NHK reported.

“The situation in the area is relatively stable,” NHK quoted Nukaga as saying in a statement. He also stressed the need for Japan’s continued support for Iraq, NHK and Kyodo News agency said.

During his five-hour visit, he also met provincial governor Mohammad Ali Hassan to discuss local security and Japan’s mission there, reports said.

The 600 Japanese troops based in Samawah are rebuilding schools, purifying water and conducting other humanitarian work. Japan’s pacifist constitution bans the use of force in resolving international disputes.

Nukaga’s visit to the troops and to areas around Samawah to check safety conditions is intended to gain public support for an extension of the unpopular mission, due to expire on December 14.

Tokyo has not announced whether the mission will be extended. Media reports said an announcement of a one-year extension of the mission is expected later this week.

The mission, Japan’s largest overseas military dispatch since the Second World War, has grown increasingly unpopular with the public. Many Japanese say the deployment violates the constitution and has made Japan a target for terrorism.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is to visit Tokyo tomorrow for talks with his counterpart, Junichiro Koizumi, on Japan’s support for Iraq’s reconstruction and the role of Japanese troops in Samawah, the Foreign Ministry said earlier.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hohshyar Zebari earlier visited Japan to urge it to extend the deployment.

Last December, then-Defence Agency chief Yoshinori Ono briefly inspected Samawah and said the area was safe enough for Japanese troops to operate in before an earlier one-year extension of the mission.