A team of Japanese soldiers left for Iraq yesterday as police, on the alert for terrorist attacks, tightened security ahead of what may become Japan's riskiest overseas military mission since World War II.
After a series of send-off ceremonies in Tokyo, about 30 members of the Ground Self Defense Force, as Japan's army is called, left for southeastern Iraq, an advance unit of a force that could include up to 1,000 troops.
The dispatch marks a historic shift away from Japan's purely defensive postwar security policy and poses a big political risk for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.
"You're the pride of the Japanese people, the pride of the nation. I hope that you will complete your mission safely," Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, at times appearing almost overcome by emotion, told 180 soldiers -- including those leaving yesterday and others to join them later -- in attendance with about 100 relatives and top military brass.
Children's voices sometimes drowned out Ishiba's words. Most family members appeared cheerful, chatting and snapping pictures of the soldiers with their camera-phones before the ceremony.
A few demonstrators passed out leaflets near the defense ministry criticizing the dispatch.
Police vehicles kept them apart from a small group of right-wing activists who were shouting: "Japanese troops, do your best."
Critics say sending the troops violates Japan's pacifist constitution. Opinion polls have shown that the public is largely against sending the troops now and Koizumi's government could face a backlash if there are casualties.
The public was shocked when two Japanese diplomats were gunned down in northern Iraq late last year.
"Public opinion is divided for and against the dispatch to Iraq. But the dispatch is not to take part in war, the use of force, or combat," Koizumi told a meeting of his Liberal Democratic Party.
"Japan cannot ensure its security and peace on its own," he said. "It is not necessary to shed blood, but it is Japan's responsibility as a member of international society to sweat, to cooperate with funds and to make a human contribution."
The troops are expected to arrive in Kuwait today and travel overland later in the month to the city of Samawa in southern Iraq, where they will engage in humanitarian and reconstruction operations, Japanese media said.
The main body of around 600 ground troops will probably set off from late January.
A Russian charter plane also left Hokkaido in northern Japan yesterday for Kuwait carrying eight light armored vehicles.
Security was tight in Tokyo after media reports late last year that al-Qaeda had warned Japan it would attack the heart of the capital as soon as Japanese troops set foot in Iraq.
Police patrols were also stepped up at government offices, nuclear power plants, railway stations and airports, where officers walked around with sniffer dogs.
Also see story:
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
INTENSIFYING THREATS: Beijing’s tactics include massive attacks on the government service network, aircraft and naval vessel incursions and damaging undersea cables China is prepared to interfere in November’s nine-in-one local elections by launching massive attacks on the Taiwanese government’s service network (GSN), a report published by the National Security Bureau showed. The report was submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of the bureau’s scheduled briefing at the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The national security team has identified about 13,000 suspicious Internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages, the bureau said of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The disputed messages focus on major foreign affairs, national defense and economic issues, which were produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed through Chinese
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS