Japan's defense chief, arguing yesterday in support of a widely opposed troop dispatch to Iraq, said Tokyo's mission was humanitarian but that only the military was sufficiently equipped to carry it out.
Also, media reported the government had decided to beef up the weaponry that the Japanese ground troops will use when they head for their reconstruction work in southern Iraq.
"The reason it is necessary to have ground troops [in Iraq] is so that each person will feel they benefited because Japan came to help," defense chief Shigeru Ishiba said on a program aired by public broadcaster NHK.
"To provide medical assistance, help repair schools, provide clean water -- the Self-Defense Forces have the capability to do these things," he said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has pledged to send Japan's military to help rebuild Iraq. But he hasn't given specifics about the mission's timing and size, amid public criticism that it could get troops embroiled in growing violence and make Japan a terrorist target.
Opposition has intensified since two Japanese diplomats were killed there by gunmen on Nov. 29 -- the country's first casualties in the US-led war in Iraq.
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