Japan prepared yesterday to send its largest contingent of soldiers to date to help rebuild Iraq, a day after Tokyo vowed to stay on guard against terror attacks in wake of bombings in Madrid.
Around 190 ground troops were greeted by families and fellow army personnel waving Japanese flags and banners as they arrived by bus at Chitose air base on the northern island of Hokkaido.
The troops, including around 10 women, will depart later in the day on a humanitarian mission that critics say violates Japan's pacifist constitution.
After training in Kuwait the troops will join around 250 others who are building a base near the town of Samawa in southern Iraq.
The latest dispatch comes as Japan steps up efforts to win understanding among people in Arab world for its riskiest overseas military mission since World War II.
Japan is to air brief ads on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television to stress that Japanese troops are being sent to Iraq for humanitarian aid and not for combat.
The latest dispatch comes at a time of re-newed jitters in Japan about possible attacks on its soil.
Japan has been on heightened security alert since late last year when the government decided to send troops to Iraq, and concern mounted after media reports said al-Qaeda had threatened to strike at the heart of Tokyo in retaliation.
Japan's non-combat mission could eventually involve around 600 ground troops in Iraq and a total deployment of about 1,000 in the region.
Security concerns came to the fore after bomb blasts ripped through four packed commuter trains in Madrid on Thursday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding almost 1,500.
Japan, one of the closest allies of the US in Asia, said later that authorities need to be on guard against possible attacks.
Japan has already raised security at key locations such as nuclear power plants, government facilities and US bases.
Officials said they did not plan to take any new steps after the Madrid bombings, but remained vigilant.
"We are taking best possible steps for security now," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters on Friday.
"But terrorist acts, by nature, aim for any cracks so we need to think about various issues so that won't happen," he said.
Although Spain says the Basque separatist group ETA remains the prime suspect, a purported al-Qaeda letter claiming responsibility stoked concerns in Japan, which was one of the countries mentioned in the letter.
Japan is also worried about attacks on its nationals in Iraq.
In late November, two Japanese diplomats were gunned down in northern Iraq near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
Hackles were raised when two Japanese students were detained and later released by police in Samawa on Thursday despite a Foreign Ministry advisory two days before that warned of possible attacks in Samawa and urged all Japanese civilians to leave Iraq.
"I don't think it's good to go there on something like a sightseeing jaunt," Fukuda told reporters on Friday.
Dutch military officials in Samawa told Japan's Defense Ministry the students had been protesting against the US-led occupation of Iraq, Kyodo news agency quoted Japanese officials as saying.
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
At a calligraphy class in Hanoi, Hoang Thi Thanh Huyen slides her brush across the page to form the letters and tonal marks of Vietnam’s unique modern script, in part a legacy of French colonial rule. The history of romanized Vietnamese, or Quoc Ngu, links the arrival of the first Christian missionaries, colonization by the French and the rise to power of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It is now reflected in the country’s “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. A month after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) visited,