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Japanese want to pull out of Iraq: poll

Nearly 70 percent of Tokyo residents want the government to either pull Japanese troops out of Iraq or not extend their controversial deployment beyond December, an opinion poll showed yesterday.

A telephone survey of 12,944 voters by the regional Tokyo Shimbun for three days to Saturday found that 50 percent believe the government should not extend the Dec. 14 deployment deadline.

Another 19 percent said the troops should be withdrawn immediately, against 20 percent who want to extend the mission into next year, the daily said.

Japan has some 550 troops in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa on a non-combat, humanitarian mission in its first military deployment since 1945 to a country where there is active fighting. The troops are barred by Japan's US-imposed pacifist constitution of 1947 from firing weapons except in self-defense.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi extended the mission last December for another year.

Koizumi said last week he would decide whether to extend it again after seeing the outcome of the war-torn country's referendum on a draft constitution next month.

Katsuya Okada, who heads the main opposition Democratic Party, has said his party would pull the troops out of Iraq if it wins the Sept. 11 election. But with voter attention focused on whether to privatize the massive post office -- Koizumi's signature reform -- the opposition party is behind the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in opinion polls.
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