TOKYO, 2 September 2005 — Japan’s prime minister said yesterday he would decide whether to extend Japan’s mission in Iraq after October when the war-torn country’s draft constitution is set to be put to a referendum. “There will be a referendum in October (in Iraq), and we should examine its outcome before making a decision,” Premier Junichiro Koizumi said in an interview with Kyodo News and other media organizations.
In late August, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said the country’s draft constitution was ready to be put to the vote in an October 15 referendum, ending weeks of tortuous negotiations.
Japan’s non-combat mission involving 600 troops in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa began in December 2003 and the government of Koizumi, a close ally of US President George W. Bush, extended the deployment last December until December 14 this year.
Washington has reportedly asked Tokyo to extend the mission beyond the December 14 deadline while Koizumi has also indicated the Japanese troops may remain. Japanese troops, who are barred by the country’s pacifist constitution from using force except in the strictest definition of self-defense, have suffered no casualties nor fired a shot in Iraq. Analysts say the deployment, the first since World War II in a country at war, is seen as a way for Japan to exert a greater role in world affairs.
