The Japanese government is now dispatching up to 1,000 troops to southern Iraq to join the U.S.-led occupation of the country. Many of the troops will be in place in February.

Japanese defense minister Shigeru Ishiba noted recently that Tokyo gets 90 percent of its oil from the Middle East, the largest percentage of any single country. “The reason we can lead such an affluent life, such as using electricity to this extent, driving cars as much as we like, avoiding the cold, and having fruit in winter, is because we have a stable oil supply from the Middle East, isn’t it?” Ishiba said in an interview reported in the January 16 International Herald Tribune.

Following Japan’s defeat in World War II, Washington imposed a constitution on the country that restricted the capabilities of its armed forces to defense purposes. A provision of that constitution expressly prohibited deployment of the Japanese military abroad.

Such restrictions severely weaken the ability of the Japanese rulers to use their army effectively abroad. To that end, Japan’s prime minister Junichiro Koizumi has said that he wants the Self Defense Forces (SDF)—the official name for the Japanese military—to become a full-fledged army and that his party would push to revise Japan’s constitution by 2005.

A defense ministry outline in 1995 expanded SDF’s priorities. The report came after some bourgeois forces in Japan accused the government of practicing “checkbook diplomacy” during the 1991 U.S.-led war against Iraq. The Japanese government was the biggest contributor to Washington for its 1991 war on Iraq, forking over more than $10 billion. Since then, Japanese forces have taken part in UN “peacekeeping” missions in East Timor and Cambodia.

Japanese rulers are also undertaking a radical restructuring of the capabilities and overall structure of the Self Defense Forces in line with similar changes taking place in the U.S. and British military. The Japanese military has introduced two missile-defense systems from the United States. In a shift away from a primarily defensive posture the Japanese rulers are expected to cut the number of tanks the SDF has and increase spending “to address missile and terrorist threats,” reported the Tribune.

An advance group of 39 Japanese soldiers arrived in Kuwait January 17 and were quartered at Camp Virginia, a U.S. military base near Kuwait City. The remainder of the force—an estimated 600 ground troops and 400 sailors and air force personnel—could start leaving Japan by the end of January. After some training at Camp Virginia they are expected to begin deployment inside Iraq by early February.

The Japanese government has gone to great pains to portray the deployment in strictly humanitarian terms, insisting that their task will be to help purify local water supplies, rebuild schools, and provide medical care in southern Iraq.

The troops, however, will carry arms and Tokyo has devoted a lot of time training the soldiers in special “rules of engagement,” according to the Tribune. They have also been studying Arabic, the Koran, and learning about Islamic religious holidays.

The Japanese defense minister told Japan Today that under the rules British forces in Iraq should not expect help from Japanese troops even if they are under fire. The London Times quoted him as saying Japanese troops headed for Iraq will be prohibited from helping coalition forces under attack because of legal restrictions.

China’s People’s Daily, reported the news of the Japanese military deployment critically, calling it a violation of Japan’s constitution. “Short of a sincere apology for its wartime crimes, the country’s deployment of troops in Iraq has caused other Asian countries to have misgivings,” it said.  
 
 
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