Japan orders withdrawal of ground troops from Iraq, ending groundbreaking mission

TOKYO -- Japan's announcement Tuesday that it would immediately start pulling its ground troops from Iraq brought to a close a mission that symbolized the country's push to take a more assertive role in world affairs.

Defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga ordered the withdrawal to begin Tuesday and said it would take weeks. Tokyo made clear the pullout did not signal a break with Washington; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the decision was made in consultation with the United States and other allies.

The 600 Japanese troops were sent to Iraq in 2004 on a strictly humanitarian, noncombat mission. They were assigned to a relatively peaceful part of the country and were largely confined to base.

There were no casualties among Japanese soldiers during the mission, but other Japanese citizens in Iraq were targeted by militants demanding the country withdraw its troops. Seven Japanese have been kidnapped in Iraq since the deployment, and two of them were killed.

But Japan has been concerned its troops could be drawn into the fighting in Iraq. So when Britain and Australia announced Monday that they would hand over responsibility for security to Iraqi forces in southern Muthana province, where the Japanese troops are based, that apparently signaled to Tokyo it was time to go.

The mission in Iraq was Japan's largest military deployment in the postwar era and the first to a war zone since 1945.

Further aid pledged

Koizumi, announcing the withdrawal, said the mission in Samawah showed that Tokyo stood ready to fulfill its international obligations, and he pledged further aid Iraq.

"We played a major role in reconstructing infrastructure and basic living conditions through our activities," Koizumi said. "We won the appreciation and trust of the Iraqi government and its people."

The troops' top tasks were purifying water and repairing schools, but he said soldiers also patched roads and strengthened medical services.

Japan is not completely withdrawing from Iraq. The government will now look at expanding air operations in the country to ferry U.S. personnel and medical supplies, officials said.

The mission to Iraq was the most dramatic in a series of moves in recent years by a Japan increasingly eager to play a diplomatic and military role more commensurate with its economic might.

Tokyo offered logistical maritime support for the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan in 2002, and the Koizumi was a vocal backer of the invasion of Iraq the following year.

In addition, Japan is working on a joint missile defense system with the United States, and is assuming more responsibility for its own defense under a broad realignment of the 50,000 U.S. troops based in the country.

Koizumi has made clear he hoped the Iraq mission would open the door to similar deployments.

The efforts have been limited by the country's 1947 pacifist constitution, which bans Japan from taking part in warfare.

Koizumi got around that by passing legislation allowing only humanitarian military dispatches to relatively peaceful areas. The ruling party also wants to revise the constitution.

Koizumi heads to Washington for a summit with President Bush in late June, before stepping down in September.

"Japan's policy to cooperate with the United States based on the importance of the Japan-U.S. alliance has never changed and will not change," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo issued a brief statement saying Washington valued Japan's contribution to Iraqi reconstruction. The Iraqi ambassador to Japan, Ghanim Alwan al-Jumaily, also visited Koizumi to thank him for the deployment.