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Oct 6, 2004 -
Analysts in and outside of Japan have questioned the role of that country’s troops in Iraq. Critics argue that restrictions placed on the force by the Japanese Constitution prevents it from being useful, but they further charge that the deployment is part of an effort to revise the Constitution to allow the use of military force outside Japan’s borders.
Japan has 600 troops in the south of Iraq, predominately involved in infrastructural work. Currently, Dutch troops are providing protection to the unarmed Japanese unit.
Ed Lincoln, an analyst from the Council on Foreign Relations, has criticized the Japanese troops’ accomplishments. Interviewed by Aljazeera, he argued that the Japanese deployment is motivated by Japanese conservatives’ efforts to open the way for constitutional revision, and remove the prohibition on military force which has been in place sincethe end of World War Two..
Hiroshi Honda, a professor of politics at Hokkaido Gakuen University, agrees. He told Aljazeera that while the Japanese troops are in Iraq primarily to show solidarity with the US, there were other reasons as well. "Oil is one consideration," he said, "but I also believe that the [Japanese military] is there because the government wants them to get used to combat situations. It's a kind of training program: the [military] has never been in the position of being shot at and the whole thing is less about humanitarian assistance than [about] training the troops."
