Kyodo: Japan plans to withdraw troops from Iraq in December, shift to ODA
TOKYO, May 4, Kyodo - The Japanese government has begun making arrangements to withdraw the Self-Defense Forces from Iraq and its vicinity in December, when their reconstruction assistance mission is set to expire, government sources said Wednesday. Japan plans to notify the Diet and countries concerned as early as September after studying the situation in Iraq and then switch its form of aid mainly to official development assistance, the sources said... Japan, which has been taking into consideration such moves by other nations, will have to announce its withdrawal plans by September if it decides to pull the troops out by the end of the year as the preparation and implementation process is said to require about three months, the sources said. But a Defense Agency source pointed out that Japan would be able to draw more attention to its contributions in Iraq by not announcing its intention to withdraw the SDF while the U.S. and British military forces are still actively involved in the country...more...