Opposition to SDF dispatch to Iraq increases

As Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro's cabinet adheres to the policy of dispatching Japan's Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, voices in opposition to the dispatch are increasing throughout Japan.

NGOs
Eight anti-war NGOs held a news conference on December 5 in Tokyo and stated, "The U.S. and British governments are to blame for the death of two Japanese diplomats because they waged the war of aggression, and the Japanese government is also responsible for the two victims because it supports the war and plans to send the SDF to Iraq."

Local governments
In Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, where the largest entertainment district of Japan is located, 18 ward assembly members from the Japanese Communist Party and the Democratic Party of Japan on December 5 issued an appeal in opposition to the SDF dispatch to Iraq. Assembly members of the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komei Party refused to join in the appeal.

The Koriyama City Assembly in Fukushima Prefecture, northern Japan, on December 2 unanimously adopted an opinion calling on the government to cancel the plan to dispatch the SDF to Iraq under combat situations.

In Mie Prefecture, central Japan, the Kuwana City Assembly on December 5 approved a JCP-proposed opinion by majority vote, urging the government not to dispatch the SDF to Iraq.

Workers' unions
The Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) had carefully stated its stand on the law enacted in July to allow the SDF to be dispatched to Iraq, but on December 5 Rengo President Sasamori Kiyoshi expressed clear opposition to the SDF dispatch by saying, "It is intolerable to destroy the Japanese people's wishes for peace that has been established for 58 years since the end of WWII." (end)