Anti-dispatch movement warms up in Hokkaido

In Hokkaido's Asahikawa City where the Ground Self-Defense Forces Base is located, the movement against the dispatch of the SDF to Iraq has become more intense since the city saw off its resident SDF troops to Iraq.

A survey conducted by the Hokkaido Shinbun Press showed that 59 percent of the respondents expressed their opposition to the SDF dispatch while 37 percent said they support it. The opposition rate was 8 percent higher than a nationwide survey.

When a SDF dispatch ceremony was held in Asahikawa City on February 1 with Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro in attendance, members of the City Liaison Council against Wartime Legislation carried out a street signature collection campaign. In just an hour, 444 residents signed their petition in opposition to the dispatch.

Last December, about 40 high school students took part in an anti-dispatch rally in Asahikawa with their teachers. In Sapporo City, Hokkaido's prefectural capital, high school students created a group called "Peace Wind". Using mobile phones and computers, the group now includes about 140 students from 40 high schools.

A lawsuit calling for an injunction against the SDF dispatch, filed with the Sapporo District Court by former Postal and Telecommunications Minister Minowa Noboru, was endorsed by 109 out of 421 lawyers in Hokkaido. One of the lawyers said, "It took us only three days to collect that many lawyers. A group of more than 100 lawyers was formed for the first time." (end)