27 January 2004	Tuesday	04 Zilhaj 1424

TOKYO: By deciding to send troops to Iraq, Japan has cast aside decades of pacifism, boosted its standing in the international community and further cemented Tokyo's alliance with Washington, analysts say.

But sending Japanese troops to a combat zone for the first time since World War II may contravene Tokyo's post-war pacifist constitution, they add. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday formally authorized a 600-strong force of ground troops to be sent to southern Iraq for non-combat, humanitarian and reconstruction operations.

However, his decision is opposed by about half the Japanese public as a violation of the constitution that bans the use of force in settling international disputes, according to opinion polls.

"The troop dispatch signals the first step for Japan to recognize and realize its sovereignty over military affairs as a normal state," said Terumasa Nakanishi, a professor of international politics at Kyoto University.

"It is related to the idea that if Japan fails to maintain its alliance with the United States in the best condition, it may possibly invite North Korean attack," said Nakanishi, reputed for his advocacy of a stronger Japan.

But he warned the troop dispatch "will de facto nullify the constitution, and it will be an urgent task to amend it." By a "normal" state, Japanese academics mean a country that enjoys the basic authority, ability and autonomy for self determination - something many argue Japan has lacked since its post-war occupation by US forces from 1945 to 1952.

Beginning in 1992, Japan has contributed to UN peacekeeping operations in areas including Cambodia, Mozambique, the Golan Heights and East Timor, but only after the end of hostilities.

Security affairs expert professor Takehiko Yamamoto from Waseda University said Japan had been evolving towards a "normal country," a concept first publicly floated in 1993 by conservative leader Ichiro Ozawa.

"Germany has also sought to become a normal state after the Cold War but it has been selective in dealing with the United States as an ally," he said, citing Berlin's decision not to send troops to Iraq.

"It did not jump on the US bandwagon as Japan did." Tetsuo Maeda, a professor of international relations at Tokyo International University, pointed to a decline in pacifism in Japan amid moves by the country's establishment to remove no-war clauses from the constitution.

"Younger generations, who make up the majority, have grown up seeing US military bases as something natural under the US-Japan security treaty," he said.

The academics said that Koizumi, who touts his personal friendship with US President George W. Bush and has argued for the constitution to be changed, had delivered on a decade of growing US-Japan defence ties.

Japan has enacted six laws to justify overseas missions by its defence forces, within the framework of US global strategy, starting with the 1992 law allowing participation in UN peacekeeping operations.

The 1997 "guidelines" on US-Japan defence cooperation expanded its coverage beyond the Far East. The US administration has pressed Japan to put "boots on the ground" in Iraq since Koizumi met Bush at his Texas ranch last May.

Koizumi supported the US-led war on Iraq in early 2003, having learnt the lesson of the US-led war in the Gulf in 1991, despite widespread public opposition that saw the biggest demonstration on Tokyo's streets for years.

In 1991 Japan came in for heavy international criticism for bank-rolling the Gulf war to the tune of about 13.5 billion dollars or 20 per cent of the international contribution, but without committing personnel or equipment.

By last July, Koizumi's ruling coalition pushed through a special law to allow Japan's troop dispatch to a "no-combat zone" in Iraq. To support the US-led war in Afghanistan, Japan also adopted a law to send warships to the Indian Ocean to conduct surveillance and supply fuel.

Such developments, along with Japan's decision to bolster its missile defences, have raised fears that Japan might arm itself with nuclear weapons. But a lengthy analysis by the Washington-based think tank Stimson Centre concluded last month Japan would remain under the "US nuclear umbrella" at least for the foreseeable future.-AFP