TOKYO, April 10: Hundreds of people rallied outside Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's office on Saturday, demanding the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Iraq to save the lives of three Japanese kidnapped by insurgents there.
Some of them also protested against the arrival of US Vice President Dick Cheney here later in the day on an Asian tour as Koizumi's refusal to withdraw troops is seen as linked to his strong alliance with Washington.
The militants, who belong to an unknown group "Mujahedeen Brigades," have threatened to kill the captives, two volunteer workers and a photojournalist, if the 550 Japanese troops do not move out of Iraq by 1200 GMT Sunday.
"The lives of people are more important than the Japan-US alliance," the demonstrators shouted in chorus as they were prevented by police from crossing the street to the prime minister's official residence in the centre of Tokyo.
"Cheney, don't come!", "Pull down the star-spangled banner!" some demonstrators cried as Japanese and US national flags adorned downtown streets ahead of Cheney's trip which will also take him to South Korea and China.
The US vice president arrived in the late afternoon for talks with Koizumi and other Japanese leaders expected to focus on the hostage crisis.
The rally brought together various citizens' groups and labour unions as well as opposition politicians and Buddhist monks who have been opposed to this first deployment of Japanese troops since World War II in a country where fighting is under way.
The military dispatch, albeit on a non-combat mission to help humanitarian and reconstruction work in war-torn Iraq, is seen by some as a breach of Japan's pacifist constitution which bans the use of force in settling international disputes.
"I see about one thousand people. It may be the largest assembly of people outside the prime minister's office," said Ken Takada, who organised the rally. "We will gather together again tomorrow and more people are expected to come."
Takada added that his group had collected 100,000 signatures to urge Prime Minister Koizumi to pull troops out of Iraq. But Koizumi on Friday rejected the militants' ultimatum, saying Japan would not remove its ground troops deployed in the southern Iraqi city of Samawa.
About 150 left-wing activists, unionists and citizens held a separate rally in Shibuya, one of Tokyo's downtown hubs, to protest Cheney's visit expected to be dominated by the hostage crisis.
A foreign ministry official said the government had yet to contact the captors or locate where the hostages are.
Meanwhile, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa arrived in Amman early on Saturday to head Japan's efforts to solve the crisis.
"If it is needed I will go to Iraq, but before making the decision we must collect and analyse all the information that we can in Jordan, our friendly country," he told reporters in the Jordanian capital.
The hostages have been identified as Noriaki Imai, 18, a volunteer worker, Nahoko Takato, 34, a female volunteer, and Soichiro Koriyama, a 32-year-old photojournalist.
They were seized while traveling overland from Amman to Baghdad.-AFP
