Japanese public opposes keeping troops in Iraq - poll
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-10 17:23

Three out of four Japanese people oppose extending the non-combat mission of their country's 600 troops in southern Iraq beyond its planned end in December, a newspaper poll showed on Monday.

Opposition to extending the mission was strong even among those who back Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

The daily Mainichi Shimbun said 77 percent of those surveyed opposed keeping Japan's military in Iraq beyond the end of Japan's self-imposed mandate on December 14, while 18 percent were in favor.

Some 66 percent of LDP supporters surveyed said they were opposed to an extension, said Mainichi.

The survey comes after the Yomiuri newspaper said last month that Japan was considering pulling out its troops from Samawa in southern Iraq in the first half of next year. The government has denied that it had such a plan.

Japan's deployment of military personnel, first approved in 2003, helped cement close ties between Koizumi and U.S. President George W. Bush, though the troops' activities are limited to humanitarian and reconstruction activities under Japan's pacifist constitution.

The poll also asked for views on Koizumi's visits to the Yasukuni shrine for war dead, another sensitive diplomatic topic. Fifty-one percent said they were opposed to Koizumi continuing his shrine visits while 44 percent said they were in favor.

Koizumi came to power in 2001, pledging to visit the shrine every year, but he has not paid his respects there since January 2004.

His visits have angered China and South Korea, which regard the shrine -- where 14 Class A war criminals are honored along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead -- as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.

Koizumi has not made clear whether he will visit the shrine this year, repeatedly saying only that he will "make an appropriate decision."

A Japanese court ruled last month that Koizumi violated Japan's constitution by visiting Yasukuni, but Koizumi later said the ruling would have no impact on his decision-making.

Mainichi said it surveyed 1,068 eligible voters across Japan on Saturday and Sunday.