The Japanese Parliament on Saturday gave the final approval to a government bill of sending Self-Defense Forces (SDF) personnel to Iraq for reconstruction work there, as a move to push SDF roles overseas.

With the approval, the Japanese government will start full work Monday on fleshing out a plan to dispatch the first SDF troops later this year.

The plan arose after US President George W. Bush, Koizumi's closest ally on the global stage, expressed hope that Japan would participate in Iraq's postwar reconstruction.

Japan also aims to create a permanent law on sending Self-Defense Forces (SDF) personnel overseas on peacekeeping missions, including those not authorized by the United Nations, top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda said.

The government wants to designate peacekeeping missions outside Japan as a basic duty of the SDF in the envisioned law, he said. Key duties under the current law include national defense and keeping public order in the event of domestic unrest.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the New Komeito Party and the New Conservative Party in the ruling coalition backed the bill, while the opposition camp led by the Democratic Party of Japan is against it.

On Saturday, the House of Councilors approved the legislation with a 136-to-102 vote. The House of Representatives cleared the bill on July 4.

"This law will benefit Japan in the long run," Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was quoted as saying at a press conference after the vote.

But Koizumi declined to comment on when the government can dispatch the first SDF troops to Iraq, only saying, "We'll decide after conducting a thorough study on local conditions."

Before the plenary session, the coalition rammed the bill through the upper house's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the final step before its passage.

Opposition members of the committee claimed the procedure was invalid because Committee Chairman Ryuji Matsumura allowed an excited mob of ruling lawmakers to push the bill through, but to no avail.

Despite Diet approval, the issue of whether dispatch of the SDF to Iraq is legitimate will remain the focus of talks during major political events in the coming months. 

Among the events will be the Sept. 20 presidential race of the LDP, in which Koizumi will seek reelection, and a possible general election by the year-end.

Koizumi had faced a barrage of questions from opposition lawmakers about details of the plan for SDF dispatch to Iraq during parliament debates which started in late June.

But political analysts said Koizumi apparently failed to convince a number of lawmakers and the public that SDF troops will perform their missions in safe circumstances and in line with the war-renouncing Constitution.

A recent media poll said more than 50 percent of people surveyed are opposed to sending the SDF to Iraq. Meanwhile, the opposition parties offered strong last-ditch resistance to the bill Thursday and Friday.

The new legislation envisages SDF personnel helping foreign forces keep order in Iraq by providing medical services, supplying safe water, transporting materials and rebuilding infrastructure, among other duties.

SDF personnel could provide Iraqis with humanitarian and reconstruction assistance in areas where conflicts are not taking place or will not take place, according to the law.

SDF troops are not supposed to threaten anybody with weapons or use them in Iraq, the law states. Japanese troops' use of weapons overseas is strictly limited while performing duties under the Constitution.

Japan's Constitution renounces war or the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.

The new law will expire in July 2007, but could be extended for another four years if deemed necessary.

"But SDF personnel would possibly play a leading role because they already have experience and know-how of peacekeeping missions overseas," Fukuda said.

The Japanese parliament passed a special UN peacekeeping operations law in 1992 under which the government has sent SDF troops to such countries as Cambodia and East Timor.

But the government needed temporary legal frameworks in 2001 to join US-led antiterrorism operations in and near Afghanistan, according to the analysts.

Anyway, the 2001 antiterrorism law expires in November. The Japanese government submitted the bill in mid-June on sending SDF to Iraq as next step to enhance overseas roles of SDF troops, they said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2003)