TOKYO, Sept 11: Japan said on Thursday it was ending an air mission in Iraq, wrapping up a military deployment which was historic for the pacifist nation but deeply unpopular among the public.

Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Tokyo planned by the end of the year to bring back planes which flew goods and personnel into Iraq in support of the United Nations and US-led coalition.

The mission is Japan’s last remaining military operation in Iraq after the country, which has been officially pacifist since defeat in World War II, ended a landmark ground deployment in 2006.

“After continued consultations with Iraq, we have come to believe that the situation in Iraq has gradually improved and that we are gradually achieving the purpose” of the Japanese mission, Komura said.

Some 210 Japanese troops and airplanes operating in Iraq are stationed in Kuwait. Domestic legislation allowing the mission expires in July next year.

“Even after pulling out the Air Self-Defence Forces, Japan’s position to support Iraq will never change,” Komura said.

But citing the seventh anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks, the government said it will continue another controversial mission in the Indian Ocean, in which the naval forces give fuel for the US-led “war on terror” in Afghanistan.

“Operations in Afghanistan are becoming more and more significant,” said Defence Minister Yoshisama Hayashi.

“The international community will be able to focus more on the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan” after withdrawing from Iraq, he said.

Japan’s opposition, which has been making gains, is staunchly against both missions in Iraq and the Indian Ocean. It briefly forced a halt to the Indian Ocean deployment last year, saying Japan should not be part of “American wars”. Yukio Hatoyama, secretary-general of the main opposition Democratic Party, said that Japan never should have been involved militarily in Iraq in the first place.

“It was clear that dispatching the Self-Defence Forces to Iraq was unconstitutional,” he told reporters. “The government should have decided on the withdrawal sooner. The decision came too late.” Then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi sent troops to Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, marking the first time that Japan deployed armed forces to a country where fighting was underway since 1945.

Koizumi and other members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) argue that Japan must do more to ensure global security to win respect on the world stage.

But the mission was deeply unpopular with the Japanese public. Koizumi ended the ground mission in 2006 when the relatively safe area where Japanese forces were on a reconstruction mission was handed over to Iraqi control.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party is bracing for tough general elections after the resignation of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and is having increasing trouble with coalition partner New Komeito, which has a pacifist platform. New Komeito’s secretary-general Kazuo Kitagawa praised the pullout decision, saying: “We fully support it.” “You can’t understand this move by the Japanese government without considering the political situation at home,” said Kazuo Takahashi, a Middle East expert and professor of international politics at the Open University of Japan.

“With snap elections to be called any time, now would be the only time for the government to withdraw the troops with a good excuse,” Takahashi said.

—AFP