Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Saturday heard firsthand about the Afghan refugee situation from representatives of Japanese nongovernmental organizations conducting relief work in Pakistan.
While visiting the Islamabad office of the Japan Platform, a group supported by the public and private sectors to promote Japanese NGO activities, Tanaka saw drawings by refugee children and photographs of the effects of U.S.-led bombing in Afghanistan.
"So this is what a cluster bomb looks like," Tanaka said, looking at a photo of one of the types of bombs being used in the military operation. "It's just the color that would attract the attention of children. They should be warned not to touch it."
On seeing a child's drawing of a skipping rope, the foreign minister remarked she should have brought some from Japan so she could give them to the children when she visits a refugee camp near Peshawar on Sunday.
Tanaka entered a tent similar to those some of the refugees are living in at camps in Pakistan. Expressing surprise at how small they are, she remarked, "This tent is supposed to hold eight people?"
Later, she told reporters that Japan must quickly come up with measures to assist the Afghan refugees and displaced people because the situation in Afghanistan is changing very rapidly.
Earlier Saturday, an official of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in charge of the Afghan situation asked Tanaka for Japan's continued support, foreign ministry officials said.
Filippo Grandi, the regional emergency coordinator for the UNHCR, told Tanaka at the organization's office in Islamabad that the international community must help restore order in war-torn Afghanistan so humanitarian aid groups can operate more effectively in the country.