The Foreign Ministry said it set up a new division Wednesday to deal with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States, centering around cooperating with the international community in the fight against terrorism.
The International Counterterrorism Cooperation Division is aimed at facilitating Japan's participation in global efforts to prevent and eliminate terrorism and strengthening the ministry's overseas cooperation toward that end, it said.
The five-member office, placed within the Foreign Policy Bureau's Policy Coordination Division, will work on planning overall foreign policy concerning measures to deal with international terrorism.
It will also make arrangements for cooperating with fellow Group of Eight countries as well as other nations, both bilaterally and multilaterally, such as within the framework of the United Nations and its organizations.
Mondale offers thanks
Walter Mondale, former U.S. vice president and ambassador to Japan, thanked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Wednesday for Japan's assistance in the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan, a Japanese government official said.
Mondale said the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to the Indian Ocean to lend noncombat support was widely televised in the United States. He also thanked Koizumi for all that Japan has done up until now, according to the official.