Experts warn that Self-Defense Forces troops risk depleted uranium radiation exposure if they are deployed to Samawah in the south to help rebuild the country.

According to European and U.S. news reports, and testimony by experts who carried out inspections in Iraq, it appears certain that the U.S. used depleted uranium shells in the invasion this year.

But the Japanese government, responding to a question from Mizuho Fukushima, a Social Democratic Party member of the House of Councilors, admits it does not know whether the United States used depleted uranium shells in its invasion of Iraq.