New Komeito leader Takenori Kanzaki, who has been noncommittal about plans to dispatch noncombat troops to Iraq, indicated Wednesday that sending an advance Ground Self-Defense Force team there is acceptable.
"More important than the advance team is the issue of whether to send the core unit over," Kanzaki said at a New Komeito event in Kitakyushu.
According to government sources, the Defense Agency will issue an order Friday to send the advance GSDF team, which is expected to leave in mid-January to make preparations and assess the local situation before the government decides on dispatching the main troop contingent.
Kanzaki said he wants the decision on sending the main body to be contingent upon the advance team's report on the security situation as well as other factors, including international coordination, the Japan-U.S. alliance, safety and local needs.
"We must rely on experts to investigate long-term safety," said the New Komeito leader, who last month briefly visited Samawah in southern Iraq where the GSDF deployment is expected to assist in Iraq's reconstruction efforts.
"In that sense, I believe the advance team will carry out the final inspection," he added.
The government plans to send more than 500 GSDF troops mainly to Samawah, which is considered relatively safe, under a special law allowing it to dispatch Self-Defense Forces personnel to noncombat zones in Iraq for reconstruction assistance.
Kanzaki has said his party, the junior coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party, may oppose the troop dispatch if the security situation worsens.
New Komeito is mainly supported by the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai, which is cool to the SDF dispatch.
Japan is planning to deploy about 1,000 SDF members to Iraq for humanitarian work as part of efforts to help rebuild the war-torn country.