Defense Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba departed Sunday on a six-day trip to Britain, the Netherlands and France to discuss international efforts to rebuild Iraq.
Ishiba is scheduled to meet with British Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon on Monday, Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp on Wednesday and French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie on Thursday.
In his talks with Kamp, Ishiba is expected to ask for cooperation from Dutch military forces in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah where an advance team of the Ground Self-Defense Force will be dispatched, possibly around Friday.
Dutch forces in Samawah have provided security data to Japan and will guard the advance GSDF team as well as the main units when they are deployed there.
Dutch happy with media
SAMAWAH, Iraq (Kyodo The Japanese media's news coverage in southern Iraq is welcomed by the Dutch troops there, a Dutch military spokesman said Saturday.
This is in marked contrast to the Japanese government's request that the media exercise restraint in its reporting so as not to endanger Ground Self-Defense Force troops by revealing sensitive information.
There are signs in Samawah indicating the distance to the local Dutch military base, but the Defense Agency is telling Japanese media not to report specific locations where Japanese troops will operate.
There has been no particular trouble from the two dozen reporters and TV crews from the Netherlands in the area, the spokesman said.