As former deputy chief Cabinet secretary and House of Councilors member Kosei Ueno prepares for the Upper House election scheduled for mid-July, he is nagged by one major concern: the security situation in Iraq.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to dispatch up to 600 Ground Self-Defense Force troops to Iraq, despite ongoing attacks on foreign soldiers by terrorists and insurgents.
He said his previous post "put me close to the prime minister, so if anything happens in Iraq, I will probably be affected more" than other candidates.