Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called on the nation to support his decision to send Self-Defense Forces units to Iraq as he kicked off the 150-day ordinary Diet session Monday.
Iraq-related issues topped the agenda of Koizumi's policy speech, delivered at the beginning of the session, conspicuously nudging aside diplomatic matters such as North Korea's nuclear threat and the Japan-U.S. military alliance.
"If we were to now yield to terrorism, allowing Iraq to become a base for terrorism, the threat of terrorism would hang not only over Iraq, but also over the entire world, " Koizumi told the Diet.