Sarmad Ali, a college student from Iraq who lives in Japan, is planning to visit the southern Iraqi city of Samawah in early March to help locals communicate with Japanese troops stationed there with a phrase book he published in Japan last year.

"I want to let Iraqis have some new information about Japan, as Japanese people are going to Iraq for peaceful purposes," said Ali, expressing his gratitude for Japan sending Self-Defense Forces troops to his homeland to provide humanitarian assistance.

Ali, 24, is not the only Iraqi resident in favor of the SDF being sent to Iraq, a hot issue in Japan where military affairs are often controversial because of the war-renouncing Constitution.