Whenever the government or Diet discusses the security situation in Iraq, it is usually related to the safety of the Ground Self-Defense Force troops deployed to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.
But unstable security elsewhere in Iraq is also troubling Foreign Ministry officials who handle the huge budget for grant aid projects and official development assistance.
During an international donors' conference in Madrid in October, Japan vowed to provide $1.5 billion in grant aid by the end of 2004 and another $3.5 billion by the end of 2007.