The first of the three Air Self-Defense Force transport planes deployed for airlifting activities in Iraq returned to Japan on Friday as the mission neared completion.
The C-130H, which left Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait earlier this week, arrived at Komaki Air Base in Aichi Prefecture shortly before noon. The other two C-130Hs are due to arrive in the coming days.
In addition, an ASDF plane carrying many of the roughly 200 service members in the transport unit is expected to arrive there Tuesday.
The ASDF began airlifting goods and supplies for Ground Self-Defense troops in Iraq in March 2004, flying between its base in Kuwait and an airfield near Samawah, where the troops provided humanitarian and reconstruction assistance.
After the GSDF withdrew in July 2006, the ASDF began airlifting personnel and supplies for U.S.-led multinational forces and the United Nations, flying to three Iraqi cities, including Baghdad.
The Nagoya High Court ruled the ASDF mission unconstitutional in April because the act of airlifting armed troops from multinational forces to Baghdad, a war zone, is an act integral to the use of force by other countries.
Of the roughly 46,500 people the ASDF transported in the mission, about 30,000 are believed to have been U.S. troops and other multinational forces.
The Japanese government last month ordered the ASDF to pull out of the region.
Japan's decision coincided with the expiration at the end of the year of a U.N. mandate authorizing the deployment of multinational forces in Iraq.
