The Air Self-Defense Force was engaged in a transportation mission in Iraq from March 2004 to December 2008 under a special law to provide humanitarian assistance for the reconstruction of Iraq. Details of the mission were unknown.

Only since the Democratic Party of Japan took over the reins of power has the Defense Ministry disclosed detailed data in response to requests under the Freedom of Information Law.

Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said that although sensitive military secrets should not be made public, the government should publicly disclose as much information as possible. It is hoped that the government will uphold this thinking. Information disclosure is indispensable for effective civilian control of the Self-Defense Forces.

Three C-130 transport aircraft of the ASDF were engaged in flights between four sites: their base in Kuwait; Baghdad; Arbil in northern Iraq; and southern Iraq, where a Ground Self-Defense Force unit was stationed from January 2004 to July 2006.

According to Kyodo News, Ms. Yuriko Kondo of Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, obtained detailed data covering the period from July 2006 to December 2008 after five attempts. The ASDF transported 26,384 people — 17,650 or some 67 percent of them U.S. soldiers. Tokyo Shimbun reports that if soldiers of other nations are included, 71 percent were soldiers. Under the law, the ASDF was not permitted to transport weapons and ammunition. But Tokyo Shimbun indicates that one-third of the soldiers were armed, carrying a total of 5,395 rifles and handguns.

A reporter for Akahata, the Japan Communist Party organ, also obtained data covering the period from the start to the end of the ASDF mission. The organ says that of 45,000 people transported by the ASDF, some 63 percent were U.S. soldiers and civilian workers for the military, some 26 percent SDF members and about 6 percent United Nations workers.

The ASDF mission appears to have deviated from its stated aim of providing humanitarian assistance for Iraq reconstruction. The Diet and government should closely examine the mission from the viewpoint of the war-renouncing Constitution and Japan's basic defense policy.