An internal Ground Self-Defense Force report on its 2004-2006 mission to Iraq — which was recently disclosed years after it was compiled — reveals how the SDF troops dispatched on a humanitarian aid mission to a "noncombat" zone in the war-torn country were still exposed to tense situations involving repeated mortar and rocket shell attacks on their camp, including one that may have been "only one step away from causing serious damage." The government-proposed security legislation now before the Upper House can take SDF troops much closer to the battlefield to provide logistical support to other forces engaged in combat in international conflicts — missions that might effectively be deemed inseparable from use of force by other countries' troops.

The Iraq mission, based on a special temporary law for Japan's support in the reconstruction of Iraq after the large-scale U.S.-led war operation was declared ended, was the first deployment of SDF troops to a country still experiencing conflict. A total of some 5,500 GSDF troops were dispatched to Samawah in southern Iraq and mainly engaged in medical aid, water supply and repair of roads and school buildings.

To set them apart from the military operations still ongoing in Iraq, the GSDF troops were deployed to what was defined as a "noncombat zone" where no combat activities were deemed to take place throughout the entire period of their mission. Still, the report, compiled by the GSDF in 2008 as an internal document, quotes the deployed unit chief as describing the mission as a "purely military operation."