Japan is preparing to launch a unique guns-for-butter assistance project in Cambodia to help the war-torn Southeast Asian country ensure internal security and promote economic development, especially of the poorer rural areas.
As the first significant step in its preparations, Japan will dispatch a government fact-finding mission to Cambodia early next month, Foreign Ministry sources said Monday.
The sources said the mission, led by Toshio Sano, director of the ministry's arms control and disarmament division, will explore the possibility of helping Cambodia collect firearms from citizens in rural areas and provide them with job training and promote economic development in return.