The government on Saturday set up a liaison office at Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's Official Residence and convened a Foreign Ministry task force following an air strike by U.S. and British warplanes on radar facilities south of Baghdad on Friday, government officials said.
But the office was shut down around 7 a.m., about two hours after it was created, after the government was able to confirm the safety of all 11 Japanese living in Baghdad.
Tokyo decided there would be no further developments as the Pentagon announced it would halt the attack, the officials said, adding that the task force will continue to gather information.
According to the officials, the office was quickly set up around 4:40 a.m. Saturday on Mori's instructions in an attempt to blunt criticism of him for continuing to play golf last Saturday after being informed of a collision between a Japanese ship and a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine off Hawaii.
Shortly after 5 a.m., officials including Bunmei Ibuki, state minister in charge of crisis management, and Shinzo Abe, deputy chief Cabinet secretary, rushed to the crisis management center at the prime minister's Official Residence.
The 11 Japanese living in Baghdad are three U.N. staff, five trading house employees, one permanent resident and two staff from the Japanese Embassy in Jordan who were in the capital city during the 140-minute operation. They have all informed the ministry that they are safe, officials said.
Two other Japanese are working for the United Nations in the northern part of Iraq, but that area was not targeted in the attack by 24 U.S. and British warplanes and the ministry has confirmed that they are also safe, according to the officials.