OSAKA -- When Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi meets U.S. President George W. Bush on Sept. 12, he will be encouraged to think broadly about what Japan can do to assist the U.S.-led military campaign against terrorism, a former Japan chief at the Pentagon said.

"We're in the middle of a war on terrorism, and it's a much broader war than any before it," Robin Sakoda said in a recent interview. "Broader security cooperation between Japan and the U.S. is a topic the two leaders are sure to discuss."

Sakoda served as Japan chief in the mid-1990s and is now a senior associate at Armitage Associates, a consulting firm founded by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.