Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi on Friday urged the United Nations to play an active role in Iraq's reconstruction process, in the wake of the assassination of two Japanese diplomats in the country last weekend.
"The U.N. should express its strong resolve to play an active role on the issue of Iraq," Kawaguchi said in a telephone conversation with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
While Tokyo has thus far sided with Washington in terms of how to manage the rebuilding of Iraq, Kawaguchi's remark indicates that the diplomats' slayings have made Japan more aware that U.N. involvement is crucial to the country's stability.