Opposition leaders remained opposed Tuesday to the government's plans to send Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq, rebuffing Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's request for their understanding on the matter.
Naoto Kan, president of the Democratic Party of Japan, told reporters after a meeting with Koizumi that he counseled the prime minister against giving these plans the final go-ahead.
"Both the government's decision to support (the U.S.-led war on Iraq earlier this year) and to promise deployment of SDF troops on the assumption that security will return (to Iraq) are wrong," Kan said. "We cannot agree to a dispatch under a wrong judgment."