Japan needs to train Iraqi officials to be self-reliant, diplomat says

Japan should help to train Iraqi engineers and local administrative officials who will play key roles in rebuilding the nation, according to a Foreign Ministry official who heads Japan's diplomatic office in the southern Iraq city of Samawah.

Water and electricity will continue to be the two basic needs of people in Al-Muthanna Province, where Ground Self-Defense Force troops are deployed, but it is equally important to train regional officials to become self-reliant, Shoji Ogawa said.

During the reign of ousted President Saddam Hussein, "branch offices of the central government had the decision-making power, but local governments did not have such authority," he told The Japan Times while in Tokyo this week.