The government will reduce the burden on communities with U.S. military bases by facilitating cooperation between the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military, Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga said Tuesday.
The new defense chief said in an interview that the government will decide when to withdraw the Ground Self-Defense Forces from its reconstruction mission in the southern Iraq city of Samawah after looking at political progress there and the plans of the other U.S.-led coalition nations with troops deployed in the region.
This is the second time Nukaga, an expert on security issues in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has been appointed director general of the Defense Agency.