The Iraq issue will dominate the two-day debate that begins today in the Diet, which opened for a special nine-day session last Wednesday following the Nov. 9 Lower House election. The central question is whether Japan should send noncombat troops to a country where fighting is still rampant. The answer is a categorical no if they are to work in a combat zone. The trouble is that in Iraq lines between combat and noncombat areas are blurred or even nonexistent.
The all-star debate will be conducted at meetings of the key Budget Committee of both houses with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and all Cabinet ministers attending. Mr. Koizumi is set for a barrage of questions from opposition party leaders, particularly Mr. Naoto Kan, head of the Democratic Party of Japan, which made impressive gains in the latest election.
The Koizumi-Kan face-off will be not only a reflection of the sharp disagreement over troop deployment that exists between the ruling and opposition parties, but also a symbol of the growing polarization of the political world between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the DPJ. The LDP, which absorbed the small New Conservative Party after the election, now maintains a two-way coalition with New Komeito, the third largest party behind the DPJ.