Defense chief hints Japanese troops could remain in Iraq through ...
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Japan&#39;s defense chief on Sunday said that Japanese troops could remain in Iraq until late 2005, a year longer than their current mandate.
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Japan&#39;s junior ruling coalition partner backed extending the country&#39;s troop dispatch to Iraq for another year after authorization for the current mission expires Dec. 14.
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Japanese Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono said Sunday that late 2005 is a possible target date for Japanese troops to withdraw from Iraq.
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TOKYO Dec 9, 2004 - Japan&#39;s Cabinet on Thursday approved a plan to keep Japanese troops in Iraq for another year, the trade minister said.
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Japan said no member of its military  stationed in Iraq is missing, after a group led by al Qaeda  ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to behead a Japanese  hostage in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw its forces from the  country.
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JAPAN may extend its deployment of troops in southern Iraq if the security situation in the country does not change, a top government official said today.
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Japan&#039;s withdrawal of some 600 ground troops from southern Iraq will take &quot;several dozen days,&quot; defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga said Tuesday.
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Japan Wednesday refused to withdraw its forces from Iraq despite the threat by Islamic militants to execute a Japanese hostage if the troops remain.
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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is considering announcing an end to Japan&#039;s military mission in Iraq ahead of his meeting with US President George W. Bush later this month, the foreign minister said.
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A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab  al-Zarqawi threatened to behead a Japanese hostage in Iraq  unless Japan withdrew its troops, but Prime Minister Junichiro  Koizumi said on Wednesday that Japan's contingent would stay.
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Japan&#39;s defence chief has signalled that the country&#39;s troops could extend their humanitarian mission to Iraq beyond an initial December 14 deadline, possibly for another year.
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Japan's Cabinet on Thursday approved a plan to keep Japanese troops in Iraq for another year, the trade minister said.
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U.S. troop levels in Iraq will likely remain at the current number -- more than 140,000 -- through next spring, the senior U.S. commander in the Middle East said today.
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When Mohammad Ali-Hassan, the governor of Al-Muthanna Province in southern Iraq, visited Tokyo last week, he thanked Japan for the aid it has given to his province, where Ground Self-Defense Force troops have been deployed.
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TOKYO, Japan -- Japan&#39;s ruling party has approved plans to keep its troops in Iraq beyond the original withdrawal date of December 14 this year.
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Japan's prime minister insisted Wednesday  that Japan would not withdraw its troops from Iraq despite a  threat by a militant group to behead a Japanese hostage unless  Tokyo pulled them out.
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Japan's Defense Minister said on Sunday  Japan may have to consider negotiating changes in the agreement  that governs the status of U.S. forces in Japan following a  dispute over the management of a U.S. helicopter crash in the  southern prefecture of Okinawa earlier this month.