Japan vows troops will stay in Iraq after 24-year-old hostage ...
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TOKYO - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed on Sunday that Japanese troops would continue their domestically unpopular mission in Iraq after Islamic militants demanding a pullout killed a 24-year-old Japanese tourist.
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Japan refused to give up hope that a  Japanese man taken hostage in Iraq was still alive on Friday  after the passing of a deadline set by his captors to behead  him unless Tokyo withdrew its troops.
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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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Japanese leaders struggled on Thursday to make contact with Islamic militants in Iraq who took a Japanese traveler hostage as the 48-hour deadline approached for the young man's threatened beheading. Tokyo stood firm in its refusal to meet the kidnappers' demand to withdraw troops from Iraq.
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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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Video posted Tuesday on a militant Islamic Web site showed what it claimed was a Japanese captive kidnapped by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group and threatened to behead him within 48 hours unless Japan pulls its troops from Iraq. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi rejected the demand.
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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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A militant group in Iraq claims to be holding a Japanese citizen and gives Tokyo 48 hours to withdraw troops.
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Japan&#39;s decision to extend its troops&#39; mandate in Iraq will mean they stay in the country for at least another year. But the move, seen as part of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi&#39;s efforts
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A Japanese hostage has been beheaded in Iraq, Japanese officials said on Sunday, but Tokyo vowed it would keep its troops in the country on their reconstruction mission.
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Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday he won't withdraw troops from Iraq despite information a Japanese man has been taken hostage there, Kyodo News reported.
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Japan&#39;s government on Sunday said it is now certain that a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker taken hostage in Iraq has been killed.
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A militant group in Iraq has claimed it is holding a Japanese citizen hostage and gave Tokyo 48 hours to withdraw troops from the country.
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Tokyo: Japan said on Friday it had not given up hope for a Japanese hostage in Iraq after a report he may have been killed, as the 24-year-old&#39;s mother pleaded to Islamic militants to spare him.
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Japan's prime minister, a staunch U.S. ally in Iraq, refused on Wednesday to withdraw Japan's troops from the country, taking a tough stance in the face of demands by militants threatening to behead a Japanese hostage unless the soldiers leave.
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Japan approved an extension of its troop  deployment in Iraq Thursday for up to a year, a decision  opposed by most voters, who want to end the nation's riskiest  military mission since World War II.
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Japan insisted it would not bow to the demands of Islamic militants in Iraq who threatened to behead a young Japanese unless Tokyo withdraws its troops from the country within 48 hours.