The deeply unpopular dispatch of Japanese troops to Iraq is a public relations problem caused by ungrounded fears about the region's stability, Japan's defense chief said Friday, vowing to turn around public opinion. Japan's pro-U.S. government extended a one-year humanitarian mission in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah last month, approving a plan to keep the 550 troops there to purify water and rebuild infrastructure for another 12 months. "The extension is very, very unpopular," Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono acknowledged at a news conference at Tokyo's Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan on Friday. "Through the eyes of the Japanese people, the situation in Samawah is very bad, dangerous," he said. "It is a public relations problem." His comments came as a new batch of soldiers prepared to leave for Iraq Saturday for a six-month mission to relieve colleagues currently in Iraq and Kuwait. Japan has a total of 1,000 troops in the region helping reconstruction efforts.
