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TOKYO: Japan assured the United States on Friday that it planned to maintain logistical support to US forces in Afghanistan despite an election victory by the opposition, which wants to end the mission.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said on a visit here that any decision by Japan to withdraw its ships, which provide fuel and other support to coalition forces in Afghanistan, would harm the US-led "war on terror."
Japan has been officially pacifist since World War II, making its military operations controversial at home.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said he told Negroponte, who was stopping in Tokyo on his way back from a regional meeting in Manila, that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's coalition government supported the mission.
"I told him that the mission is the basis for showing that Japan is playing the role the world expects of us and that Prime Minister Abe is making efforts to seek the understanding of opposition parties," Shiozaki told reporters.
The centre-left opposition won control of the upper house of parliament Sunday in a major election defeat for Abe, who has been hit hard by a raft of domestic scandals.
Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa vowed to use the foothold in power to oppose an extension of the Indian Ocean operations, which are set to expire on November 1.
"In our view it would be harmful to international interest as a whole if they are to be interrupted," Negroponte said after meeting Shiozaki, Defence Minister Yuriko Koike and other top officials.
"There is concern on our part if these refuelling operations by Japan were to stop," he said. "This is not a bilateral issue between the United States and Japan. This is an issue that affects an interest of the international community as a whole."
"To interrupt those refuelling operations could negatively affect -- and probably would negatively affect -- our efforts to prevent terrorism and prevent the passage of undesirable products and people through the area," he said.
US Ambassador Thomas Schieffer asked for clarification on the opposition's views and earlier this week voiced concern that he had not been able to meet with Ozawa.
Schieffer told reporters Friday that he planned to meet with Ozawa next week.
Abe's coalition still enjoys a large majority in the upper house of parliament, which was not at stake in Sunday's vote, and can override the opposition-led upper house.
Ozawa's Democratic Party has accused Abe and his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi of being too close to US President George W. Bush, saying Japan should instead channel international cooperation through the United Nations.
Shiozaki criticised the stance taken by the opposition.
"A total of 24 Japanese nationals died in the terrorist attacks of September 11 (2001) and Japan has since then conducted refuelling operations as part of the international fight against terrorism," Shiozaki said.
"Mr Ozawa is saying he opposes the mission. I don't understand what his ideas are."
The Indian Ocean mission was groundbreaking at the time. Japan later also deployed troops to Iraq, its first mission since World War II to a country where fighting was underway.
Japan withdrew the troops from Iraq last year but continues to fly goods and personnel into the country on behalf of the US-led coalition and United Nations.
The Japanese parliament extended the Iraq mission, which the opposition is also against, just ahead of the election. - AFP/ac
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