A column of 50 vehicles and 130 soldiers reached the base in Samawah, the Shiite city 270 km south of Baghdad, where a Japanese contingent is operating.

Their arrival coincided with a protest in Tokyo by some 30,000 people, according to organizers, who demanded an end to the occupation of Iraq and rejected the deployment of Japanese troops in the war-battered country.

Many carried banners and placards with slogans, including "U.S. Get Out of Iraq Now," "Stop the Occupation" and "No to Japan's Dispatch of Ground Troops to Iraq."

On March 21, another 120 troops departed from Chitose air base in Hokkaido for Kuwait for the humanitarian mission in Iraq, completing the deployment of some 500 ground troops to support U.S.-led reconstruction efforts.

The Japan Times Weekly: March 27, 2004
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