On the eve of dispatching troops to Iraq and in the midst of an intense controversy on the subject, the Japanese Government in January sent the head of its Self-Defence Agency to consult key European allies.

Defence Agency Director General Shigeru Ishiba undertook on a six-day trip to Britain, the Netherlands and France primarily to discuss international efforts to rebuild Iraq. Ishiba met with British Defence Secretary Geoffrey Hoon, Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. In his talks with Kamp, Ishiba was said to ask for cooperation from Dutch military forces in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah where an advance team of the Ground Self-Defence Force were to be dispatched. Dutch forces in Samawah have provided security data to Japan and will guard the advance GSDF team as well as the main units when they are deployed there.

Defence Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba in the Hague indicated readiness to relax Japan's ban on arms exports to allow the country to jointly develop weapons with countries besides the United States. Ishiba, on a trip to Britain, the Netherlands and France to discuss international efforts to rebuild Iraq with European defense ministers, dropped the hint to reporters travelling with him on his six-day tour."Following the end of the Cold War, it has been a basic assumption in Europe to jointly develop weapons," he said. "The ban on arms exports is based on notions prevalent during the Cold War era." The statement was said in Japan to related to Japan’s plans to cooperate with the US in research into ballistic missile defences, but also concern about reports that Europe and Russia could also cooperate in such fields, leading some in Japan to express worries it could be left out of such international efforts.

The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said that the pros and cons of the dispatch of a contingent of the Ground Self-Defense Force to Iraq to help Iraq's reconstruction would be a key issue in the House of Councillors elections this summer. The newspaper said the Koizumi government would be dealt a major blow if the SDF Iraq mission suffered any casualties or was involved in any major incidents. Therefore, the government, Koizumi's Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito will be watching the dispatch nervously.