Iraqi mission defies constitution: Court

Japan's dispatch of air force troops to Iraq breaches the country's pacifist constitution, a court said yesterday, but the government said the court's comments will not affect the current dispatch.

Japan has about 210 air force personnel in Kuwait, from where they airlift supplies to the US-led forces in Baghdad and other regions of Iraq.

More than 1,100 people, including a former Japanese ambassador to Lebanon, had brought a suit demanding that the dispatch be suspended and seeking damages of around $100 per person, a spokesman for the Nagoya High Court said.