THE DISPATCH OF JAPAN'S SELF-DEFENSE FORCES TO IRAQ: Public Opinion, Elections, and Foreign Policy.

This paper investigates why the lraq issue did not become decisive enough to topple Japan's LDP-Komeitō coalition government in the November 2003 lower house election, even though the majority of the public opposed the lraq war and the dispatch of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]