JAPAN

Koizumi promises support

By Peggy Hernandez, Globe Correspondent, 9/15/2001

OKYO - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday that he had given Japan's whole-hearted support to the United States to combat terrorism in the wake of Tuesday's attacks.

Koizumi, speaking to reporters, said he had made the offer to President Bush during a telephone conversation Thursday. He gave no specifics, but said Japan would be limited in what it could do because the country's postwar Constitution prohibits military action as a means to settle international disputes.

He also said Bush should remain calm in taking countermeasures against those responsible for the terrorist attacks, so as not to bring confusion to the global economy.

''We must be very careful here in Japan, in terms of managing this crisis situation, not only from the security perspective, but also from an economic perspective,'' he said.

Japan had no formal observance yesterday for the US victims, but Koizumi presided over two separate moments of silence in their memory: before the start of a government budget meeting and prior to a press conference, both in Tokyo.

At least 24 Japanese citizens, working for branches of Japanese banks or European brokerage firms in the World Trade Center, remain missing after the attack. Two Japanese men were on board the United Airlines flight that crashed Tuesday in Pennsylvania.

A Japanese government agency reported that an estimated 36,000 Japanese nationals were stranded Tuesday in the United States, Canada, Hawaii, Guam, and Saipan after international flights were halted from the United States and its territories.

Material from Reuters was used in this report.

This story ran on page A8 of the Boston Globe on 9/15/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.