Japan May Boost Funds for Allied Forces : Assistance: Reports say Tokyo will pledge an additional $4 billion to $5 billion to finance the fight against Iraq.

Japanese Finance Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will pledge an additional $4 billion to $5 billion in financial assistance for the multinational forces fighting Iraq when he meets U.S. Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady in New York tonight, according to local press reports.

The reports by the Nihon Keizai and Yomiuri newspapers, which could not be immediately confirmed, said Hashimoto will disclose a sum during talks with Brady on the eve of the “G-7” meeting of finance ministers from the major industrialized nations in New York on Monday.

Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu on Thursday declared his government’s backing for the U.S.-led attack on Iraq and promised that Japan would extend the “maximum possible support” to the military effort. Japan has so far committed $2 billion in financial assistance to the forces, but its war-renouncing constitution has been interpreted as barring direct involvement by Japanese troops. The funds have so far been earmarked for non-lethal purposes.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Taizo Watanabe told foreign correspondents Friday that the added assistance would be greater than the $2 billion previously committed, but he refused to discuss the amount or say when a decision would be announced.

Despite its status as an economic superpower and an emerging global leader, Japan has been an awkward bystander to the dramatic events in the Persian Gulf. The huge cost of the war effort has prompted calls for Tokyo as well as Bonn to assume a greater share of the financial burden, however, and there is widespread concern in Japan that further hesitation could trigger a backlash against Japan by the American public.

Officials are hoping to find a legal loophole that will allow them to send Self-Defense Forces C-130 transport planes to ferry refugees in the gulf, but public opposition to the plan may prove to be formidable.