Shoes Tossed as Kaifu Defends War Chest

An embattled Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu ducked opposition heckling and tennis shoes thrown from the public gallery in Parliament today as he defended Japan’s pledge of $9 billion for the U.S.-led allies in the Gulf War.

Opposition parliamentarians heckled, groaned and beat on desks with their fists to protest funding they said could be spent on arms and ammunition.

Two anti-war protesters in the public gallery threw tennis shoes at Kaifu as he stood at the speaker’s podium trying to make himself heard above the din. They missed.

The shoe-throwing was the first angry outburst by visitors to Parliament in 20 years and underlined growing public outrage over Kaifu’s latest gulf aid plan.

Last week, Kaifu succumbed to U.S. pressure and earmarked $9 billion for the multinational force fighting Iraq and said Japan would send military planes to the Middle East to help evacuate refugees stranded by the war.

“We will cooperate to the greatest extent possible in order to fulfill our duty in the gulf, short of military involvement,” Kaifu told Parliament. “Japanese pacifism should not be of the type that will force us to live an isolated peace.”

Kaifu repeated his warning of last week that Japan would be shunned by its Western allies if it fails to back the Gulf War.

But the opposition was unmoved. The hecklers said he would violate Japan’s peace constitution if he sends military planes to a war zone for the first time since 1945.

Under its U.S.-imposed constitution, Japan is banned from taking any part in foreign wars.