Japan's defence chief, just back from a visit to Iraq, said on Monday he wanted to extend the deployment of Japanese non-combat troops in southern Iraq, as security conditions in the area were stable.
Japan is widely expected to announce an extension to the mission's mandate, which expires on December 14.
Later in the day Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, who is on a visit to Tokyo, also urged Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to keep the troops in place, saying it was too early for a withdrawal.
Defence Chief Fukushiro Nukaga said he told Koizumi that local Iraqi leaders had asked that the 550 Japanese troops remain to carry on with their reconstruction work.
"I did not discuss the extension with the prime minister, but given the local demand and the need to cooperate with the international community, I think it is better to extend," Nukaga told reporters after his meeting with Koizumi.
"I will make a decision comprehensively taking into account my meeting with the Iraqi prime minister," Koizumi told reporters ahead of his meeting with Jaafari.
Jaafari said in a meeting with Koizumi he wanted to express his gratitude for Japan's support on behalf of the Iraqi people, an official at the Japanese foreign ministry said.
He added that he hoped the troops would stay in place.
"The fact that the prime minister has expressed such a high opinion of the troops' activities must have a great bearing on the decision we make," the foreign ministry official quoted Koizumi as replying.
The government is expected to extend the mission by a year, aiming to withdraw the troops by the end of 2006, recent newspaper reports have said.
Japan's dispatch has won praise from close ally Washington, but is opposed by most Japanese voters. In a Mainichi newspaper poll published in October, 77 percent of those surveyed said they were against an extension.