UK blasts spark Japanese fears
2005-07-10 08:19
Tokyo - The bomb attacks in London have raised fears that Japan, like Britain a key US ally, may be the next target of terror attacks as it deploys troops in Iraq and hosts the biggest US military base in Asia.
Tokyo has asked railway, bus and airline operators to boost their vigilance since Thursday's bombings, although experts say militants would have a tougher time infiltrating largely homogeneous Japan than multicultural London.
"In Japan, there would be huge casualties if a Shinkansen bullet train, subway line or airport were targeted by terrorists in urban areas," Japan's top-selling daily Yomiuri Shimbun said in an editorial Saturday.
"The government needs to take more effective preventive measures as soon as possible by boosting international sharing of information and reinforcing surveillance systems," the daily said.
In the wake of the bombings on London's transport system that killed at least 50 people and injured some 700, the Tokyo Metro, which is used by 5.69 million passengers a day, said it would increase patrols and remove most remaining dustbins, which could be used as cover for planted bombs.
Tokyo has already experienced an attack on its subway system. In March 1995, 12 people were killed and thousands injured in a sarin gas attack by the Aum Supreme Truth doomsday cult.
Haruo Fujii, a military analyst who has published books on US intelligence and Japan's military, said large-scale terror attacks like those in London could well happen in Tokyo.
"We must not underestimate terrorists. If they decide to do it, they will do it no matter how long preparation takes," Fujii said.
"For the people of Islam, Japan's dispatch of its military to Iraq was nothing but a grave insult and a source of anger," he said.
Like British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Japanese Premier Junichiro Koizumi is a steadfast ally of US President George W Bush and supported the US-led Iraq war to overthrow dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Under the Koizumi government, Japan, for the first time since World War II, sent its armed forces to a foreign country where there was active fighting.
About 600 Japanese troops are based in Samawa, southern Iraq, to provide humanitarian assistance and are forbidden by the pacifist 1947 constitution from using their weapons except in the strictest definition of self-defense.
Apart from the Iraq factor, Yoshitaka Murata, who heads the National Public Safety Commission, said Japan could become a terror target due to its hosting of 40,500 US troops, the biggest contingent in Asia.
"There is information that al-Qaeda is targeting Japan as we host US military facilities," Murata said on Friday.
Al-Qaeda, which was responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, has previously warned it would devastate Tokyo in retaliation for Japan's deployment in Iraq and close links to Washington.
But Shiro Kawamoto, an expert on international terrorism at the Council for Public Policy, said the nature of Japanese society reduced the possibility of massive co-ordinated attacks like those in London.
"To launch large-scale terror attacks, terrorists need infrastructure such as hideouts and training centers, as well as people who can speak Japanese. At this moment, we have yet to confirm the existence of such infrastructure," Kawamoto said.
"Also in Japan, there is no big Muslim community," he said, putting the number of foreign-born Muslims in the country at 90,000.
Hisao Iwamoto, a military analyst who taught at the National Institute of Defence Studies, said Japan's tight immigration checks were also keeping suspected terrorists at bay.
"Compared with European immigration rules, our entrance screening is really strict. So the chances that we may have London-style terror attacks are relatively low," Iwamoto said.
Justice minister Chieko Nono said on Friday the ministry was planning to tighten immigration measures after the London bombings.