TOKYO, 19 March 2004 — Japan vowed yesterday not to cave in to terrorist threats and said it would tighten security around railways and subways nationwide after a purported letter from Al-Qaeda mentioned Japan as a possible target. Citing last week’s deadly bomb attacks in Madrid, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said: “Such incidents could trigger others, so we must tighten security even more rigorously.”
Japan, a key US ally in Asia, has been on alert since late last year after deciding to send troops to rebuild Iraq, but the Madrid attacks and reports of new Al-Qaeda threats have raised tensions.
Security at railways and subways in the nation’s capital has already been tightened and similar steps will now be taken on national lines, including the Shinkansen “bullet trains.”
Fukuda deplored a bomb attack in the heart of Baghdad that killed 27 people on Wednesday and said Japan would not abandon efforts to help rebuild Iraq.
“Peace won’t come to the Middle East without Iraq’s reconstruction,” he told reporters. “Our country must continue to make active efforts towards Iraq’s reconstruction without giving in to such base acts of terrorism.”
Japan has sent around 250 ground troops to Samawa in southern Iraq for a humanitarian mission that could eventually involve up to 1,000 military personnel in Iraq and the nearby region.
Japanese public opinion has been divided over the deployment, which critics say violates Japan’s pacifist constitution.
But a Jiji news agency survey published yesterday showed that support for the dispatch is on the rise despite last week’s bombings in Madrid that stoked fears of similar attacks in Tokyo.
Just over 50 percent of respondents to a March 11-14 Jiji survey said the government’s decision to send the military to Iraq was the right decision, up 3.8 percentage points from a month earlier, while 25.4 percent said it was the wrong decision, a decline of 7.6 percentage points from February.
The threat of such attacks came to the fore again on Wednesday, when a group claiming to have links with Al-Qaeda said its cells were ready for another attack and time was running out for allies of the United States.
“Whose turn is it next? Will it be Japan or America, or Italy, Britain or Oslo or Australia?” the Abu Hafs Al-Masri Brigades said in a statement sent to the Arabic language daily Al-Hayat. It said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were also targets. The group has claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings last Thursday.
that killed 201 people. Scepticism has greeted previous claims of responsibility by the group for attacks in Turkey and Iraq, and US officials say its links with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network are unclear.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he did not know whether the information was authentic, but told reporters: “The aim is to cause confusion and anxiety among the public so we shouldn’t be bewildered.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukuda said it was important not to give in to such threats in principle.
“Bowing down to such things could lead to a breakdown of social order and we can’t allow that,” he said. “I think the international community should show a united stance of fighting against terrorism.”
The Madrid bombings, suspected to have been the work of Muslim fundamentalists, possibly Al-Qaeda, have renewed fears of attacks in Japan due to Tokyo’s support for the US war in Iraq.
Japan is not the only country in the region that is nervous.
South Korea, which is sending more than 3,000 troops to Iraq next month to join some 600 medics and engineers, said yesterday it will stage anti-terrorism drills as part of security steps against possible attacks linked to the planned dispatch of more troops.
Australia, which also supported the US-led war on Iraq, has also taken steps to tighten security after the Madrid bombings.
New South Wales, where Sydney, Australia’s largest city, is located, has removed rubbish bins from railway stations and put curbs on the use of public lockers.
It is also spending A$15 million ($11 million) to protect Sydney’s drinking water from terrorists.
