Japan's chance to become terrorism target exists: police

Japan gave warning on Friday that the chance of Japan becoming a target of terrorist attacks cannot be ruled out, vowing to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The National Police Agency (NPA) released on Friday the Special Feature in the White Paper on Police 2016 with the topic of "measures against international terrorism," the second time for NPA's white paper to involve international terrorism since 2002.

The NPA pledged in the white paper to step up measures against terrorism before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics amid rising threats of terrorist attacks against Japanese nationals.

Last year, two Japanese hostages were killed by Islamic State militants in Syria.

In 2013, 10 Japanese were killed during a hostage crisis at a natural gas plant in Algeria.

"It is feared that Japanese will continue to be a target of terrorism or abduction," said the report.

The agency said it would beef up cooperation with anti-terrorism organizations, intelligence agencies and police agencies all over the world.

In addition, it will tighten up regulation on unmanned aerial vehicle, and strengthen supervision on chemical manufacturers who are able to produce raw materials for explosives, said the agency in the report.

The white paper also introduced how to deal with surging number of foreigners visiting Japan, as well as terrorism counter measures in other countries.

The Japanese police will continue considering adopting new measures against terrorism, said the report. Endit