アルジャジーラ

Potential target

Japanese police have been acutely embarrassed by the revelations that Dumont, who is of Algerian descent, was living in Japan on a forged passport that identified him as Tinet Gerald Camille Armand.

And with Japan's Self-Defence Forces in Iraq and Tokyo offering wide-ranging support to the US government, there is concern at home that Japan itself might become a target.


Japan's involvement in Iraq has
led some to fear attacks


That fear has been reinforced by warnings, purportedly from al-Qaida, that the SDF would be a target "as soon as they set foot in Iraq" - but also that Japan could expect attacks at home.

"Attitudes among Japanese people towards Muslims have definitely changed," said Khalid Kimio Kiba, a Japanese who converted to Islam 40 years ago and who is presently director of finance at the Islamic Centre in Tokyo.

"All Japanese people's opinions of Muslims changed after the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States and we are afraid," he said.

"We spend a lot of time telling people that we are a sincere group dedicated to peace, that we are neither al-Qaida nor the CIA, but we have to be very careful nowadays."