A nervous Japan is tightening security prior to the start of a general election campaign today in the wake of warnings that al-Qaeda might be preparing to attack an Asian city. Making officials especially anxious is the memory of last year’s deadly train explosions in Madrid, which came just three days before an election in which the government was unexpectedly defeated. Spain, like Japan, had provided support for the US war in Iraq.

Japanese media have also raised concerns about the possibility of trouble because the poll will take place on Sept. 11, the fourth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, although officials have downplayed the date. In one sign of the high concern, one of two runways at regional Sendai airport, some 302 km (189 miles) north of Tokyo, was closed briefly on Monday after an apparent prank phone call warning of a bomb on board a domestic flight.

No explosive device was found and the runway reopened after slightly more than an hour. “There’s no question right now that the time is ripe for an attack in Japan,” said Jun Yamazaki, Japan unit president of risk consultancy Control Risks Group. “The situation here is very similar to the situation in Spain,” he added. “And that terrorism was successful – Spain withdrew from Iraq.” The leading opposition Democratic Party says in its campaign manifesto that it would withdraw Japan’s 550 troops in Iraq by December, when their mandate expires, although Iraq is not a major campaign issue.

Some political analysts, though, say any attack would work to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s favour, with voters opting for the establishment. Concerns about an attack arose last week after France’s top terrorist investigator, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that al-Qaeda was preparing an attack on an Asian financial centre such as Tokyo, Sydney or Singapore.

“We have several elements of information that make us think that countries in this region, especially Japan, could have been targeted,” Bruguiere was quoted as saying. Political leaders share his concern. Katsuya Okada, head of the Democratic Party, told reporters last week: “It is not a question of if terrorism will occur in Japan, but when.”

A spokesman for the National Police Agency said that up to 13,600 police would be deployed throughout the nation during the campaign period, with emphasis on major cities such as Tokyo and the western city of Osaka. “We are taking everything into account and making certain of security in places where lots of people gather, such as train stations,” he added.

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