A foreign intelligence agency alerted Tokyo that 12 Islamic extremists may have entered the country shortly before the terror attacks in the United States, reports said Monday.
"An overseas intelligence organization informed the Japanese government of the possibility that about 12 Islamic extremists had entered Japan shortly before the attacks in the United States," the Sankei Shimbun daily said without citing sources.
"Japan has not confirmed their entry but the public safety authorities have stepped up information-gathering assuming there is the possibility that they are hiding out in Japan," the paper added.
Kyodo News Agency and the Nikkan Gendai tabloid daily carried virtually identical reports.
Kyodo said Japanese public security authorities indicated the government had been informed that the suspected Islamic extremists entered Japan via Pakistan sometime between early September and September 10.
The Islamic extremists are believed to be Arabs and followers of Afghanistan-based Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, named by Washington as the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
A foreign ministry official categorically denied it had been warned about Islamic extremists entering Japan.
"We have received no such information," he said.
But Kyodo said citing unnamed sources that after receiving the information the national police agency and other organs ordered police nationwide to investigate, and Japanese police boosted security around US military bases and other facilities.
The authorities were checking the arrivals and departures records at the country's international airports as well as key Japanese railway stations, hotels and airports to see if any Arabs had come to Japan with fake passports, Kyodo said.
"At the moment we have not confirmed what was reported," an official at the immigration bureau of the justice ministry told AFP.
A spokesman for the national police agency would only comment in general terms, saying the police had increased their vigilance.
"There is all sorts of information coming to the agency. I personally am not aware of such information [concerning extremists entering Japan].
"We are making special efforts to be alert to such information. We cannot tell you what sort of information has been reported to us, but we have directed local police to deal with the information appropriately," the spokesman said.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Tokyo said he was aware of the reports, but would not comment on intelligence matters.
"We don't have any information about that. We saw the Kyodo story, but as a general rule, we don't comment on intelligence matters. We do issue public warnings when we have credible evidence [of a threat], and we did just that on September 7," said Patrick Linehan.
The embassy released a terse statement on September 7 saying it had received reports of possible "terrorist actions" directed at US soldiers, military interests and related facilities.
In June Tokyo implicitly acknowledged the laxness of its immigration controls, boosting the numbers of immigration officers and surveillance equipment in the wake of two high profile cases of illegal entry on forged passports.
Fusako Shigenobu, the captured female leader of the now-disbanded Japanese Red Army guerrilla group, was charged in December with travelling on fake passports.
Despite being on the run for three decades and featuring on an international most wanted list, the former guerrilla leader traveled in and out of Japan at will.
In May, a man believed to be the son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il sneaked into the country using what press reports said was a forged Dominican Republic passport. He reportedly wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland -- TOKYO (AFP)
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