We condemn the despicable terror attack in Dhaka that killed 20 customers at a restaurant in the Bandladesh capital, including seven Japanese, along with two local police officers last Friday. The killings come as yet another reminder of the vulnerablity of so-called soft targets with relatively lax security, particularly as radical groups such as the Islamic State extremists, who claimed responsibility for the carnage, shift their tactics in the bid to spread terror across national borders. Though it is unlikely that the Japanese victims were specifically targeted in the attack, our nation's citizens will likely not be spared because of their nationality either.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has quickly denounced the attack as "an unforgivable act of terrorism" and vowed that the government will do all it can to protect the safety of Japanese citizens both at home and overseas. That may be an increasingly tough challenge because — as the latest incident seems to indicate — acts of terror are being perpetrated by home-grown attackers who may or may not have been directly ordered to carry out their actions by larger terrorist networks. At minimum, Japan should increase its cooperation with other countries to enhance intelligence sharing and to thwart terrorist attacks.
The six attackers killed by security forces at the end of the hostage crisis — reportedly all Bangladesh nationals in their 20s who were from relatively wealthy families and well-educated — are said to have singled out foreigners as the targets of their bloody attack on a restaurant that is popular with the capital's foreign community. That the Japanese victims had been working with the Japan International Cooperation Agency on a project to improve the country's road traffic infrastructure didn't matter to the terrorists.