Sixty-three percent of Japanese are afraid of terrorism at home and 80 percent believe the chances of a terrorist attack are increasing, according to a National Police Agency poll released Thursday.
The survey, its first on terrorism, shows that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals, the Iraq situation and other forms of violence have led the public to consider terrorism a "palpable threat."
According to the survey, carried out on 1,416 people nationwide, 9.8 percent strongly fear a terrorist attack by Islamic radicals and other extremists, 19.5 percent sometimes have this fear and 33.9 percent "slightly" fear it.
Of those in the three fear categories, 12.4 percent think the level of danger has increased sharply and 67.6 percent said it is gradually rising.
Turning to potential targets, with multiple answers permitted, 45.2 percent cited public transportation, 38.3 percent singled out key national and local government facilities, including the Diet building and the Prime Minister's Official Residence.