Thursday marks the first anniversary of the hostage crisis at a natural gas plant in Algeria that left dozens of foreign workers dead. One year ago, an Islamic militant group attacked the natural gas plant in the eastern city of In Amenas. 40 workers were taken hostage and killed. They included 10 Japanese workers from the engineering firm JGC Corporation. Security has since been upgraded at the facility, but this has not convinced foreign firms to send workers back. An Algerian who worked at JGC's local office says there are no longer any Japanese workers there. The man, who was temporarily taken hostage, says it's sad because the Japanese workers were kind. He says he thought of them as brothers. Islamic militant commander Mokhtar Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation filed charges against him as the alleged mastermind, but his whereabouts remain unknown. Toulouse II University Professor Mathieu Guidere said a huge threat still remains, and what happened in In Amenas could happen again in other places. Last year, an association of engineering firms surveyed leading Japanese companies doing business abroad on how they ensure the safety of their workers. 78 percent of the companies said they want Japanese embassies to appeal to local military and police chiefs on their behalf. An association official said there are limits to what private firms can do in negotiating with foreign governments, so they need cooperation from local diplomatic establishments. At the time of the hostage crisis, the Japanese government was slow in confirming the fate of Japanese nationals due to delays in intelligence gathering and in-house sharing. Lessons from the incident led to the launch of the Japanese version of the US National Security Council this month. The government also decided to send resident Defense Ministry officials to 7 African nations to gather intelligence related to terrorism. In addition, the government revised the law to allow the Self-Defense Force to transport Japanese nationals by land in case of an emergency. The head of Japan's National Security Council secretariat, Shotaro Yachi, will visit the United States starting on Friday. He is scheduled to meet with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel with the aim of strengthening ties with the US NSC.

• published: 16 Jan 2014
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