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▼ TOKYO 1964-2020 / AI Set to Keep a Watchful Eye Out for Terrorism
- Category:Event
This is the fourth installment of a series that uses the Olympics to take a fresh look at the past and future of the nation.
Advanced technologies that use artificial intelligence, or AI, are likely to be introduced to help detect terrorists as part of security for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Police have marked the second Tokyo Olympics as the “first year of high-tech security,” and are seeking next-generation security that integrates people and technology to identify terrorists in large crowds.
A person’s face while standing in front of a camera turns red when seen through a monitor. The major security giant Sohgo Security Services Co., known as ALSOK, has started operating its emotion visualization system.
AI measures a person’s psychological state based on small tremors that the body exudes, the width of those tremors and so on. It displays the person’s mental state by assigning numerical values and colors, and “aggressiveness” is indicated when the color turns red. Terrorists are said to tremble when their emotions rise just before committing an act of terrorism.
The system was developed by a Russian company. ALSOK introduced it on a test basis at the baggage inspection site at the summit meeting of the Group of Seven major countries (the Ise-Shima summit) held in May last year. Although there were no suspicious people, the system detected irritated people who were waiting in line for inspections.
“In the next three years, we want to sharpen up the accuracy of the system,” said a company spokesperson.
Secom Co. conducted a feasibility experiment during the Tokyo Marathon in February, featuring a new system using AI that predicts terrorism.
If the computer studies situations where terrorism and other incidents are likely to happen and it detects a suspicious object or a person’s unnatural movements, it could be a sign of terrorism. That triggers the company’s security headquarters alarm. The company is aiming for practical application of the system at the Tokyo Games.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. developed a system that predicts congestion after 10 minutes by capturing the flow of people with cameras installed along the roads. The company has already started experimenting at firework festivals, among other events, and it has been effective in guiding spectators.
Advanced technologies that use artificial intelligence, or AI, are likely to be introduced to help detect terrorists as part of security for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics.
Police have marked the second Tokyo Olympics as the “first year of high-tech security,” and are seeking next-generation security that integrates people and technology to identify terrorists in large crowds.
A person’s face while standing in front of a camera turns red when seen through a monitor. The major security giant Sohgo Security Services Co., known as ALSOK, has started operating its emotion visualization system.
AI measures a person’s psychological state based on small tremors that the body exudes, the width of those tremors and so on. It displays the person’s mental state by assigning numerical values and colors, and “aggressiveness” is indicated when the color turns red. Terrorists are said to tremble when their emotions rise just before committing an act of terrorism.
The system was developed by a Russian company. ALSOK introduced it on a test basis at the baggage inspection site at the summit meeting of the Group of Seven major countries (the Ise-Shima summit) held in May last year. Although there were no suspicious people, the system detected irritated people who were waiting in line for inspections.
“In the next three years, we want to sharpen up the accuracy of the system,” said a company spokesperson.
Secom Co. conducted a feasibility experiment during the Tokyo Marathon in February, featuring a new system using AI that predicts terrorism.
If the computer studies situations where terrorism and other incidents are likely to happen and it detects a suspicious object or a person’s unnatural movements, it could be a sign of terrorism. That triggers the company’s security headquarters alarm. The company is aiming for practical application of the system at the Tokyo Games.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. developed a system that predicts congestion after 10 minutes by capturing the flow of people with cameras installed along the roads. The company has already started experimenting at firework festivals, among other events, and it has been effective in guiding spectators.
The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were focused on preventing confrontations related to the Cold War among participating countries, as well as keeping a watch on crowds. The threat of international terrorism looms over the upcoming Games in 2020.
“We want security to leave a legacy also by incorporating the latest established technology,” said Katsunori Imai, chief of the Security Bureau at the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Tokyo Olympics held 53 years ago were deemed “the first year of private security.”
More than 100 security guards of Japan’s first private security firm, Nihon Keibi Hosho (now Secom Co.), founded in 1962, were assigned to keep guard of the Olympic Village in 1964. It was the first time for a private company to handle security at a public event.
Public awareness of private security was limited back then, and there were cases where people rushed to such uniform-clad guards to report fights and quarrels, mistaking them for police officers.
“Back in those days, our company fumbled its way through its duties,” a Secom executive said.
About four months before the Tokyo Games, then-Metropolitan Police Department Superintendent General Bunbe Hara gave instructions during a police chief meeting on June 18, 1964, saying, “Considering the differences in the participating countries’ political systems and ethnic sentiment, as well as the manic atmosphere that sporting events create, there is every chance something unexpected will happen.”
At the time, the demonstrations against the renewal of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which peaked in 1960, were still going on, but no one expected radical groups and students involved would target the Games.
The main point of the security at the time was to avoid confrontations among participating countries — not to prevent acts of terrorism or deal with the actions of guerrillas.
Although 93 countries and regions took part in the Tokyo Games, it was the middle of the Cold War and in the aftermath of events such as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the United States and former Soviet Union were brought to the brink of a nuclear war. In this tense international situation, acts such as flag vandalism or Olympic sabotage were the main concerns.
The so-called supreme security headquarters was established simultaneously with the opening of the Olympic Village on Sept. 15, 1964, according to documents left at the MPD.
More than 200,000 police officers were mobilized during the Olympics, and their main duties were supporting foreign athletes and tourists, and policing the traffic of the crowd of spectators. A number of female police officers were also hired to support female athletes.
‘Anyone can become a terrorist’
The theme of the 2020 Tokyo Games will be a fight against global terrorism. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) extremist group has named Japan as a target of its attacks, and the Olympics — viewed worldwide — could be a suitable time to do it.
“Today, terrorism is a real threat to Japan,” said a senior police official.
A total of 50,850 people — 21,000 police officers, 14,000 private security guards, and 9,000 volunteers, among others — will help round out the security force for the Games, according to the Olympic organizing committee.
Overseas, there has been a spate of “homegrown” terrorism by young people in the countries where they grew up. In addition to terrorism with bombs and guns, police authorities anticipate indiscriminate attacks using cars and knives. Much is posted on the internet to instigate terrorism. It is an age in which anyone can become a terrorist.
Advanced technologies such as AI are expected to help counter terrorism. The technologies include a system to detect objects left behind that features an alarm that goes off when it detects a suspicious object; a crowd behavior analysis system to sense unexpected movements of people; and a facial recognition system, which cross-checks faces with photos of terrorists.
A system that predicts, based on past precedents, situations in which terrorism might occur has also been developed. Air alert measures using drones and airships are also under consideration.
In the area around the New National Stadium in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, the MPD has begun a field survey on any blind spots that terrorists could take advantage of. In preparation for a possible terrorist attack, the MPD will increase the number of its special assault team personnel and establish a “maritime security force” that employs watercraft. Its emergency response team — a firearm unit to shoot down terrorists — is stepping up its training.
“It’s three years until the big event,” said Haruyuki Kamatani, the MPD’s 1st security division chief. “We will be racking our brains right up to the last moment over what we can do to prevent terrorism.”
It has been said Japan lags in intelligence gathering, or a capacity to detect indications of terrorist attacks. NPA established the Internet OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) Center last April to gather terrorism-related information on cyberspace and also plans to open the security information center to analyze intelligence. The International Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Collection Unit launched in December 2015 will also beef up its staff and intensify its information gathering overseas.
To interdict the influx of weapons and terrorists at the border, an automated fingerprint identification system will be introduced by 2020, based on the Japan-U.S. Agreement on Enhancing Cooperation in Preventing and Combating Serious Crime. The system makes it possible to instantly cross-check fingerprints of those entering Japan with those of approximately 75 million terrorists and the like stored by U.S. investigative authorities.
“We want security to leave a legacy also by incorporating the latest established technology,” said Katsunori Imai, chief of the Security Bureau at the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Tokyo Olympics held 53 years ago were deemed “the first year of private security.”
More than 100 security guards of Japan’s first private security firm, Nihon Keibi Hosho (now Secom Co.), founded in 1962, were assigned to keep guard of the Olympic Village in 1964. It was the first time for a private company to handle security at a public event.
Public awareness of private security was limited back then, and there were cases where people rushed to such uniform-clad guards to report fights and quarrels, mistaking them for police officers.
“Back in those days, our company fumbled its way through its duties,” a Secom executive said.
About four months before the Tokyo Games, then-Metropolitan Police Department Superintendent General Bunbe Hara gave instructions during a police chief meeting on June 18, 1964, saying, “Considering the differences in the participating countries’ political systems and ethnic sentiment, as well as the manic atmosphere that sporting events create, there is every chance something unexpected will happen.”
At the time, the demonstrations against the renewal of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which peaked in 1960, were still going on, but no one expected radical groups and students involved would target the Games.
The main point of the security at the time was to avoid confrontations among participating countries — not to prevent acts of terrorism or deal with the actions of guerrillas.
Although 93 countries and regions took part in the Tokyo Games, it was the middle of the Cold War and in the aftermath of events such as the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the United States and former Soviet Union were brought to the brink of a nuclear war. In this tense international situation, acts such as flag vandalism or Olympic sabotage were the main concerns.
The so-called supreme security headquarters was established simultaneously with the opening of the Olympic Village on Sept. 15, 1964, according to documents left at the MPD.
More than 200,000 police officers were mobilized during the Olympics, and their main duties were supporting foreign athletes and tourists, and policing the traffic of the crowd of spectators. A number of female police officers were also hired to support female athletes.
‘Anyone can become a terrorist’
The theme of the 2020 Tokyo Games will be a fight against global terrorism. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) extremist group has named Japan as a target of its attacks, and the Olympics — viewed worldwide — could be a suitable time to do it.
“Today, terrorism is a real threat to Japan,” said a senior police official.
A total of 50,850 people — 21,000 police officers, 14,000 private security guards, and 9,000 volunteers, among others — will help round out the security force for the Games, according to the Olympic organizing committee.
Overseas, there has been a spate of “homegrown” terrorism by young people in the countries where they grew up. In addition to terrorism with bombs and guns, police authorities anticipate indiscriminate attacks using cars and knives. Much is posted on the internet to instigate terrorism. It is an age in which anyone can become a terrorist.
Advanced technologies such as AI are expected to help counter terrorism. The technologies include a system to detect objects left behind that features an alarm that goes off when it detects a suspicious object; a crowd behavior analysis system to sense unexpected movements of people; and a facial recognition system, which cross-checks faces with photos of terrorists.
A system that predicts, based on past precedents, situations in which terrorism might occur has also been developed. Air alert measures using drones and airships are also under consideration.
In the area around the New National Stadium in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, the MPD has begun a field survey on any blind spots that terrorists could take advantage of. In preparation for a possible terrorist attack, the MPD will increase the number of its special assault team personnel and establish a “maritime security force” that employs watercraft. Its emergency response team — a firearm unit to shoot down terrorists — is stepping up its training.
“It’s three years until the big event,” said Haruyuki Kamatani, the MPD’s 1st security division chief. “We will be racking our brains right up to the last moment over what we can do to prevent terrorism.”
It has been said Japan lags in intelligence gathering, or a capacity to detect indications of terrorist attacks. NPA established the Internet OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) Center last April to gather terrorism-related information on cyberspace and also plans to open the security information center to analyze intelligence. The International Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Collection Unit launched in December 2015 will also beef up its staff and intensify its information gathering overseas.
To interdict the influx of weapons and terrorists at the border, an automated fingerprint identification system will be introduced by 2020, based on the Japan-U.S. Agreement on Enhancing Cooperation in Preventing and Combating Serious Crime. The system makes it possible to instantly cross-check fingerprints of those entering Japan with those of approximately 75 million terrorists and the like stored by U.S. investigative authorities.
- August 3, 2017
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