TOKYO (Web Desk) – From prime minister to ordinary people, Japanese responded with shock at a video purportedly showing one of two Japanese hostages of the extremist Islamic State (ISIS) group had been killed.
With national attention focusing on efforts to save the other hostage, 47-year-old journalist Kenji Goto, some also criticized Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive for a more assertive Japan as responsible for the hostage crisis.
PM Abe appeared on Japanese public broadcaster NHK demanding the militants to release Goto unharmed. He said that the latest video was likely authentic, although he added that the government was still reviewing it. He offered condolences to the family and friends of Haruna Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer taken hostage in Syria last year.
Abe declined to comment on the message in the video, which demanded a prisoner exchange for Goto. He said only that the government was still working on the situation, and reiterated that Japan condemns terrorism.
