Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama continued his mission in Jordan on Sunday in an attempt to save Kenji Goto, the second Japanese hostage held by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants.
Nakayama's convoy was seen leaving the Japanese Embassy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on Sunday morning, and returning an hour later.
ISIS posted a video online on Saturday purportedly showing that one of the two Japanese hostages being held by the group had been killed. The message claimed that Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa had been killed and demanded a prisoner exchange for Goto.
The video included an image of Goto holding a photo showing what appeared to be the decapitated body of Yukawa.
ISIS militants are now reportedly demanding the release of a prisoner held in Jordan in exchange for their hostage, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. (Masaya Kurosaki/Kyodo News/Associated Press)
Yukawa, 42, was seized by militants in August, after going to Syria in what he described as a plan to launch a security company. Goto, 47, a veteran war correspondent, went into Syria in late October seeking to secure Yukawa's release, according to friends and business associates.
A sombre Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared on Japanese public broadcaster NHK early Sunday demanding the militants release Goto unharmed.
Abe 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.
"I am left speechless," he said. "We strongly and totally criticize such acts."
Yukawa's father, Shoichi, told reporters he hoped "deep in his heart" that the news of his son's killing was not true.
"If I am ever reunited with him, I just want to give him a big hug," he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned what he called "the brutal murder" of Yukawa and later Sunday offered condolences to Abe after arriving in India. Obama's statement didn't say how the U.S. knew Yukawa was dead.
He said that the United States will stand "shoulder to shoulder" with Japan, and also called for the immediate release of the second hostage.
There has been some public criticism of Abe of late, touching on his push for an expanded role for Japan's troops — one that has remained strictly confined to self-defence under the pacifist constitution written after the nation's defeat in the Second World War.
About 100 protesters, some of them holding placards that read, "I'm Kenji" and "Free Goto," demonstrated late Sunday in front of the prime minister's residence, demanding Abe save Goto.
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