Shock in Japan as hostage executed

Under fire Japanese PM leads calls for release of second hostage

There was shock across Japan yesterday at a video purportedly showing one of two Japanese hostages of the extremist Islamic State group had been killed.

With attention focused on efforts to save the other hostage, some also criticised Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive for a more assertive Japan as responsible for the hostage crisis.

A sombre Abe appeared on public broadcaster NHK early yesterday demanding the militants release 47-year-old journalist Kenji Goto unharmed. He said the 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 criticise 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.

US President Barack Obama condemned what he called “the brutal murder” of Yukawa and offered condolences to Abe. Obama’s statement didn’t say how the US knew Yukawa was dead.

“The US intelligence community has no reason to doubt the authenticity of the video,” said Brian Hale, spokesman for the US director of national intelligence.

On a visit to India, Obama said the United States will stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Japan and called for the immediate release of Goto.

French President François Hollande praised Japan’s “determined engagement in the fight against international terrorism.”

The Associated Press could not verify the contents of the video message, which was removed from websites soon after it appeared and varied greatly from previous videos released by the Islamic State group, which now holds a third of both Syria and Iraq.

Criticism of Abe has touched 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 World War II.

About 100 protesters, some of them holding placards that read, “I’m Kenji” and “Free Goto,” demonstratedlast night in front of the prime minister’s residence, demanding Abe save Goto.

While in the Middle East, Abe announced $200m in humanitarian aid to the nations fighting the militants.