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The Japanese government said Wednesday there has been no progress in negotiations to free a Japanese national who is being held captive by suspected jihadists in Syria.
It has been one month since a video was released showing Haruna Yukawa, 42, being questioned and roughed up by suspected members of the Islamic State somewhere near the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Japanese media reported Wednesday that although members of the rival Islamic Front rebel group with whom Yukawa had been traveling have sent negotiation requests to IS for Yukawa's release, they have yet to receive any response.
According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, officials from Japan's Syria embassy, which has relocated to Amman in Jordan, are working with various groups affiliated with his captors who may be able to assist in the matter.
Yukawa is listed on the website of Tokyo-based private military firm PMC as its chief executive.
The video which surfaced a month ago showed Yukawa lying on the ground with blood trickling down his face as his apparent captors question him. He offered brief responses to questions posed in English about why he was in Syria and the reason he was carrying a gun.
He replied in stilted English that he was a "photographer" and a "journalist, half doctor", as his interrogators accused him of lying, with one placing a long knife near his chest before the video stops.
Since 2011, Japan has been recommending that its nationals stay away from Syria.
© Japan Today/Reuters
29 Comments
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Probie
Ransom should not be paid in situations like this. He was an idiot who shouldn't have been there. If Japan give them money, it'll be used to kill more people. Give them nothing, and lose 1 idiot who thought he was living in a movie.
Japanese don't have a good survival record. Remember what happen to Saito Akihiko and Koda Shosei?
nath
At least Japan hasn't got involved in the US led campaign. My guess a ransom will be paid and he will be freed.
WilliB
Yubaru:
There was no "deal". Reporters went to "PMC", and it is a mailbox in some ramshackle building. The guy just set it up as a name to impress his Otaku friends.
The guy is pathetic, but don´t expect that the ISIS killers show sympathy.
gogogo
This is the homeless mental case Japanese national that that tried to kill himself by cutting of his genitals and claimed himself a woman and then made up all this BS that he is a war expert?
http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/a-broken-man-living-on-dreams-pulls-japan-into-syria-hostage-drama
papigiulio
Let's hope that if he indeed is beheaded Abe won't start deploying troops in the middle east. Nothing good will come of it.
roughneck
If you are stupid enough to go to bad places, bad things will happen to you!
Mizuame
He wouldn't have assisted his case by saying he was “journalist, half doctor". Has anyone here ever met a "jounalist half-doctor" before? And then getting the rival group to ask for his release...
nath
I didn't say it should be paid. just that my guess is it will. i couldn't agree more that he is an idiot who likely deserves to be in trouble (though no-one deserves to have their head carved off with a blunt knife). i know many of the recent victims were there trying to do their jobs or do goos, but can'tn help feeling just illustrates why we should pull down the blinds and leave this poor benighted region to sort out its own mess....
Kaerimashita
Last time Japan deployed troops in the ME didn't some of them also get kidnapped?
Mirai Hayashi
Who cares? If he can get himself there, he can get himself out...
Debio
Japantoday and other Japanese news sources steer away from using the term ISIS. I was curious about this because the other day I saw a Japanese car in front of me on the road. It was called Isis. I am not sure if it was Toyota or Honda. But it was definitely called Isis. Does this have any impact on why the Japanese media steers away from using the term ISIS? Only in Japanese media do I see the term IS. If anyone has any knowledge about this, please share.
StormR
A japanes eguy was beheaded over that way some years ago, why would anyone bother going near the place unless in the military, this guys fate is sealed I am sorry to say.
globalwatcher
tinawatanabeSep. 17, 2014 - 03:57PM JST
Good American social etiquette is: if you have nothing good say, do not say anything.", so I assume they are not Americans.
Mizuame
My take on this is that there was an announcement about 2 weeks ago that ISIS had been officially renamed "Islamic State," and everyone started using this until Muslims in the UK and elsewhere started to object to the term "Islamic State" and since then there has been a trend in western media to revert to "ISIS". Few Muslims in Japan, so less worry about the term.
Droll Quarry
I'm sorry, but I don't suffer fools easily. This is simply a repeat incident of some person who thinks they are high above the political and religious agenda that prevails in the Middle East. The only thing these people contribute to the world stage is the chance for some grandstanding politician to go bail them out with an under the table concession, or an unscrupulous country to pay a bribe for their release. In both cases, the abductions and killings are just being enabled and encouraged. Further more, Mr. Globewatcher, commenting on the obvious is not an assault on good American social etiquette. America and Europe has itself in a Politically Correct Panty Twist. To really get down to brass tacks, the nutter went to a country/organization famous for chopping off heads, thinking he was somehow special. Now he is looking for someone to haul his chestnuts out of the fire because another nutter is sitting across that fire sharpening a knife.
globalwatcher
Understood.. You could have rephrased it better to make a point next time.
WilliB
commanteer:
I think which name you choose depends partly on your political leaning. ISIS itself call themselves "IS" in their English PR, because of their global ambitions. The Obama government stick to the lesser-used "ISIL" because that avoids mentioning the "Syria", where they are now in the bizarre situation that they want to arm the people who fight the people who ISIS... go figure.
The Arabs of course use a native name for the thing, and don´t care what acronym we use in English.
TorafusuTorasan
And in Japanese, they are given the nefarious title Chair Lamb Country. Unless my translation skills are not up to par ;-0
Neneswsw
Thought he died last month.
WilliB
Two realistic options:
1) The J-government bails him out with our taxpayer money (the French government paid 18 Million USD for one of theirs, although they officially deny it)
2) He gets beheaded by Jihadi John or a similar character
In case of 1) I surely hope he gets to work to pay back our money for the rest of his life.
Yubaru
Play with fire and chances are you are going to get your fingers burnt....deal gone bad maybe?
MikeAnderson
don't drag yourself in a quagmire to justify islamic conservative apocalypse great cause , don't care about it and you will get it for free ,
Dealing with a bandit advise
MikeAnderson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/16/the-apocalyptic-magazine-the-islamic-state-uses-to-recruit-and-radicalize-foreigners/
they want to justify islamic conservative apocalypse great cause by kidnapping some foreigner to make the lie comes true ,
after all that is the bandit's characteristic
tinawatanabe
Thank you globalwatcher.
CanadianINtokyo
I feel completely sorry for this obviously mentally ill figure who suffered immense personal tragedy in his life starting from childhood and was simply trying to make a positive difference through his admitted failed life.God bless him
nath
I thought one of the Twitter accounts said he'd been executed. Considering that we haven't heard a peep out of the government about this, I'm sure that's the case.
commanteer
ISIS was IS for a while, but now is ISIS again? IS my understanding correct? And what about Isis? I hate to see her name dragged through the mud. ISIS isn't Isis-like at all.
tinawatanabe
Droll Quarry and Neneswsw, Those are not nice things to say.
Droll Quarry
Coming soon to a YouTube site near you.........