Islamic State’s Death Threat Stirs Anger, Shock in Japan

By Takashi Amano, Jason Clenfield and Yuki Hagiwara  

Islamic State militants’ threat to kill two Japanese hostages for ransom sparked expressions of fear and outrage among a cross-section of people in the country.
“Once Japanese become targets, it could happen here,” said Mio Nakashima, 26, an IT devices saleswoman waiting at Tokyo’s central railway station. “I was thinking terrorism is something happening outside Japan.”

Related:

• Islamic State Gives Two Japanese Hostages 72 Hours to Live

Video footage of a masked fighter in black standing next to two shackled men in orange jumpsuits appeared on YouTube just days after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to extend $200 million to countries confronted by the al-Qaeda breakaway group. Abe spoke with King Abdullah of Jordan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi after the video threat on Tuesday. The Abe government also set up a crisis task force in
Jordan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said today.

Al-Qaeda’s Heirs

“We’ll do our best to rescue their lives,” Abe told reporters in Jerusalem, where he was as part of an official visit to the Middle East. “International society should never surrender to terrorism.”
Abe said he would not change Japan’s policy of cooperating with a coalition of countries against the militant group and demanded the men’s immediate release.

72-Hour Deadline

The video titled “Message to the government and people of Japan” says the hostages will be killed if Japan doesn’t pay ransom equivalent to the pledged aid. The government has three days to comply, according to the video discovered on YouTube Tuesday.
“I feel like Abe’s decision to provide $200 million is just an excuse to attack Japan,” said Youkou Imada, a 32-year-old construction company employee walking around Tokyo station. “I’m just wishing Abe would focus on the Japanese economy rather than committing us to those complicated situations outside the country.”
A militant group calling itself Islamic State has taken over swaths of northern Iraq and bordering areas in Syria, killing thousands of civilians and staging videotaped beheadings of Westerners held for ransom.
Four of the top-five most commented on stories at the Yahoo Japan website in the past 24 hours related to the hostages. Among them, the top story had drawn almost 6,000 comments as of 3 p.m. in Tokyo. Yahoo Japan is the nation’s most visited website.

‘Dangerous Place’

Some comments expressed surprise that Japanese were even in the area.
“Why did these men visit such a dangerous place,” asked someone going by the name of Edokko on the site. “I feel very sorry for them, but we should decline the ransom demand.”
Suga said the government has identified the hostages as Kenji Goto, a journalist, and Haruna Yukawa, who had set up a company to try to offer security services in Iraq.
Goto was born in the northern Japanese city of Sendai in 1967, according to his Independent Press website. He specializes in coverage of wars, refugees, poverty and children’s education, according to the website set up in 1996.
State-run broadcaster NHK said Goto had told his family he was going to help Yukawa, whom Kyodo News reported captured by Islamic State in northern Syria in August.

Past Hostages

In 2004, militants from a group calling itself al-Qaeda in Iraq kidnapped and beheaded Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old Japanese civilian, after demanding withdrawal of Japanese troops sent to the country to help a U.S.-led coalition.
Earlier that year, five Japanese civilians were released after being kidnapped by a group in Iraq.
Reactions at that time included some who blamed Koda for visiting the area without protection or authorization. He went to the area to observe the war firsthand, according to Kyodo News reports at the time.
In 2013, Japanese citizens were among those killed in a botched rescue attempt after a hostage-taking at a natural gas plant in Algeria, which led Abe to cut short his first foreign trip after taking office the previous month.
Japanese companies operating overseas also sought advice on what the threat means for their security, said Yusuke Inoue, chief of the operation center at Security Support Inc.
“We’re getting requests from companies for advice on how to handle potential threats in the region,” Inoue said by phone. “We have advised companies to avoid areas anywhere near those controlled by the militants.”
Japan’s residents last faced a major terror strike in 1995 when some members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult based in the country carried out a sarin-gas attack on Tokyo’s subway that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.
The Islamic State’s death threats against hostages may mark a turning point for some Japanese companies operating in affected regions, Inoue said. “Up to this point, the conflicts have not had that much of a negative effect.”