MIDDLE EAST

Hostage Crisis Challenges Pacifist Japanese Public 

By  and 
News reports about the two Japanese men taken hostage by the Islamic State were shown in Tokyo on Tuesday. Yoshikazu Tsuno/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images 
AMAMI, Japan — A video posted online Tuesday showing a masked militant threatening to kill two kneeling Japanese men has confronted Japan with the same sort of hostage nightmare already faced by the United States and other nations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to try to save the men, while also saying he would not give in to intimidation.
The crisis could also create a different sort of challenge for Mr. Abe, who was traveling in the Middle East when the video appeared. Political analysts said the images of the young Japanese men, dressed in the same kind of orange jumpsuits worn by hostages who were beheaded in previous videos, could mean trouble for Mr. Abe, by turning Japan’s deeply pacifist public against his pursuit of a more active role for Japan in global security issues.
The video, posted by extremists of the Islamic State, showed the two Japanese men, identified as Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, kneeling on a rocky hillside with the knife-wielding militant standing between them. The militant appeared to be reading a prepared statement, demanding that Tokyo pay a ransom of $200 million within 72 hours.
PLAY VIDEO|0:59

Japan Calls ISIS Acts ‘Unforgivable’

Japan Calls ISIS Acts ‘Unforgivable’

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan responded to the ISIS video showing two Japanese hostages, calling the Islamic State’s methods “unforgivable.”
 Video by AP on January 20, 2015. Photo by Thomas Coex/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.
The militant linked the ransom demand to an offer that Mr. Abe had made on Saturday, promising nonmilitary aid to nations aligned against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Mr. Abe pledged $200 million to help shore up the government of Iraq and to assist refugees in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon who have fled the Islamic State’s rise.
“To the Japanese public, just as how your government has made the foolish decision to pay 200 million to fight the Islamic State, you now have 72 hours to pressure your government in making a wise decision by paying the 200 million to save the lives of your citizens,” the masked man said in the video, speaking in English with what sounded like a British accent. “Otherwise, this knife will become your nightmare.”
The masked man’s voice, manner and attire were similar to those of a person seen in earlier videos showing the beheadings of two Americans, James Foley and Steven J. Sotloff, and two Britons, David Cawthorne Haines and Alan Henning. The militant did not specify a currency for the ransom demand, but a subtitle in Arabic said it was for dollars.
Both the United States and Britain say they refuse to pay ransoms. While Japan has paid in the past, officials and analysts said that it had appeared to be less willing lately, and that it was highly unlikely to pay $200 million, a figure they said was set unrealistically high to make a political point.
The main government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, told reporters in Tokyo, “Our country will not be intimidated by terrorism, and there is no change to our policy of contributing to the international community’s fight against terrorism.”

Graphic: The Fates of 23 ISIS Hostages in Syria 

The video was thought to be the first time that the militant group had expressly demanded money in a video. Previously, the Islamic State threatened to kill hostages in videos but did not specify its demands. The 72-hour deadline was another departure from past threats.
The size of the demand, though, was consistent with the group’s failed efforts, not made public by the militants at the time, to extort money for the release of American hostages. The SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks jihadist propaganda, said the latest video had been produced by Al Furqan, an Islamic State media outlet.
The threat to the Japanese hostages was the top item on news programs in Japan, where many voters have been nervous about efforts by the right-leaning Mr. Abe to nudge Japan out of its postwar pacifist shell.
The country has faced attacks in the Middle East before, including the gunning down of two diplomats in Iraq in late 2003 and the abduction and killing of a young man in Iraq a year later. But political analysts said the question now was whether the latest crisis would drain public support for Mr. Abe, who had seemed politically unstoppable after his governing party won a sweeping victory in elections last month.
While Mr. Abe has enjoyed strong support for his economic policies, the public has been less enthusiastic about his efforts to raise Japan’s diplomatic and military profile. Analysts say the Japanese public has been deeply averse to war or any sort of military action since the nation’s devastating defeat in World War II, and the terrifying spectacle of the hostage video could renew that aversion.

Interactive Graphic: How the Air Campaign Against ISIS Grew 

“This crisis touches on the deepest fear of the Japanese public toward Prime Minister Abe,” said Mikio Haruna, a politics professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. “Even before this happened, the public was afraid that he could get Japan embroiled in a conflict far from our shores that could result in Japanese getting killed.”
At a news conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Mr. Abe said that he had ordered the officials handling the crisis to do everything they could to save the two hostages. At the same time, he said Japan would not withdraw its pledge of $200 million, a new step in Mr. Abe’s efforts to increase the nation’s diplomatic clout and fulfill promises that it would be a more globally active ally of the United States.
“Using human lives as a shield to make threats is an unforgivable terrorist act, and I am extremely indignant,” said Mr. Abe, who will cut his trip short and return to Tokyo to deal with the crisis. “I strongly demand that they be released unharmed immediately.”
The United States issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the video and calling for “the immediate release of these civilians and all other hostages.” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said, “The United States is fully supportive of Japan in this matter.”
In Japanese news coverage, one of the two hostages, Mr. Yukawa, 42, has been portrayed as something of a lost soul who went to war-torn Syria hoping to find himself after his wife died of lung cancer. He appeared in a video on his website wearing fatigues and firing an assault rifle in Aleppo, Syria, and wrote on his blog before he was captured, apparently in August, that he would be going to a location in Syria that he could not disclose. “The next place could be the most dangerous,” he wrote. In a video posted online by his captors, a man who appeared to be Mr. Yukawa was seen lying on the ground with blood running down his face.
The other man, Mr. Goto, 47, is a freelance journalist with experience reporting from war zones and other crisis situations. Before his capture, Mr. Goto had detailed his travels in a series of videos posted online, including one with the English headline “Journalist Goto Heads for the Syrian Border.” According to his Twitter account, he crossed into Syria from Turkey on Oct. 2, somewhere near the besieged town of Kobani. His last Twitter message was posted on Oct. 23.
Japanese news outlets reported on Tuesday that Mr. Goto had previously met Mr. Yukawa in Syria. The reports said that Mr. Goto had told his family that he was going into Syria to try to save Mr. Yukawa, but did not specify how he planned to do it.
Martin Fackler reported from Amami, and Alan Cowell from London. Reporting was contributed by Austin Ramzy from Hong Kong; Rukmini Callimachi from San Diego; Jonathan Soble from Kagoshima, Japan; Mohammad Ghannam from Beirut, Lebanon; Edward Wong from Beijing; Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem; and Nick Cumming-Bruce from Geneva.