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 A black-clad figure with a knife, standing in a barren landscape
along with two kneeling men wearing orange clothing, said the
Japanese public had 72 hours to pressure their government to stop
its "foolish" support for the U.S.-led coalition waging a military
campaign against Islamic State.
"To the prime minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,500 km
away from the Islamic State, you willingly have volunteered to take
part in this crusade," said the militant, who spoke in English.
He demanded "200 million" without specifying a currency, but an
Arabic subtitle identified it as U.S. dollars.
The footage named the men as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.
The video was not dated, but on a visit to Cairo on Jan. 17,
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged around $200 million in
non-military assistance for countries battling Islamic State.
Abe, speaking in Jerusalem on Tuesday towards the end of a six-day
tour of the Middle East, said Islamic State's threat against the two
purported captives was "unacceptable".
 "We strongly demand the immediate release of the Japanese citizens
unharmed," Abe said. "The international community needs to respond
firmly and cooperate without caving into terrorism."
The video resembled others distributed by Islamic State outlets in
which captives were threatened or killed. It appeared to be the
first time that an Islamic State video specifically demanded cash
for captives.
CABINET MEETS IN TOKYO
Abe stressed that Japan's aid announced on his trip was for
humanitarian purposes, and said Tokyo would keep contributing to
peace and prosperity in the region.
"We'll coordinate with the international community from now on, and
contribute more to (the) peace and prosperity of the region. This
policy is unwavering and we won't change this policy."
The apparent capture of the two men marks the first hostage crisis
for Abe's government since January 2013, when 10 Japanese were
killed by Islamist militants at a gas complex in Algeria.
Asked whether Japan would pay ransom to secure the captives'
release, Abe replied: "With regard to this case, we attach the
utmost priority to saving lives, and gathering information with the
help of other countries."
In Tokyo, Japan's foreign ministry said it was checking the video to
see whether the footage was genuine. Cabinet ministers also
announced they were meeting to discuss the government's response to
the video.
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Goto is a freelance reporter who was based in Tokyo. He has written
books on AIDS and children in war zones from Afghanistan to Africa
and reported for news broadcasters in Japan.
Goto met Yukawa last year and helped him travel to Iraq in June, he
told Reuters in August.
Yukawa, 43, traveled to Iraq and Syria last year after telling
friends and family that he thought it represented a last chance to
turn his life around.
Over the previous decade, he had lost a business to bankruptcy, lost
his wife to cancer and become homeless, according to his father and
an online journal.
It was not clear what exactly he was doing in the region. Yukawa's
father, Shoichi Yukawa, declined to comment, saying he was
overwhelmed by the news reports.
The militant in the footage, who spoke with a British accent,
appeared to have the same voice as a jihadist shown with captives in
previous Islamic State videos.
Similar videos have shown captives beheaded, including Western aid
workers and journalists.
The hardline Islamist group, which holds territory in Syria and
Iraq, has also killed more than 1,000 Syrians off the battlefield
since it expanded a caliphate under its control in June, according
to a monitoring group.
(Reporting by Luke Baker in Jerusalem, William Maclean in Dubai,
Sylvia Westall in Beirut and Linda Sieg, Teppei Kasai and Tetsushi
Kajimoto in Tokyo; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
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