The Japanese journalist held by Daesh travelled to Syria to find fellow hostage Haruna Yukawa, Japan’s media reported Wednesday.
Kyodo News said it had spoken to a Syrian guide who said Kenji Goto headed to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo last October to look for Yukawa, reportedly captured in August.
The unidentified guide told the news agency that freelance journalist Goto had entered Syria from the Turkish city of Kilis and asked the guide to accompany him to the Syrian city of Raqqa, the militants' stronghold and de facto capital.
He refused and said Goto left on Oct. 25 with another local man.
The guide said Goto, 47, gave him telephone numbers for his wife and colleagues and asked him to call them if he did not hear from the journalist after a week.
When he was unable to contact Goto, the guide called the man who accompanied the journalist to Raqqa. The man told him Goto had been captured by the militant group, known as Daesh, and taken to Mosul in northern Iraq.
Goto reportedly first met Yukawa, 42, a self-styled private security contractor, last April or May in northern Syria, when the contractor was temporarily held and questioned by the rebel Free Syrian Army. Goto helped free Yukawa and the two had been in contact since.
Japanese government sources told Kyodo that Goto’s wife received an email last month demanding a ransom of more than 2 billion yen ($17 million).
She got an initial email in November from an unidentified party saying it had captured Goto, according to the sources, and his wife exchanged several emails with the party. The messages are thought to have come from Daesh because of similarities between the email address and one used in previous hostage cases.
The Japanese government stressed Wednesday that the support it has pledged to Middle Eastern countries affected by the conflict in Syria and Iraq was "non-military" – refuting the group’s claim that Tokyo had donated money to attack Muslims.
"What Japan has provided is humanitarian assistance targeting refugees," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a press conference, reiterating that Japan's commitment to fighting terrorism remained unchanged.
Referring to the hostages, he added: "We will continue to seek an early release of the two by working closely with the international community."
Suga said Japan was trying to contact the hostage takers through diplomatic channels but they had not contacted the Japanese government directly.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has condemned the hostage taking as "unforgivable" and vowed to rescue the two men. He is scheduled to return to Japan later Wednesday from a six-day Middle East trip.
In a video released Tuesday, Japan was ordered to pay a $200 million ransom within 72 hours to secure the two men’s release. Japanese government sources told Kyodo they were unclear on when the deadline would expire.
During a visit to Brussels Tuesday, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan would seek help from NATO in securing the hostages’ release. France and the U.S. have promised assistance.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called for the unconditional release of the hostages.
Meanwhile, Goto’s friend and former church pastor Hiroshi Tamura told the Japan Times the journalist was “devoted to reporting what should be reported with a firm conviction.”
He said Goto had often travelled to the Middle East and Somalia. “He has a strong sense of justice… and he has always been conscious of vulnerable people, including children,” Tamura said.
The online video, which shows a knife-wielding militant standing behind the hostages, is similar to previous hostage videos. As well as hundreds of summarily executed prisoners, mostly Iraqis and Syrians, Daesh has beheaded five Western captives after releasing videos.
But it is the first time Daesh has publicly demanded a ransom and Goto and Yukawa are the group's first Japanese hostages.
The group also holds British journalist John Cantlie and a 26-year-old American female aid worker.
By Todd Crowell
