But Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Thursday that Tokyo had so far heard nothing and doesn’t know what situation the two hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa, are in.
Japan has said it would try reaching the ISIS captors through third parties, like governments in the region or local tribal leaders.
“We are aiming to save them as soon as possible,” Suga said Thursday.
Time is of the essence: the Japanese government says it estimates ISIS’ ultimatum will expire at 2:50 p.m. Friday, Tokyo time (12:50 a.m. ET).
Help from Jordan?
The government of Jordan has told Japan it will do as much as possible to try to secure the release of Goto and Yukawa, according to Suga.
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Some of the rebels talked about their need for ambulances to shuttle the wounded. That plea spurred Yukawa to start raising money for this cause after returning to Japan, according to Kimoto.
“I felt a chill when he said, after returning home, (that) he felt in Syria he was really living a life,” Kimoto said. “He seems to have felt satisfaction being there and living together with the locals.”
Yukawa went back to Syria in July, a trip that Kimoto said he didn’t know about at the time. Kimoto said he had advised his friend to focus on building up his private security company.
Yukawa was reportedly captured in August.
CNN’s Will Ripley reported from Tokyo, and Jethro Mullen reported and wrote from Hong Kong. CNN’s CNN’s Yoko Wakatsuki, Greg Botelho, Gul Tuysuz and Junko Ogura contributed to this report. Translator Nana Shibata also contributed.
