When asked whether ISIS has been in negotiations with the Japanese government, the spokesman said he wouldn’t comment, NHK reported.
ISIS has threatened to kill the two men — Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa — unless Japan pays the group $200 million. The Japanese government says it estimates that ultimatum expires at 2:50 p.m. Friday, Tokyo time (12:50 a.m. ET Friday).
ISIS claims the amount is the same as the financial aid pledged by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to countries affected by the militant group.
ISIS unswayed
Japanese officials have repeatedly stressed that their military, which is constitutionally forbidden from taking action other than for self-defense, isn’t involved in the international airstrikes against ISIS positions in Syria and Iraq. The Abe pledge is for humanitarian purposes, like helping refugees, not military purposes, Japan says.
But ISIS appears unswayed.
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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.
Opinion: Why countries should think about paying ransoms
CNN’s Will Ripley from Tokyo; Jethro Mullen from Hong Kong.
