Japan vows to work with Jordan to secure hostage release

Japan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Yasuhide Nakayama speaks to the media in Amman January 26, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

TOKYO - Japan has vowed to work with Jordan to secure the release of a Japanese journalist held by Islamic State militants after the killing last week of another Japanese captive, but it reiterated that it would not give in to terrorism.

The hostage crisis has become a test for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took power in 2012 pledging to bolster Japan's global security role.

Abe on Sunday condemned the killing of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa by the militants as "outrageous" and called for the release of veteran correspondent Kenji Goto, captured by Islamic State militants in Syria.

"We would like to work together with the Jordanian government to secure the release of Goto," Yasuhide Nakayama, state minister for foreign affairs, told reporters in Jordan late on Monday.

Nakayama was sent to Jordan last week to deal with the crisis.

The militants have dropped a ransom demand. They now say they will free Goto in exchange for the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, a convicted Iraqi suicide-bomber, from prison in Jordan.

The hardline militants captured a Jordanian pilot after his plane crashed during US-led coalition bombing in eastern Syria in December and Nakayama said he hoped Japan and Jordan could work together for his release too.