Fears are mounting for a freelance Japanese war reporter who has
not been heard from for more than three weeks, after telling a friend he was
planning to enter Syria.
On June 23,
Jumpei Yasuda, 41, told a close friend over the phone from Turkey of his plans
to enter the war-torn country. Yasuda had previously reported from Syria.
The friend, who
did not want to be named, said he believed it was highly likely Yasuda was being
held by Islamic militants.
Yasuda's
Twitter account, previously posted to frequently, has not been
updated since June 20.
His last tweet
referred to challenges to his reporting which had become "no laughing
matter," and said it would be difficult to continue making updates about
his work on blogs and social media in real time.
Concerns about
Yasuda's well-being were raised by reporters at a press conference Friday, at
which Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he had no information regarding
Yasuda's whereabouts.
His case has arisen as Japan's lower house has approved historic revisions to its pacifist
constitution that could allow
Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time since WWII.
Opponents fear
the move will see Japan embroiled in international conflicts, including the war
on ISIS.
A Japanese
journalist, Kenji Goto, was executed
by ISIS in a highly publicized
killing in January after crossing into ISIS-controlled Syria to report. Goto, a
fellow member of Japan's small community of freelance war reporters, was a
friend of Yasuda's.
According to his website,
Yasuda has been a journalist since 1997, starting out in newspapers before
going freelance in 2003 after a trip to Afghanistan.
He began
reporting from Iraq, and had been held in custody several times.
After being held
by a militia in Baghdad in April 2004, Yasuda was criticized by sections of the
Japanese public for having gone into a conflict zone, and drawing the Japanese
government into negotiations for his release.
However, he
continued returning to conflict zones and had reported from Iraq and Syria on
numerous occasions, according to his website.
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