Late last week, a photo appeared on the Internet with worn-out and long-haired Yasuda wearing an orange T-shirt and holding a placard with a writing which reads “Please, help me”.
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Jumpei Yasuda is believed to have been captured by the al-Qaida affiliate Nusra Front after he crossed into Syria from Turkey last June, Japanese media reported.
The group released the picture to multiple news outlets on Sunday, showing Yasuda with a longer beard and hair than in previous media releases.
The photo comes after a video was posted online in March in which a man claiming to be Yasuda was shown speaking in English: “To my country, when you’re sitting there, where you are, in a dark room, suffering with pain, there still no one”.
He is seen holding a piece of paper with a handwritten message in Japanese that says: “Please help”.
“The government is now analyzing the image”, he said.
The footage was posted online by Tarik Abdul Hak, who told AFP it had been provided to him by a group called al-Noor, which he said “has been mandated by (the al-Qaeda-linked) al-Nusra to carry out a mediation for his release”. “This is my last chance”.
Yasuda, a freelance journalist since 2003, was held in Baghdad in 2004 and drew criticism for drawing the Japanese government into negotiations for his release.
It was not clear when or where the image was taken, but Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the man is likely Yasuda.
Cabinet Spokesman Yoshihide Suga said the government was “making use of a broad net of information and doing everything we can to respond”.
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According to the man, the Nusra Front has threatened to hand Yasuda over to Islamic State militants if the Japanese government won’t negotiate.
