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TOKYO – Japan looked forward to Wednesday's confirmation that a freed journalist from Syria is an independent journalist kidnapped three years ago.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters that he was relieved by the news and that he was eager to confirm the identity of the man. The secretary general of the cabinet, Yoshihide Suga, said that this man was probably Jumpei Yasuda and that he is currently in Turkey.
"I would like to have confirmation that he is Mr. Yasuda himself as quickly as possible," Abe said.
Yasuda was kidnapped in 2015 by the al-Qaida branch in Syria, known at the time as Front Nusra, after losing contact in June of the same year. A war watchdog said it was recently detained by a Syrian commander of the Islamic Party of Turkistan, composed mainly of Chinese jihadists in Syria.
According to Suga, Japanese diplomats will confirm his identity and check his health at an establishment near the Turkish border with Syria. Their report is expected later Wednesday.
The news of Yasuda's release came from Qatar, who participated in the efforts for the release, as well as Turkey and other countries in the region, said Suga, thanking his support.
While officials were trying to be careful, Yasuda's parents said Wednesday that they were eager to see their son's return home.
"I was only praying for his safe return," said his mother, Sachiko Yasuda, 75, on Japanese public television NHK. had added one every day for three years.
Yasuda began reporting on the Middle East in the early 2000s. Taken hostage in Iraq in 2004 along with three other Japanese, he was released after Islamic clerics had negotiated his release.
His latest work in Syria was on his friend Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist who was taken hostage and killed by the Islamic State group.
The contact was lost with Yasuda after sending a message to another Japanese freelancer on June 23, 2015. In his latest tweet two days earlier, Yasuda said his reports were often blocked and that he would stop tweeting on its activities and location.
Several videos showing a man suspected of being Yasuda have been released over the past year.
In a video broadcast in July, the man with the beard suspected of being Yasuda said that he was in a hostile environment and needed to be rescued immediately.
Syria is one of the most dangerous places for journalists since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011, with dozens of deaths or kidnappings.
Several journalists are still missing in Syria and their fate is unknown.
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Associated press reporter Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.
