Japanese Journalist Released in Iraq

By: Gary Schaefer, Associated Press Writer (AP) Three Japanese captives, including a journalist, in Iraq were freed unharmed on Thursday, ending a week-long hostage crisis.

The three were turned over to the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman in Tokyo said.

The breakthrough came a day after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said no progress had been made in negotiations to win the captives' freedom. Also Wednesday, the government said it was investigating a report that two other Japanese had been taken captive in Iraq.

The hostage crisis was the toughest test yet of Koizumi's commitment to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The kidnappers threatened to kill the three -- two aid workers and a photojournalist -- if Japan did not withdraw its 500 troops from Iraq.

Koizumi refused, saying he would not deal with terrorists and emphasizing that Japanese troops were in Iraq on a humanitarian mission.

First word of the release came from Arabic TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which reported the three had been taken to the offices of the Islamic Clerics Committee, a Sunni Muslim group that had worked for their freedom.

Al-Jazeera broadcast footage of the three sitting on a couch, apparently speaking with members of the Sunni organization.

The three appeared unharmed. Nahoko Takato, a 34-year-old aid worker who worked with street children in Iraq, cried into her hands. Noriaki Imai, who went to Iraq to raise awareness about the effects of depleted uranium munitions, shook hands with a committee member. The third hostage, 32-year-old photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, also was shown.

Al-Jazeera reported that the kidnappers -- a previously unknown group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Brigades" -- had notified the Islamic Clerics Committee earlier Thursday that they would free the three Japanese at a mosque in the Iraqi capital.

In Tokyo, television cameras showed the freed hostages' families dancing, hugging and crying with joy at news of the release. Imai's father Takashi sank to his knees, and Imai's brother Yosuke said: "We just want to thank everyone who made this possible."

"I'm so happy I can't stand it," said Kyoko Takato, the aid worker's mother. "I've been waiting so long for this."