TOKYO, Jan 25 — Japan “will continue to not yield to terror” while working for the release of the remaining Japanese hostage held by Islamic State, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, after another captive was killed.

Haruna Yukawa, a self-styled security contractor, was beheaded after Japan failed to pay a US$200 million (RM700 million) ransom by the Islamist militants’ deadline, according to a Twitter post yesterday from SITE Intel Group, based in Bethesda, Maryland.

A video was released showing the other Japanese hostage, war correspondent Kenji Goto, pleading in English for his life and asking for the release of a woman jailed in Jordan on accusations of attempting to take part in a suicide bombing.

The prisoner the Islamic State militants want released is Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman who tried to detonate an explosive belt at a wedding party at the Radisson Hotel in Amman in 2005. Islamic State may have some leverage since it also holds a Jordanian Air Force pilot whose plane went down over Syria on a bombing mission.

A deal is unlikely since it would involve a public concession to the militant group and strain relations with the US, a key economic and defense ally for Japan and Jordan.

“The United States strongly condemns the brutal murder of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa by the terrorist group ISIL,” President Barack Obama said in a statement, using one version of Islamic State’s name. “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally Japan and applaud its commitment to peace and development in a region far from its shores.”

US$200 million

Islamic State sought to punish the Japanese government after Abe pledged US$200 million in aid to help refugees and displaced people due to the conflict in Syria and Iraq, setting the ransom at the same amount. The group set a 72-hour deadline in a Jan. 20 video that showed the two men kneeling before a knife-wielding militant.

“We call again for no harm to come to Kenji Goto and demand his immediate release,” Abe said early today  in Tokyo.

On a six-day Middle East trip that ended the day the first video was released, Abe said in a speech in Cairo that allowing terrorism and weapons of mass destruction to spread there would impart an “immeasurable” loss on the region. He later denounced the kidnappings as an “unforgivable” act and said his government would never cave in to terrorism, pledging to do everything otherwise possible to secure their release.

The lives of the two Japanese hostages became intertwined when they met in Syria after Yukawa traveled there for the first time last year. Goto, a war correspondent for two decades, had reported from conflict zones across the Middle East and Africa.

Aleppo travels

Yukawa, 42, went to the region as he sought to reinvent himself as a soldier-of-fortune after a failed business career, a suicide attempt and the death of his wife, he wrote on his personal blog in April. He returned to Syria in July and was captured by Islamic State within weeks of his arrival. The group released a video in August showing a bloodied Yukawa being interrogated.

His capture prompted Goto, a devout Christian, to head to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo seeking his release, according to Kyodo news agency. Goto, born in 1967, ended up a hostage facing the same death sentence, after leaving a video message in which he said his fate was his own responsibility.

Goto’s mother told reporters Friday that her son’s wife recently gave birth to a child.

“America has known this pain and horror ourselves, and we stand with Japan not just in sadness, but in solidarity and strength,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. “We grieve with Haruna Yukawa’s family and loved ones, and with all the people of Japan.” — Bloomberg