Gripped by anger and disbelief, Japan has so far shown support for the strong line taken by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who did not meet the hostage takers’ initial demands on Jan. 20 for a $200 million ransom, pledging not to yield to terrorism. Mr. Abe strongly condemned the murder claim made in the video released early Sunday, saying Japan “will cooperate with the international community and make the terrorists pay the price.”
“I’m outraged by the despicable terrorist act, and I will never forgive the terrorists,” Mr. Abe told reporters on Sunday at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo.
For now, the Japanese public seems to be united in grief and a desire to show support for Mr. Abe and other leaders. However, political analysts have said that as the shock wears off, there will be more questioning of how Mr. Abe’s government handled the crisis, which began with the appearance online of a video from the militant group threatening the lives of two Japanese hostages, Mr. Goto and Haruna Yukawa. In that first video, the group called the country’s pledge of $200 million to help shore up the government of Iraq and to assist refugees in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon a “foolish decision” and called for a ransom of the same amount.
The group dropped the ransom demand after releasing a video online days later showing the decapitated body of Mr. Yukawa, a 42-year-old adventurer. The militants changed tack, offering to swap Mr. Goto for Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman on death row in Jordan for a deadly bombing there 10 years ago. This seemed to offer hope that a way would be found to secure Mr. Goto’s release.
Those hopes came crashing down over the weekend, when another video appeared showing Mr. Goto kneeling in an orange jumpsuit in what appeared to be a dry riverbed. Next to him stood a masked militant who spoke while waving a knife, which he then apparently used to cut off Mr. Goto’s head.
While the video had yet to be confirmed as authentic on Sunday, the top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, said the government had no reason to believe it was not real. He said Japan had had no contact with the militants, suggesting that the nation was relying almost entirely on Jordan to handle the fate of the hostages. During the 10-day hostage standoff, Japan said it was trying to establish communication with the militants via local tribal and religious leaders, but apparently to no avail.
The gruesome images helped feed an outpouring of sympathy for Mr. Goto, 47, a veteran journalist who entered Islamic State-held territory in Syria in late October in a doomed effort to rescue Mr. Yukawa, who had been captured in August, according to Mr. Goto’s mother. Local television stations showed clips from Mr. Goto’s reports out of Syria, Iraq and other conflict zones, where he often reported on the plight of children and other noncombatants.
“My son’s final act was to go to Syria to help a fellow Japanese,” Mr. Goto’s mother, Junko Ishido, said Sunday. “Please understand his kindness and courage.”
President Obama issued a statement in which he said the United States “condemns the heinous murder” of Mr. Goto, whom he described as a courageous journalist. Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the United States National Security Council, said the American authorities were working to confirm the authenticity of the video, and called for the release of all remaining hostages.
In a brief statement Sunday on the official Jordanian news agency, Petra, a government spokesman, Mohammad Momani, said that Jordan spared no effort to try to save the Japanese hostage’s life and was in continuous contact with the government of Japan during the negotiations.
Petra quoted Mr. Momani as saying, “The group has rejected all attempts made by the concerned authorities to secure the release of the Japanese hostage.”
The video of Mr. Goto’s killing came two days after a new deadline set by the group expired, and the Jordanian government did not give in to its demand that Ms. Rishawi be freed.
Left unclear by the video, which was posted on a Twitter account associated with the Islamic State’s media organization, Al Furqan, was the fate of a Jordanian pilot, whom the extremists also threatened to kill if Jordan did not release Ms. Rishawi.
Jordan had agreed to release Ms. Rishawi only if the extremists provided proof that the pilot, First Lt. Moaz al- Kasasbeh, was still alive. He was shot down over Syria on Dec. 24 during airstrikes on the Islamic State.
While there was widespread support in Jordan for a swap, officials insisted that they wanted their pilot released as well, or at least wanted to see evidence that he was still alive before they would release Ms. Rishawi, who was convicted for her role in a series of bombings of hotels in Amman that killed at least 57 people in 2005. Mr. Momani’s statement also said that officials were continuing their efforts to free the pilot.
In the latest 67-second video from the militants, a black-masked extremist, who appeared to be the man known as Jihadi John because of his British-accented English, blamed Mr. Abe for Mr. Goto’s fate.
“To the Japanese government,” the man said, “You, like your foolish allies in the satanic coalition, have yet to understand that we by Allah’s grace are the Islamic caliphate, with authority and power. An entire army thirsty for your blood.”
There has already been some criticism in Japan that Mr. Abe provoked the crisis by offering nonmilitary aid to countries battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, but Mr. Abe vowed not to back away from his pledges.
“We will increase our humanitarian aid, including food and medical support,” he said Sunday. “Japan will resolutely fulfill its responsibility to the international community in the fight against terrorism.”
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