The presumed 72-hour deadline for paying the exorbitant ransom demanded by the Islamic State group apparently expired at 2:50 p.m. Friday without any hint about what would happen to the two Japanese hostages in its grasp.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the No. 2 man in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government, said Tokyo had not received any correspondence from the Islamic extremists as of Friday afternoon.
"We haven't received any particular" messages from the Islamic State group about the apparent expiration of the deadline, Suga told the news conference, which started shortly after 4 p.m.