A year has gone by since freelance journalist Kenji Goto was murdered by Islamic State militants, and Goto's friends, still in mourning, are planning various events to pass on his legacy.

To commemorate the first anniversary of his death, Sakura Baba, 42, will be staging a play about Goto titled "Indigo Blue Shamal" for two days starting Saturday in the city of Osaka.

The play is about Kenji covering military conflicts around the world with a rookie female reporter he had met the year before. Baba, a native of Toyonaka in Osaka, had written the script in 2011,