The freelance journalist released Saturday after going missing in Afghanistan in late March returned to Japan on Monday evening, saying he "braced for an execution" during his more than five months in captivity.
On his arrival at Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture aboard an Emirates flight from Dubai, Kosuke Tsuneoka, 41, told reporters, "During the first two months in captivity, I had no doubt I was going to be killed."
Tsuneoka denied that his kidnappers were Taliban insurgents as claimed by Afghan security authorities. He said his abductors were "a group of corrupt armed factions" in northeastern Afghanistan.