When freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda returned to Japan in October after being held captive by a militant group in Syria for over three years, 33-year-old Noriaki Imai was confounded and disappointed by the muted reception he received from the public, with many blaming the journalist for his own abduction.
In 2004, Imai, then 18 and volunteering in Iraq, also made headlines when Qatar-based news channel Al-Jazeera broadcast harrowing footage of him and two other Japanese hostages surrounded by armed captors holding swords at their throats.
After returning to Japan he, too, faced a barrage of criticism, with the government, the media and the public blaming him and the other Japanese hostages for what they called unnecessary volunteerism.