We repeat our condemnation of the acts of the Islamic State extremist group, which claims to have killed both of the two Japanese they took hostage, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. Its attempt to justify their killings by accusing Japan of taking part in the war against it does not make sense, and its threat to "cause carnage wherever (Japanese) people are found" should not deter Japan from contributing to the international fight against terrorism in its own, nonmilitary ways.
The hostage crisis underscored that Japan and its people can be the targets of international terrorism. We obviously need to be on guard at the government, business and individual levels. But in doing so, we first need a cool-headed assessment of what we're facing up to and what's lacking in our system to protect our people from the threats of terrorism.
In initially seeking a ransom of $200 million for the lives of Goto and Yukawa on Jan. 20, the militants charged that Japan joined a "crusade" led by Western powers against the group by citing the same amount as humanitarian aid that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged in his Mideast tour for countries in the region battling the group, which has seized large swaths of Syria and Iraq in its violent quest to create an Islamic caliphate. In a video that the Islamic State group posted online early Sunday, which appeared to show that Goto had been murdered, the militants named Japan as part of the "satanic coalition" of nations that have launched airstrikes against it and blamed Abe for taking part in "an unwinnable war."