…… Newspaper editorials showed little sympathy for Koda. The best-selling Yomiuri Shimbun wrote: "The naivete of just one person could deal a serious blow to the democratization and reconstruction process in Iraq."
The Asahi Shimbun, which opposed Japan's support for the US-led invasion of Iraq, said it understood that Koizumi had to reject the militants' demands. …… http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=32106
Japan checks report of Asian body in Iraq as deadline passes
Updated 01:42pm (Mla time) Oct 29, 2004 Agence France-Presse
Koda has received little sympathy among the Japanese, who see him as having a personal responsibility for putting himself in danger.
Police have been deployed outside the Koda's home in the southern town of Noogata after the family received calls and e-mails criticizing the young man.
"Nearly all calls and e-mails criticize Koda's actions. Some said the government should spend tax money on quake victims, not him," city official Tatsumi Umehara said, after a recent series of earthquakes in Japan. http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=3&story_id=16446
Video footage showing the decapitation of a Japanese man taken hostage in Iraq this year was shown on a big screen at a rock concert Sunday in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, concert sponsor Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. said.
The Tokyo-based TV network said Tuesday the concert drew around 5,000 people, mainly people in their teens and 20s, and it was not announced beforehand that the video scenes of 24-year-old traveler Shosei Koda being slain in October would be shown.
TBS, as well as the concert's promoter, lodged a protest with the company that manages the band, whose name TBS did not disclose.
Showing such a video "cannot be condoned on humanitarian grounds, and we offer our most sincere apologies to the family of Mr. Koda, other people concerned, as well as those attending (the concert)," TBS said in a statement.
Koda was taken hostage in Iraq after traveling to Baghdad as a tourist and searching unsuccessfully for a place to stay.
In November, the video of Koda's beheading was put on an Internet bulletin board, prompting the Justice Ministry to file a request with its operator to remove it due to the distress it was causing the victim's family.