Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=10/31/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=JAPAN / IRAQ HOSTAGE UPDATE - L ONLY

NUMBER=2-320048

BYLINE=STEVE HERMAN

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

/// EDS: UPDATES 2-320046. ADDS KOIZUMI MATERIAL ///

HEADLINE: Koizumi Vows to Keep Troops in Iraq After Japan Hostage is Beheaded

INTRO: Japan on Sunday said it is now certain that a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker taken hostage in Iraq has been killed. VOA's Steve Herman reports from Tokyo, the prime minister says his government will not give in to militants' demands and plans to keep its troops in Iraq.

TEXT: Japanese officials say the identity of the body, found wrapped in an American flag in Baghdad, was confirmed through fingerprint matches.

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told a Sunday morning news conference that he was certain that the body found is that of Shosei Koda, kidnapped in Iraq Tuesday.

/// MACHIMURA ACT IN JAPANESE, FADE UNDER ///

Mr. Machimura says the death will not dissuade Japan from decisively fighting terrorism in cooperation with the international community.

While expressing his condolences to Mr. Koda's family, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters Japan would likely keep its 500 Self Defense Force troops on their humanitarian mission in Iraq beyond their December 14th commitment.

/// KOIZUMI ACT, IN JAPANESE FADE UNDER ///

The prime minister says, that based on a United Nations resolution on Iraqi reconstruction, Japan will extend as much assistance as possible.

Mr. Koizumi expressed indignation that the kidnappers took the life of an innocent civilian, calling the act "extremely barbarous and vicious."

Mr. Koda's captors, in a videotaped message posted on a militant group's Internet website Tuesday, said they would behead him unless Japan pulled its troops from Iraq within 48 hours.

The video shows a banner of an al-Qaida-linked militant group run by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is said to be directing attacks in Iraq against U.S. forces and the Iraqi interim government.

Mr. Koda is the fifth Japanese to die in Iraq following the start of the U.S.-led war in March of last year. But he is the first to have been taken hostage and then executed.

Mr. Koda's family on Friday told reporters here they had no idea he had gone to the Middle East. They said the last time they heard from him he was still pursuing his English language studies in New Zealand. (Signed)

NEB/HK/SH/JJ/RH