In 2004, three Japanese aid workers, including a woman, were seized in Iraq. Militants held knives to their throats and demanded that Japan withdraw the 550 troops that were providing logistical support to allied nations operating in Iraq.
The three - Nahoko Takato, 34, Soichiro Koriyama, 32, and 19-year-old Noriaki Imai - were released after a week.
The Japanese government said at the time that no ransom was paid, although a team of negotiators who were sent to hold talks with intermediaries reportedly emphasised that the Japanese forces operating in the region were unarmed and were tasked with rebuilding infrastructure and delivering aid and supplies to local people.
Back in Japan, the three were criticised for "causing trouble" for Japan and the government charged them $6,000 for the chartered aircraft that brought them home.
Have Japanese been executed by militants before?
In October 2004, Shosei Koda was beheaded by a group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi after ignoring warnings not to travel to Iraq. The captors of 24-year-old Koda issued a statement saying they would execute him if Japan failed to withdraw its troops from Iraq within 24 hours.
The government of Junichiro Koizumi said Japan would not cede to terrorists.
Koda's execution was recorded. While he is seated on an American flag, his captors read a speech before holding Koda down and decapitating him with a knife. The body was found in Baghdad and repatriated to Japan.
Will the Japanese authorities pay a ransom this time?
"I don't see that happening, although it is something that the Japanese government will have to consider," Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs, told The Telegraph.
"I don't think that Japan has the intangible resources necessary to carry out the ransom money transfer," he said, adding that the problem for the Abe administration is compounded by the fact that the ransom demand has been openly reported and it will be obvious that the payment has been made if the men are freed.
That would cause problems with Tokyo's allies, which insist that nations cannot give in to extremists or it will open the floodgates to more kidnapping cases.
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