Iraq hostage killing reopens Japan debate on troops
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TOKYO: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appeared on Monday to have won public backing for his refusal to pull Japanese troops out of Iraq despite the weekend beheading of a Japanese hostage.
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Japan has denounced the beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq after a day that saw the heaviest US casualties for six months and the bloodiest attack on a media organisation since the start of the war.
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Japan won&#39;t yield to terrorism or withdraw its troops from Iraq, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said, in response to reports an Iraqi group kidnapped a Japanese man.
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A body resembling a Japanese hostage has been found in Iraq and will be flown to Kuwait or Qatar for identification, officials said on Saturday, after Tokyo refused a demand by his captors to pull out its troops.
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Japanese leaders struggled on Thursday to make contact with Islamic militants in Iraq who took a Japanese traveler hostage as the 48-hour deadline approached for the young man's threatened beheading. Tokyo stood firm in its refusal to meet the kidnappers' demand to withdraw troops from Iraq.
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Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi&#39;s militant group threatened to behead a Japanese hostage it said worked with Japan&#39;s forces in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from the country within 48 hours.
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Japan and North Korea held a second day of talks Sunday in a dispute over Japanese nationals abducted by the North decades ago. Japan seized the occasion to express concern North Korea might be planning a missile test, a newspaper reported.
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The beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq renewed pressure on Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to withdraw his country&#39;s troops, as the opposition blamed his pro-US policy for the slaying.
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A body resembling a Japanese hostage has  been found in Iraq and is being shipped to Qatar for  identification, Japanese officials said on Saturday, after  Tokyo refused a demand by his captors to pull out its troops.
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The Japanese government is checking  whether a body found by the U.S. military between Tikrit and  Baghdad in Iraq is that of a Japanese hostage, an aide to  Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said early on  Saturday.
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Japan's government was still in the dark  about a Japanese held hostage in Iraq on Thursday, less than 24  hours before a deadline set by his captors, who have threatened  to behead the young man unless Japan withdraws its troops.
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Japan today refused to withdraw its troops from Iraq despite demands by Iraqi militants who have taken a Japanese civilian hostage and threatened to behead him unless the soldiers left.
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Japan was checking a media report on  Friday that an Asian body had been found in Iraq after the  expiry of a deadline set for the beheading of a Japanese youth  whose captors had demanded that Tokyo withdraw its troops.
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Japan said no member of its military  stationed in Iraq is missing, after a group led by al Qaeda  ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi threatened to behead a Japanese  hostage in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw its forces from the  country.
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Japan has made last-ditch efforts to secure the release of a Japanese hostage facing execution in Iraq. A Japanese government official says efforts are still being made to free Shosei Koda, 24, but there have been no reports of any progress.
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Japan refused to give up hope that a  Japanese man taken hostage in Iraq was still alive on Friday  after the passing of a deadline set by his captors to behead  him unless Tokyo withdrew its troops.
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Japan&#39;s Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura has urged the captors of Shosei Koda in Iraq to set him free. In an interview to Aljazeera&#39;s correspondent in Tokyo on Wednesday, he said, &quot;Koda is a civilian who