In this image released by the Hatay governorate in Turkey, Jumpei Yasuda of Japan, talks in Antakya, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2018. Japan confirmed Wednesday that a man freed from Syria is the Japanese freelance journalist Yusuda, who was kidnapped three years ago by al-Qaida鈥檚 branch in Syria, known at the time as the Nusra Front, and said he appears to be in good health. (Antakya Governorate via AP)
TOKYO 鈥� A Japanese freelance journalist who was freed after more than three years of captivity in Syria said Wednesday he is safe in neighboring Turkey.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Japanese Embassy officials met with the journalist, Jumpei Yasuda, at an immigration center in southern Turkey near the border with Syria.
鈥淲e are extremely pleased that we have confirmed the safety of Mr. Jumpei Yasuda,鈥� Kono told reporters.
Yasuda was kidnapped in 2015 by al-Qaida鈥檚 branch in Syria, known at the time as the Nusra Front, after contact with him was lost in June that year. A war monitoring group said he was most recently held by a Syrian commander with the Turkistan Islamic Party, which mostly comprises Chinese jihadis in Syria.
鈥淢y name is Jumpei Yasuda, Japanese journalist. I have been held in Syria for 40 months,鈥� Yasuda said, somewhat haltingly, in English in videotaped comments broadcast by Japan鈥檚 NHK public television. 鈥淣ow I am in Turkey. Now I am in safe condition. Thank you very much.鈥�
NHK said the video was shot inside the immigration center and was released by the local government in Turkey鈥檚 Hatay province.
Turkey鈥檚 Foreign Ministry said 鈥淓very effort is being made to ensure that the journalist is returned to his country,鈥� but would not provide information on the handover.
黑料社 of Yasuda鈥檚 release came late Tuesday from Qatar, which helped in obtaining his freedom along with Turkey and other countries in the region, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
Asked if any ransom was paid, Suga said, 鈥淭here is no fact that ransom money was paid.鈥�
Yasuda鈥檚 wife, a singer who goes by the name Myu, was on a live talk show on Japanese television and shed tears when she heard Kono confirm that her husband was safe. 鈥淔irst I want to tell him welcome back, and then praise him for enduring,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 so glad he survived.鈥�
Yasuda鈥檚 parents earlier said they couldn鈥檛 wait to see their son return home.
鈥淚 was just praying for his safe return,鈥� his mother Sachiko Yasuda, 75, told Japan鈥檚 NHK public television as she and her husband stood in front of their home outside Tokyo, holding a 鈥渢housand cranes鈥� well-wishing origami ornament that she had added to every day for three years.
Yasuda started reporting on the Middle East in the early 2000s. He was taken hostage in Iraq in 2004 with three other Japanese, but was freed after Islamic clerics negotiated his release.
His last work in Syria involved reporting on his friend Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist who was taken hostage and killed by the Islamic State group.
Contact was lost with Yasuda after he sent a message to another Japanese freelancer on June 23, 2015. In his last tweet two days earlier, Yasuda said his reporting was often obstructed and that he would stop tweeting his location and activities.
Several videos showing a man believed to be Yasuda have been released in the past year.
In one video released in July, a bearded man thought to be Yasuda said he was in a harsh environment and needed to be rescued immediately.
Syria has been one of the most dangerous places for journalists since the conflict there began in March 2011, with dozens killed or kidnapped.
Several journalists are still missing in Syria and their fates are unknown.
Those missing include Austin Tice of Houston, Texas, who disappeared in August 2012 while covering the conflict, which has killed some 400,000 people. A video released a month later showed him blindfolded and held by armed men, saying 鈥淥h, Jesus.鈥� He has not been heard from since.
Tice is a former Marine who has reported for The Washington Post, McClatchy 黑料社papers, CBS and other outlets, and disappeared shortly after his 31st birthday.
Another is British photojournalist John Cantlie, who appeared in Islamic State group propaganda videos. Cantlie has worked for several publications, including The Sunday Times, The Sun and The Sunday Telegraph. He was kidnapped with American journalist James Foley in November 2012. The IS beheaded Foley in August 2014.
Lebanese journalist Samir Kassab, who worked for Sky 黑料社, was kidnapped on Oct. 14, 2013, along with a colleague from Mauritania, Ishak Moctar, and a Syrian driver while on a trip in northern Syria.
In March 2014, two Spanish journalists 鈥� correspondent Javier Espinosa and photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova 鈥� were released six months after being kidnapped by an al-Qaida-linked group. /atm