Abe declines comment on extremists' demand for prisoner exchange to save second captive

From prime minister to ordinary people, Japanese responded with shock on Sunday to a video purportedly showing one of two Japanese hostages of the extremist Islamic State group had been killed.

With national attention focusing on efforts to save the other hostage, 47-year-old journalist Kenji Goto, some also criticized Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's drive for a more assertive Japan as responsible for the hostage crisis.