Freelance journalist Junpei Yasuda, who was kidnapped soon after traveling to conflict-ridden Syria in 2015, was confirmed to have been released, Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Wednesday.
"We have confirmed safety of Junpei Yasuda," Kono told reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo.
"Staff at the Japanese Embassy in Turkey traveled [to an immigration facility in Antakya, southern Turkey] and are speaking with him," the foreign minister said. "His health condition seems OK at first glance."
On Tuesday night, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the government had been informed by the Qatari government that Yasuda had been released and was staying at an immigration facility in Antakya, near the border with Syria.
Yasuda, 44, is said to have been held by Islamic extremist group Levant Liberation Organization (formerly the Nusra Front) since June 2015.
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