TOKYO (AP) – The plight of freelance journalist Kenji Goto, taken captive by Islamic State group militants, has gripped Japan, and the people’s hopes for his safety are now on Facebook with a simple, unifying plea: “I am Kenji.”
The video, posted online last week, showing Goto and another Japanese hostage, has dominated mainstream media here, a peaceful and relatively crime-free nation unaccustomed to such violence.
But as government officials made stately pronouncements on TV news, regular people were taking action of their own – online, with some rallying to Goto’s support and others mocking the terrorists with images – in a quiet but massive show of defiance.
“We want Kenji to come home,” said Taku Nishimae, a Japanese filmmaker living in New York, who started the “I am Kenji” Facebook page, right after seeing last week’s video demanding Japan pay $200 million within 72 hours for the hostages’ release.
The page, now with more than 25,000 “likes” and growing, asks people to post self-portraits and other photos with a sign that says: “I am Kenji.”