Hostage crisis trips up Japan as it seeks global security role

Tokyo, Japan: Tokyo knew for months that Islamic State militants were holding two Japanese men captive, but appeared ill-prepared when the group set a ransom deadline and purportedly killed one of them, according to officials involved in the crisis in the past week.

The biggest foreign policy test of Prime Minister's Shinzo Abe's two years in office may have blindsided an administration that has pushed for Japan to take a stronger line on global security, according to the accounts of officials speaking to Reuters on condition they not be named.