3 Freed Japanese Hostages Will Foot Bill for Expenses

Three Japanese who were held hostage for a week in Iraq were billed about $7,000 each to cover their plane tickets home and other expenses, an official said Monday.

The three returned April 15 amid a storm of criticism that they had behaved recklessly by going to a country that Japan had warned civilians to avoid.

The government said aid workers Noriaki Imai, 18, and Nahoko Takato, 34, and freelance photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama, 32, were being billed in the same manner as other Japanese civilians who have been transported home after getting into trouble overseas.

A travel agency has sent the former hostages and their families invoices, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The ministry believes that the three should pay the agency directly, she added.

They were kidnapped by militants who threatened to burn them alive if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from Iraq within three days. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused to comply, and the gunmen released the three unharmed a week later after an appeal by Islamic clerics.

They received a chilly welcome in Japan, however, amid accusations that they imperiled Tokyo’s humanitarian mission in Iraq.

The three, who have not spoken to the media since their return, did not respond publicly to the news about their bill.