Venturing a guess here, but that Japaneese man must have been brave going to his death as there has been no mention of his beheading video or the prolonged begging for his life or for Japan to withdrawl any workers/volunteers from Iraq.
Shosei Koda was shown in a video last Tuesday released by the terrorists. In it he spoke in English and Japanese asking for Japan to withraw its troops from Iraq. The Japanese troops are in Iraq in a non-combat role.