Canadian hostages in Iraq have been front and center in the news, and relief has been felt nation wide when we hear they are safe.

Not so in Japan.
Three Japanese civilians who were taken hostage while aiding children and Iraqi’s, and shown on world-wide television with knives at their throats arrived back in their country to extreme collective displeasure.

A few days after their release, they landed in Tokyo, in the eye of a peculiarly Japanese storm.

“You got what you deserve!” read one hand-written sign at the airport where they landed. “You are Japan’s shame,” another wrote on a website. They had “caused trouble” for everybody.

The Government, not to be outdone, announced it would give the hostages a $US6000 ($8200) bill for air fares.

As is common for hostages they were interviewed by a psychiatrist when they arrived back in Japan.

Asked to name their three most stressful moments, the hostages named the moment when they were kidnapped on their way to Baghdad, the knife-wielding incident, and the moment they watched a television show the morning after their return to Japan and realised the extent of anger at them.

“Let’s say the knife incident, which lasted about 10 minutes, ranks 10 on a stress level,” Dr Saito said at his clinic. “After they came back to Japan and saw the morning news show, their stress level ranked 12.”

The criticism began almost immediately after the three were kidnapped. The Environment Minister, Yuriko Koike, blamed them for being “reckless”.

The three have gone into hiding, trying to deal with the disapproval and anger of the Japanese public for defying government orders and the Japanese concept of okami.