In a video uploaded to YouTube, the man said his name was Haruna Yukawa and that he was both a journalist and a doctor.

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group claimed responsibility in a post on the Internet for capturing a Japanese man in Syria, Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Japanese foreign ministry said on Monday Japan was investigating whether one of its citizens had been captured in northern Syria by ISIS fighters, Reuters news agency reported.

Ministry officials could not be reached for comment immediately.

A video uploaded to YouTube this week showed a man wearing a T-shirt lying on the ground while being questioned by unidentified militants. The man responded by saying his name was Haruna Yukawa and that he was both a journalist and a doctor.

The name is the same as that of a chief executive of a self-described private security and mercenary firm.

More than 170,000 people have been killed in Syria’s civil war, which pits overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite minority backed by Shiite militias from Iraq and Lebanon.

 
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