Media reports said late last year that terror group al Qaeda had warned Japan it would attack the heart of Tokyo as soon as Japanese troops arrived in Iraq.
TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Two Japanese diplomats were shot dead in their armored vehicle in Iraq last weekend and not at a roadside stand as reported, officials in Tokyo say.
Mr Kondo's experience will resonate in other corners of Kasumigaseki, Japan's Whitehall in central Tokyo that is the seat of the Japanese bureaucracy and whose name literally describes how many Japanese think of it a Fortress of Fog.
Chinese officials have issued threatening pronouncements to Japan that Tokyo must back down from the recent government purchase of three of the islands from private Japanese owners.
On Sunday, Mr Kerry is meeting his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, where he is expected to reassure Japan of America's continued support during the crisis.
Last fall relations between Beijing and Tokyo reached their worst point in years after Japan detained the Chinese captain of a fishing boat that had collided with Japanese Coast Guard vessels in a disputed stretch of the East China Sea.