The government did not dispatch additional personnel to the embassy in Jordan until the first video showing two Japanese held at knife-point appeared two weeks ago, even though Tokyo knew the pair had been taken captive much earlier, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday.

Speaking to the Upper House Budget Committee, Kishida said the Foreign Ministry began dispatching additional Arab-world and Arabic-language experts from the ministry and other embassies and consulates from Jan. 20, the date when the video appeared online showing Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa wearing orange jumpsuits and kneeling in the presence of a masked captor.

From that time onward, a crisis center in Amman had about 10 additional Arabic experts at any one time, although the number fluctuated and even reached more than 30, he said.

¡°We put all-out efforts into releasing (the pair) as early as possible, using every possible channel we had established so far,¡± Kishida said. ¡°Sadly, it ended in this way, and I feel the greatest sorrow and profound grief.¡±

He revealed that the government learned Dec. 3 that Goto, a freelance journalist, had been taken hostage. That was the same day his family reported receiving an email from what appeared to be the Islamic State group.

The government had set up a temporary situation room at the Japanese Embassy in Amman in August following Yukawa¡¯s capture, and again in November, when Goto¡¯s family reported him missing.

Meanwhile, Akira Koike, a member of the Japanese Communist Party, asked Prime Minister Shinzo Abe whether he had recognized the risk to the lives of the hostages when he made a speech in Egypt pledging to provide millions of dollars in nonmilitary aid to countries battling the Islamic State group.

Abe replied that it would be wrong to hold back on anything out of fear of terrorism.

¡°We should avoid provoking terrorists needlessly, but at the same time, I believe there is absolutely no need to pay excessive consideration to terrorism,¡± Abe said. ¡°This will be my unchanging stance.¡±

Abe also vowed to extend further humanitarian support to the Middle East.

He underscored his intention not to give in to terrorism.

¡°I cannot forgive this terrorist group which despicably and brutally murdered Japanese nationals,¡± he said. ¡°We must make the terrorists pay for what they have done. We will cooperate with the international community for that purpose.¡±