The Foreign Ministry has asked two people held captive last month in Iraq to pay $500 in travel and related expenses the government disbursed after their release, the former captives said Sunday.
The demand on freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda, 30, and Tokyo-based human rights activist Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, was made following a bill being given to three other Japanese held hostage in Iraq in April.
The amount includes fees of $165 each for air tickets from Baghdad to Amman and the cost of changing the boarding date of their air tickets from Amman to Narita, they said.
"They did not make any explanations on the means of travel to Japan or costs I would have to shoulder, and I have not agreed to pay," Watanabe said. "I will decide what to do after asking the Foreign Ministry about the issue."
Yasuda said, "I will pay what I have to pay after verifying the contents of the bill."
The two men were taken captive April 14 in a Baghdad suburb and released April 17.
The Foreign Ministry earlier demanded that three other former hostages pay a portion of airfare expenses incurred after their release.
The government put the expenses on their bill following criticism by senior government officials and some in the media over the people having gone to Iraq despite repeated government warnings to Japanese nationals not to enter the country.