A Japanese Embassy official in Afghanistan confirmed Wednesday that a body found earlier in the day was that of kidnapped Japanese aid worker Kazuya Ito, the Foreign Ministry said.
Police found the body, reportedly riddled with bullets, in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. Ito had been abducted near Jalalabad, the capital of the province, the previous day. The body was identified late Wednesday after being sent to Jalalabad, ministry officials said.
Ito, 31, was working in Afghanistan for the Japan-based nongovernmental organization Peshawar-kai. Earlier, the Taliban, a fundamentalist Muslim movement that once controlled much of the country, had claimed responsibility for Ito's kidnapping.