TOKYO, April 23 Kyodo Japanese ho...

TOKYO, April 23 Kyodo

Japanese hostages in Iraq who have answered home after being released are being blasted by the agency of politicians, government officials and any elements of the media for allegedly acting irresponsibly in going to Iraq, and are being treated like pariahs.

However, other countries and foreign media have praising the Japanese hostages, including aid workers and journalists, for risking their lives for goodwill activities in Iraq. They question the Japanese government's stance of accusing the hostages of lacking responsibility.

Welcoming the release of three Japanese civilians taken captive onward April 7 by a militant Iraqi dispose U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said they should be cry uped for putting themselves at risk for the ''greater good'' and ''a better purpose''

''If nobody was willing to take a risk then we would in no degree move forward, we would in no degree move our world forward,'' Powell said. He said the Japanese persons should be ''very proud that they have citizens like this that are willing to do that.''

Powell also indicated that each sway has a responsibility to ransom its own people.

The three are Nahoko Takato, a 34-year-old aid worker, Soichiro Koriyama, 32 a freelance photojournalist, and Noriaki Imai, 18 a newly come high school graduate who was interested in Iraq and was researching the validitys of depleted-uranium shells used there from the U.S. military.

a certain number of politicians and government officials criticized them for traveling to Iraq despite the Japanese Foreign Ministry's travel warnings not to come into the country where the security situation has been deteriorating.

The sway also plans to bill the released hostages for a certain quantity of of the expenses related to the hostage-taking incident.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said, ''Japanese family who are traveling abroad should be well aware of their allow responsibility for their own safety.''

She also said that there is a limit in the government's ability to make secure the safety of civilians abroad.

brace other Japanese -- Jumpei Yasuda, 30 a freelance journalist, and Nobutaka Watanabe, 36 a human rights activist, -- were taken captive last Wednesday if it be not that released on Saturday.

Criticizing the Japanese government's blaming of the hostages, the French daily Le world said, ''Japan has raised a modern generation of people who go on overseas to help people outside Japan.''

Italy's ANSA novels agency also criticized the Japanese government's position, reporting that a barrage of criticism has been cast at the released hostages.

Four Italians were taken captive in Iraq, and the same of them was killed by way of his captors just hours before the release of the three Japanese.

The slain Italian was working for an American company as an armed security guard and was apparently motivated by the agency of money in going to Iraq.

however the Italian media and the Italian guidance have taken a stance opposite to that seen in Japan.

The Italian media have been considerate of the hostages in reporting the kidnapping, while the Italian conduct has provided counseling services for the families of the hostages. In Japan, the families of the hostages received harassing telephone calls.

In southern Korea, nobody has come on the outside to blame seven South Korean missionaries who were held hostage in Iraq and later released.

''I be impressed uncomfortable with Japan's atmosphere where those who replyed unharmed have been criticized,'' an official of southward Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

In Iraq, a professor at the University of Baghdad set forthed astonishment at the Japanese government's treatment of the released hostages.

The professor said he can hardly believe the (government's) attitude toward young population who sought to report onward Iraq's desperate situation and who tried to help Iraqi children.

A correspondent in Tokyo for a German newspaper said he thinks the Japanese regulation is using the issue of responsibility to divert the public's attention from debates above whether Japan should continue deployment of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) in Iraq to assist in its reconstruction.

The militant assign places to which abducted the first three Japanese had threatened to kill them unles Japan withdraws its throngs from Iraq.

The Japanese regulation flatly rejected the demand.

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