The amount does not include wages for officials and staff involved or expenses that the government has asked the freed captives to pay after they returned home.

The ministry said ¥13.7 million was spent on travel expenses for officials, including airfare, accommodation and travel allowances.

Operation costs for the chartered plane for three of the five totaled ¥530,000 while a separate chartered plane for Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa and other officials who traveled to Jordan to set up a crisis task force cost roughly ¥2.03 million, it said.

Operational costs for the task forces in the Japanese Embassy in Jordan and the consulate in Dubai came to ¥1.74 million.

The production of a video message in which Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi urged the release of the captives cost about ¥160,000, it said.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 3, 2004
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