Shosei Koda

The Tokyo-based TV network said Dec. 28 that the concert drew around 5,000 people, mainly in their teens and 20s, and it was not announced beforehand that the video scenes of 24-year-old Shosei Koda being slain in October would be shown.

TBS, as well as the concert's promoter, lodged a protest with the company that manages the band, whose name TBS did not disclose.

Showing such a video "cannot be condoned on humanitarian grounds, and we offer our most sincere apologies to the family of Mr. Koda, other people concerned, as well as those attending (the concert)," TBS said in a statement.

Koda was taken hostage in Iraq after traveling to Baghdad as a tourist.

In November, the video of Koda's beheading was put on an Internet bulletin board, prompting the Justice Ministry to file a request with its operator to remove it due to the distress it was causing the victim's family.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 8, 2005
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