Critics say that the killings of the two captives demonstrate that Japan‘s diplomacy lacks maturity and that there are many loopholes in Abe‘s proactive pacifism, which will deal a heavy blow to the prime minister‘s approval rating.

Those who take a pessimistic attitude claim the incident shows that Abe‘s diplomacy cannot adapt to the current trend of non-traditional security cooperation without powerful security as backup. Abe will lose credibility if he fails to properly handle this incident.