A video has been posted online purporting to show the beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto by ISIL militants.
Mr Goto, a journalist and filmmaker went to Syria last October in an attempt to secure the release of his compatriot Haruna Yukawa.
He failed in his attempt and Mr Yukawa was murdered last week.
The film follows the same dreadful pattern of the other gruesome videos with a black clad man with a British accent decapitating the 47-year-old.
The US, Britain and France have expressed their outrage at events.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his country would not “succumb to terrorism” and continue to expand its “food, medical and humanitarian aid programme:”
Japan has vowed to work with the international community to bring the killers to justice.
Meanwhile the fate and the whereabouts of the Jordanian pilot held hostage by ISIL militants remains unknown.