Three freed Japanese hostages have arrived in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from Baghdad and were taken to hospital.
"I am okay," aid worker Ms Nahoko Takato (34), said in Japanese when asked by reporters how she was feeling.
Crying and looking drained, she bowed in a traditional gesture of gratitude and apology for the outpouring of concern back home over the week-long ordeal that ended yesterday
Japanese officials said the hospital would run stress tests on Ms Takato and the two men, freelance journalist Mr Soichiro Koriyama (32), and Mr Noriaki Imai (18).
The civilians were kidnapped last week by a militant Iraqi group that threatened to kill them unless Japan withdrew its forces from Iraq, which Tokyo has vowed not to do.
Ms Takato has said she would like to continue her aid work in Iraq, and Mr Koriyama has been reported as saying he wanted to stay in the war-torn country to take pictures. The trio had come under criticism by some in Japan for travelling to Iraq despite the dangers.
Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa arrived in the Gulf emirate earlier today to meet the trio. He told reporters Tokyo was still seeking information on two other Japanese citizens missing in Iraq.