The Japanese embassy hostage crisis began on 17 December 1996 , when fourteen MRTA militants seized the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima during a party , taking hostage some four hundred diplomats , government officials , and other dignitaries . The action was partly in protest of prison conditions in Peru . During the four-month standoff , the '' Emerretistas '' gradually freed all but 72 of their hostages . The government rejected the militants ' demand to release imprisoned MRTA members and secretly prepared an elaborate plan to storm the residence , while stalling by negotiating with the hostage-takers
Japanese embassy hostage crisis
Japanese embassy hostage crisis
Alberto Fujimori