A Japanese journalist held hostage by the Islamic State extremist group has appeared in a new video saying he will be killed within 24 hours unless Jordan frees a jailed female militant.

In the audio recording, Kenji Goto's voice is heard appealing for the governments of Japan and Jordan to secure his release.

His captors are demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, who is on death row for her role in a bombing in Jordan a decade ago.

In exchange, the veteran correspondent and a Jordanian pilot being held by IS could be set free, but Goto said both faced death if the demand was not met.

Prime minister Shinzo Abe told Japan's parliament would do its utmost to save Goto but would not "give in to terrorism".

"The situation is extremely severe but we'll do the utmost to have Kenji Goto released as soon as possible," he said.

Japan's state minister for foreign affairs, Yasuhide Nakayama, vowed to work with Jordan to secure the release of the pair.

"Both our nations have to work together to ensure that both the pilot and the Japanese hostage return to their respective homes with smiles on their faces," said Mr Nakayama, who was sent to Jordan last week to deal with the crisis.

Mother pleads for help to free son

Moments after the new video appeared, Goto's mother Junko Ishido said: "I think the government should do whatever it can do."

"Kenji does not hold any animosity toward the Islamic State. He went to the Islamic State out of his extreme concern for Mr Yukawa," she told Japanese media.

She was referring to Haruna Yukawa, a fellow hostage who was beheaded by IS because Japan failed to pay a $US200 million ransom by the end of a 72-hour deadline.

Jordan's King Abdullah was quoted as telling a Jordanian newspaper that the case of the pilot, First Lieutenant Muath al Kasaesbeh, "tops the country's priority".

Jordanian activists hold up pictures of pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh, who was captured after his plane came down in Syria ( Reuters )

The militants captured the pilot after his plane crashed during US-led coalition bombing in eastern Syria in December.

Two members of Jordan's parliament told Kyodo news agency on Monday that Jordan might be willing to release Rishawi in exchange for Goto and Kasaesbeh.

Rishawi was sentenced to death by a Jordanian court in September 2006 in connection with triple hotel bomb attacks in Amman the previous year that killed 60 people.

The 44-year-old was arrested four days after the attacks in which her husband Ali Hussein al-Shammari and two other Iraqis blew themselves up.

The heaviest casualties came when Shammari detonated his explosives belt at the Radisson SAS hotel as a wedding was in full swing.

Two other hotels were hit in the coordinated attacks and most of the dead were Jordanians.

ABC/wires