Passengers aboard a virus-stricken cruise ship are finally on dry land.
Health authorities in China say 136 more people infected with the new coronavirus died on Tuesday mainly in Hubei Province.
A US-based human rights group says it has obtained a document believed to be a record of ethnic Uighurs sent to Chinese internment camps.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20200219200000_english_1.mp3
Key words : passengers on board 443 people
#N/A
Key words : Suga decision disembark
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_34/
Passengers aboard a cruise ship at Yokohama Port, south of Tokyo, have finally started to go home after spending two weeks in quarantine. About 500 people are expected to be taken off the vessel on Wednesday.
Officials say all passengers who test negative for the virus and meet a few other conditions should disembark by Friday.
NHK spoke with a few passengers who say they're happy the ordeal is over.
A 71-year-old male passenger said, "It feels like I've been away from Japan for a long time. I just want to go home and eat Japanese food."
An 82-year-old man said, " I was scared every time I heard them announcing more infections. Talking to friends on the phone kept my spirits up."
When the ship arrived earlier this month, it was carrying about 3,700 people. Since then, over 500 infections have been confirmed on board.
The Health Minister says the quarantine was a necessary response to the cruise ship's landing request.
But some foreign experts have criticized the decision to keep everyone on board. One Japanese expert who assessed the ship told NHK that measures to prevent infections fell short. He said crew members weren't doing enough to protect themselves.
Japan's top spokesperson is defending how the government handled the situation.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, "The government has done its utmost to ensure the health of the passengers and crewmembers by minimizing the risk of infection on the ship. We have carried out tests prioritizing those with symptoms and the elderly and have transferred them to medical facilities when necessary."
Suga added that allowing passengers to disembark was based on an experts' opinion that people should be allowed if they were quarantined, showed no symptoms, and tested negative for the virus.
More and more governments say they will evacuate their citizens after they leave the ship. The US was the first to do so on Monday, followed by South Korea.
But Health Ministry officials say residents of Japan who leave the ship are free to return home. They will be contacted by phone for several days to check on their health.
Key words : 701 cases
#N/A
Key words : telephone
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_29/
Authorities in some prefectures where people are confirmed to be infected with the new coronavirus are providing multilingual information services for foreigners visiting or living in Japan.
Okinawa Prefecture has set up a round-the-clock hotline serviced by medical professionals who provide information on medical institutions that can handle foreign languages. The service is available in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Thai. The phone number is 0570-050-235.
Osaka Prefecture is offering telephone services in 10 languages including English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Thai, Indonesian and Nepalese. The Osaka Foundation of International Exchange is providing a hotline on weekdays and on the second and fourth Sundays. The phone number is 06-6941-2297.
The Osaka International House Foundation is also offering telephone services in English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Tagalog. The phone number is 06-6773-6533.
And the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau has a hotline exclusively in Chinese. The phone numbers are 080-1460-7627 and 080-1463-3489.
Kyoto Prefecture is offering the telephone support services in English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Portuguese and Spanish. The service is provided by the Kyoto Prefectural International Center every day, except for the second and fourth Tuesdays and holidays. The phone number is 075-343-9666.
Wakayama Prefecture is providing information in English, Chinese and Tagalog through the Wakayama International Exchange Center. Tagalog is available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. English and Chinese are available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Wednesday. The phone number is 073-435-5240.
Aichi Prefecture is offering support through its Multilingual Call Center. The call center can be accessed using a smartphone, by first visiting the prefecture's official tourism site Aichi Now, where there is a link to the call center page. A call can be made by pressing the button on the page.
The service is available in 9 languages: English, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Portuguese, Spanish and French, for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Mie Prefecture is offering telephone information in 10 languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Nepalese, Indonesian and Thai.
The service is provided by the Mie Consultation Center for Foreign Residents on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The phone number is 080-3300-8077.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is offering a hotline for speakers of English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Thai and can refer people to relevant public health centers as necessary. The service is provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Health and Medical Information Center "Himawari" from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day including weekends and holidays. The phone number is 03-5285-8181.
In Saitama Prefecture, the Saitama Information & Support is offering telephone support services in 10 languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian and Nepalese.
The service is available on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The phone number is 048-833-3296.
Hokkaido Prefecture is also providing an information hotline in English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Thai, Russian, Nepalese, Indonesian and Burmese. The service is provided by the Hokkaido Foreign Resident Support Center. The phone number is 011-200-9595.
Key words : NTT telework
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_40/
The spread of the new coronavirus has prompted some Japanese companies to alter their work schedules, or even tell staff to stay home.
Telecom giant NTT has told its group employees to telework or revise their office hours. The move affects about 200,000 staff.
More than 40 percent of employees at one group firm worked from home on Wednesday.
Some employees at NTT Communications Tokyo headquarters held a sales meeting through video conference with staff at home.
In a further effort to prevent infections, the company's cafeteria has stopped offering buffet-style meals.
Elsewhere, online flea-market operator Mercari has ordered all employees at its Tokyo headquarters to telework.
Staff are holding online meetings with colleagues and customers. The change applies to job interviews, too.
Mercari says the new rules will be in place from Wednesday until at least February 28.
Meanwhile at Sony and Fujitsu, employees are also encouraged to work remotely. Staff who must attend the office are being told to avoid commuting during rush hours.
Key words : health authorities in 136
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_12/
Health authorities in China say 136 more people infected with the new coronavirus died on Tuesday mainly in Hubei Province, bringing the number of fatalities in the country to 2,004.
The authorities also say 1,749 new infections were reported. The total number of infections in China, confirmed either through lab tests or clinical diagnoses, is now over 74,000.
Separately, a newspaper affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party has criticized local authorities' initial responses to the outbreak.
The Global Times on Tuesday reported the results of research by a team at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The team found that more than 5,000 people had started showing symptoms during the 10-day period until January 20.
But officials in Hubei Province only launched full-scale responses after President Xi Jinping issued an instruction on the outbreak on January 20.
The Global Times says authorities were slow to act despite a sense of crisis among medical workers at the surge in the number of patients.
Key words : Chinese police
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_16/
Chinese police have detained a prominent human rights activist who criticized the government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and called on President Xi Jinping to step down.
Sources and Hong Kong media outlets say Xu Zhiyong was detained on Saturday at the home of a lawyer in Guangzhou. The monitoring of people entering and exiting residential areas had been stepped up, due to the spread of the coronavirus.
Media outlets say Xu had been on the run since he attended a meeting in Fujian province in December. A discussion about civil society had been held at the meeting. Some of the activists and human rights lawyers who had attended were detained by police for subversion.
Xu recently posted a message on the internet about the outbreak of the virus. He said that the government's decision to shut down the truth and delay the disclosure of information had caused the virus to spread and brought disaster to the country.
Xu has called for the participation of citizens in politics and for social reforms. The activist co-founded the New Citizens' Movement. He served four years in prison for disturbing public order. He was released in 2017.
Key words : human rights obtained
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_14/
A US-based human rights group says it has obtained a document believed to be a record of ethnic Uighurs sent to Chinese internment camps.
The Uyghur Human Rights Project revealed the details at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday.
The group says the leaked document compiled by Chinese authorities is more than 130 pages long and contains a list of names and addresses of 311 detainees as well as the reasons for their detention.
One expert said the document is highly credible as some of the people on the list have been identified.
The group's executive director Omer Kanat urged relevant governments and the United Nations to take action to end what he called "the nightmare."
The international community is increasingly critical of Chinese authorities for unjustly detaining many Uighur minorities. But Beijing calls it interference in its internal affairs.
Key words : China allegation
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_37/
China has reacted to allegations that Xinjiang officials compiled data that details the reasons for detaining more than 300 ethnic Uighurs.
The US-based group Uyghur Human Rights Project announced in Washington on Tuesday that it received leaked data. The group says the data includes, among other information, the names and addresses of 311 detainees and the reasons for their detention.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang told reporters online on Wednesday that the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has no religious or human rights issues, but that it has issues relating to terrorism and secession.
He described the handling of the situation by Chinese authorities as legitimate security measures.
He also said China would not tolerate any effort to use Xinjiang issues as a pretext to interfere in the country's internal affairs.
He said attempts by organizations or media outlets to smear China's anti-terrorism campaign would fail.
Key words : global economic slowdown highest
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_20/
The global economic slowdown has pushed Japan's trade deficit to its highest level in a year.
Finance Ministry officials say the deficit came in at about 1.3 trillion yen, or about 12 billion dollars, in January. This marks the third straight month with the figure in the red.
The officials say the latest result was not affected by the coronavirus outbreak, as the crisis didn't start disrupting China's supply chain until later in the month.
Japan's exports were down 2.6 percent from a year earlier, marking the 14th straight month of decline. Imports were off 3.6 percent, falling for the ninth month in a row.
Shipments to the US were down 7.7 percent, on weaker demand for automobiles and construction machinery.
Meantime, imports from China fell 5.7 percent from the same period last year. Japanese companies received fewer shipments from the country of telecommunication equipment.
Key words : raditional doll
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200219_33/
More than 1,800 traditional dolls are on display in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, ahead of the annual festival known as Hinamatsuri on March 3.
Local authorities hold the yearly event in Konosu City to highlight the city's doll industry.
The dolls, collected from across the country, are arranged on a 7-meter-high platform in a square near Konosu Station.
Visitors said they enjoyed the festive mood, with some snapping pictures of the dolls. A woman who was there with her 2-year-old daughter said she was thrilled to see the towering display.
The event runs through March 8.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿