at 18:30 (JST), January 09

Asian View
"Asian View" is a five-minute news segment broadcast by NHK WORLD-JAPAN. It features the latest news and deep analysis from Japan and the rest of Asia. Listen to "Asian View" and get the latest information from a region that's playing an increasingly important role in the world.





https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20240109183000_english_1.mp3


Key words : drone deliver cut off
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240109_06/

Medicines have arrived on a drone to an area where roads have been cut off by the major earthquake that hit central Japan's Noto Peninsula on New Year's Day.

An association of drone-related companies has been helping rescue work and deliveries of relief supplies using drones at the request of Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture.

In the city's Konosu district, more than 700 people have been left isolated due to severed roads.

On Monday, one of the Japan UAS Industrial Development Association's drones flew medicines from the city center to the district for three people with chronic diseases.

It made a 3 kilometer flight in around 10 minutes and landed on the grounds of an elementary school being used as an evacuation center, where the three residents are staying.

JUIDA says it plans to continue delivering necessities to disaster-affected areas using drones.

Key words : 28,000 people Monday
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240108_20/

Rescue and recovery efforts continue in central Japan, where a major earthquake hit one week ago.

At least 168 people have died, and more than 300 others remain unaccounted for in Ishikawa Prefecture.

Officials are still trying to grasp the full extent of the damage from the tremor and tsunami.

Severe cold and snow have come to the hardest-hit areas.

Officials are advising people affected by the disaster to take precautions against hypothermia.

As of 2 p.m. on Monday, snow accumulation in cities in the Noto Peninsula area had reached about 10 centimeters.

Officials are warning that damaged buildings could collapse under the weight of the snow.

Many of the people staying at temporary shelters are senior citizens. About 70 percent of the roughly 70 people at this evacuation center are elderly.

One evacuee said, "I haven't taken a bath for a week. I can't take a bath alone, I need someone to help me."
Another said, I have applied to move into municipal housing. If my application is not approved, I need to ask officials to find me somewhere to live."

As of Sunday, more than 28,000 people were living in shelters in Ishikawa Prefecture and 158 in Toyama Prefecture. At some evacuation centers, people have begun showing symptoms such as fever.

A gymnasium in Kanazawa City, the prefectural capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, began accepting elderly people, pregnant women and others who need special care on Monday. The facility is equipped with lifelines such as water and electricity, and can accommodate around 500 people. Officials plan to transfer evacuees to hotels and other facilities from there.

Ishikawa Governor Hase Hiroshi said, "We must prevent disaster-related deaths by all means. We want to improve the environment at evacuation centers as much as possible."

Local people and businesses are offering help.
A bathing facility in Shika Town is inviting local residents who have been unable to take a bath at home due to damage from the quake.

On Monday, staff finished distributing all 660 free tickets to enter the facility in less than 2 hours.
Visitors soaked in warm water and relaxed.

An evacuee said, "I have never felt so grateful. This is the best bath I've ever had."

Efforts are underway to rebuild damaged roads in order to search for survivors and deliver relief supplies.

The meteorological agency is calling on people in the disaster-hit areas to keep up their guard for earthquakes.

Tsukada Shinya, an official of Japan Meteorological Agency, said, "The possibility of another magnitude 7.6 earthquake has declined relative to right after the Jan. 1 disaster. But seismic activity continues."

The agency is warning of possible quakes with an intensity of upper five or more on the Japanese seismic scale of zero to 7 in the coming month.
The quake on the New Year's Day registered 7.

Key words : unmanned isolated
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240109_28/

Officials in Ishikawa Prefecture say the number of people killed in the New Year's Day earthquake has risen to 202. They also say more than 100 people are still unaccounted for, and tens of thousands impacted by the disaster are still struggling.

Police have started an intensive search for the missing people in the city of Wajima, near the quake's epicenter. A massive fire in the center of the city destroyed more than 200 buildings in an area of 48,000 square meters. Ishikawa Prefecture says more than 3,000 people in the Noto region remain isolated.

Yamashita Kanako, an evacuee and a volunteer at a shelter in Wajima City, says people there don't have enough drinking water. She says they are boiling spring water to drink and bringing buckets of water from a river so they can flush their toilets.

Damaged roads have forced relief organizers to get creative. An association of drone companies has put its unmanned vehicles to work, delivering medicine to people cut-off in the Wajima City district of Konosu. It plans to continue using drones to help those in need.

As the recovery continues, findings suggest the disaster could have a lasting impact on the region's fishing industry. Officials say more than 120 fishing boats were capsized or sunk and over 70 percent of ports were damaged in Ishikawa.

It's now been over a week since the New Year's Day's magnitude 7.6 earthquake. But Japan's Meteorological Agency says people should not let their guard down just yet. The agency is warning of possible quakes with upper five or more intensity on Japan's zero-to-seven seismic scale over the coming month.

Key words : fundraising effort
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240108_17/

Fundraising efforts are underway to help affected people and volunteers providing relief after the massive earthquake on New Year's Day in central Japan.

Hardest-hit Ishikawa Prefecture began a fundraising campaign on Thursday. Cash is being accepted at the prefectural government headquarters in Kanazawa City and its offices in Tokyo and Osaka.

Bank accounts for donations have also been opened.

Officials say more than 40 million yen, or 270,000 dollars, was raised on the first day.

The Japanese Red Cross Society website has details on how to donate.

The Central Community Chest of Japan is raising funds for volunteers working in affected areas through bank remittances and credit card payments.

Internet services provider LY Corporation says it raised more than 10 million dollars through a special website by noon on Monday.

Nonprofit organizations have launched crowdfunding projects.

Operators of websites through which people can donate to local governments in return for tax deductions have opened special sections to help quake-hit communities.

In past disasters, scam attempts by fraudsters posing as welfare groups or public institutions were reported.

Police and the Consumer Affairs Agency are urging people to check fundraisers' activities and how they plan to use the money before donating.

Key words : south agency hamas
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240109_07/

South Korea's intelligence agency says it believes the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas is using a type of rocket-propelled grenade launcher made by North Korea.

The National Intelligence Service provided the assessment on Monday, along with a photo of the launcher allegedly used by Hamas. It says a component of the weapon has Korean characters, although they are not visible in the photo.

The agency says it is collecting detailed evidence of North Korea's suspected supplies of weapons to Hamas, including the volume and timing of transactions.

South Korea's military suggested last October that there were arms trade links between Hamas and North Korea.

It said rocket launchers owned by Hamas and spent artillery shells the group is believed to have used were likely made in North Korea.

Key words : china spying british
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240108_21/

China's Ministry of State Security says it has found that a senior official of an overseas consulting firm was spying in the country in cooperation with Britain's intelligence service MI6.

The ministry said on Monday that the foreign consultant was trained by MI6, collected secrets and other intelligence in China and sent them to the British side.

The ministry did not mention the consultant's gender or nationality, the name of the consulting agency, or what secrets were stolen.

Last week, the ministry posted a video purportedly showing espionage activities by a person posing as an employee of a foreign consulting firm. The video also alerted viewers to the possibility of foreign spies approaching them in daily life. It urged the public to report suspected spy activities to authorities.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been placing a high priority on national security.

Last May, media reported that Chinese security authorities investigated a consulting firm based in both the United States and China.

Key words : xi pledged
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240109_02/

Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to make further efforts in the fight against corruption, saying the crackdown is still insufficient.

He made the remarks during his speech at a three-day plenary session of the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection that opened on Monday. The commission is in charge of cracking down on corruption among party officials.

Xi noted that "the situation remains grave and complex." He urged commission members to never look back on the past achievements and let their guard down.

He also said Beijing should firmly clamp down on acts that rely on power to gain profit and prevent various interest groups from infiltrating the political arena.

He stressed his continued efforts to expand the fight against corruption in various fields, including finance, energy and healthcare.

Beijing's anti-corruption drive is said to have helped Xi consolidate his power base. The state-run Xinhua news agency reported that authorities had handled more than 1.28 million cases of corruption as of October last year.

Observers are watching to see whether the commission will bring up matters concerning former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and former Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who were ousted from their posts. Some foreign media outlets reported on a corruption scandal involving Li.

Key words : learned air traffic
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240109_04/

Sources have told NHK the air traffic control instruction of "number 1" that indicates the order in which planes should take off at Japanese airports will not be used for the time being.

The move comes after the misinterpretation of the phrase could have led to last week's deadly collision between a Japan Airlines passenger plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on a runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The Coast Guard aircraft is believed to have mistakenly entered the runway after its pilot possibly misinterpreted "number 1" as clearance for takeoff. Traffic controllers and the JAL pilot were reportedly unaware of the aircraft's location.

NHK has learned of emergency safety measures compiled by the transport ministry following the accident.

The measures include having air traffic controllers give takeoff permission to pilots without telling them their number in the lineup. This will apply to Haneda and other airports nationwide.

The numbers representing takeoff order are widely used at airports across Japan. They are used as practical information to facilitate smooth flight operations, rather than instructions by air controllers.

Other safety measures will require air carriers to closely monitor the runways from the cockpit during takeoff and landing.

Authorities will also make pilots more aware of air traffic control terms for entering the runway.

The stop line before entering the runway will be painted with more visible colors at airports, including Haneda, Narita, Osaka and Kansai.

The transport ministry has recently established a new air control post in charge of constantly monitoring a screen to confirm the locations of airplanes at Haneda Airport.

Key words : south buffer zone
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20240109_01/

The South Korean military says the buffer zones created under a 2018 military agreement with North Korea "no longer exist."

Under the pact, Seoul and Pyongyang agreed to avoid firing artillery shells near the de-facto border between the two Koreas to prevent accidental clashes.

But South Korea's military said North Korean forces fired artillery into the Yellow Sea, west of the Korean Peninsula, starting Friday and continuing on the next two days. The shells were fired near islands belonging to South Korea.

At a news conference on Monday, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff accused the North of repeatedly violating the agreement. South Korea's military said it will resume shelling and other drills in the buffer zones.

Last November, South Korea partially suspended the agreement after the North launched a military satellite. This prompted the North Korean defense ministry to announce that its military is no longer bound by the deal.