Japan's government is studying additional measures to prop up the tourist industry and smaller businesses hit hard by the new strain of coronavirus.
Officials in Osaka say a woman in her 40s, who had been treated for symptoms of the coronavirus and left hospital early this month, has again tested positive.
The UN nuclear watchdog has expressed qualified aproval for Japan's plan to release radioactive wastewater from the damaged nuclear plant into the sea or air.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20200227200000_english_1.mp3
Key words : Japan studying
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_33/
The Japanese government is studying additional measures to prop up the tourist industry and smaller businesses hit hard by the coronavirus scare.
Officials have already come up with a 140-million dollar package to fight the outbreak.
They are now planning to use reserve funds from this year's national budget to take additional measures. The priority will be to help medium-sized and small businesses raise funds.
The officials want to expand the current credit guarantee system. It covers about 150 types of businesses, including cement manufacturers and liquor retailers. Discussions are now underway to add hotel and tour bus operators to the list.
The system makes it easier for smaller businesses to get loans from financial institutions. It's aimed at firms whose sales drop by more than 5 percent from a year earlier due to unusual circumstances.
Key words : Abe plans to ask schools
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Key words : Hokkaido 80s died
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_49/
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he will ask all elementary and high schools across the country to temporarily close beginning Monday.
The development comes after a man in his 80s who was infected with the new coronavirus died in the northern prefecture of Hokkaido. Fifteen new cases of infection were reported there on Thursday.
Hokkaido's governor said the man who died had pre-existing conditions.
Naomichi Suzuki said, " The patient was more susceptible to respiratory problems compared to healthy people."
Officials say 2 of the 15 new cases are children under 10 years of age.
The latest cases bring the number of confirmed infections in Hokkaido to 54, the most in Japan.
All elementary and junior high schools in the prefecture will be closed for about a week.
Infected people there include students, a teacher, and a school-bus driver.
Meanwhile health officials in the western prefecture of Osaka revealed a woman in her 40s has tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time.
The patient is a tour guide. She led a bus with visitors from Wuhan, China ... the city at the center of the outbreak ... last month. She was later diagnosed and hospitalized.
The woman was discharged after testing negative in early February. But she felt pains in her throat and chest and came back positive on Wednesday.
The latest developments came as crew members aboard the quarantined ship docked near Tokyo began disembarking Thursday.
Those without symptoms will be quarantined and undergo medical checkups for 14 days.
It will take about 3 days for the approximately 240 crew members of the Diamond Princess to disembark.
Across Japan, more than 900 cases of infection have been confirmed. More than 700 of those are from the cruise ship. Eight people have died.
The outbreak has prompted the Japanese government to call for major events to be canceled, delayed or scaled back over the next two weeks.
Key words : learned positive
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_23/
NHK has learned that the number of people in Japan who tested positive for the new coronavirus had risen to 894 as of Thursday morning.
Of the total, 175 are people who were infected in Japan or tourists from China, 705 are passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship and 14 had returned from China on chartered flights.
Seven people -- four from the cruise ship and three who got the virus in Japan -- have died.
The number of cases stand at 39 in Hokkaido, 35 in Tokyo, 25 in Aichi Prefecture and 18 in Kanagawa Prefecture. Health ministry officials and quarantine officers have also been infected.
The health ministry says 51 of those who tested positive are in serious condition. They include 36 people from the cruise ship.
The ministry also says 32 people had been discharged from medical institutions as of Tuesday.
Key words : Osaka in her 40s treated for
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_12/
Officials of Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, say a woman in her 40s, who had been treated for symptoms of the new coronavirus and left hospital early this month, has again tested positive.
The woman is a tour guide living in the city of Osaka.
She was on a bus carrying tourists from Wuhan, China, in mid-January, and tested positive on January 29.
The woman was discharged from a local medical institution on February 1, and was confirmed as virus-free on February 6.
But on February 19, she felt throat and chest pain. After several visits to the doctor, she was tested a week later and tested positive again.
The woman reportedly wore a mask and stayed at home after leaving the medical institution.
She did not go to work, and had no close contact with anyone. She is now hospitalized in the prefecture.
Prefectural officials believe that either viruses that remained in the woman multiplied, or the woman was re-infected.
An expert on infectious diseases at Osaka University says people who are infected develop antibodies, so they can usually avoid re-infection by the same virus.
However, if there had not been enough antibodies, that individual could have been prone to re-infection or viruses that had been undetected in the body could have multiplied.
Key words : crew member tested negative
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_36/
Japan's health ministry says crew members who tested negative for the new coronavirus have begun disembarking from the Diamond Princess cruise ship docked at Yokohama Port, near Tokyo.
The crew members were transferred to a government-designated facility in Saitama Prefecture on Thursday. Officials say it will take several days before all 240 crew members leave the ship.
The crew members will be tested again when the 14-day quarantine period ends. If the results are negative, they will be allowed to leave Japan for their home countries.
Key words : hundreds of Hokkaido
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_25/
Rising concerns over the spread of the coronavirus are forcing hundreds of schools in Japan's northern prefecture of Hokkaido to close for about a week.
The closure applies to more than 1,600 public elementary, junior high and special needs schools. The majority cancelled classes from Thursday.
The move follows a request from the governor. Hokkaido has reported the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases among the country's 47 prefectures. School children are among those infected.
Meanwhile, Sapporo, the prefectural capital, decided to close the roughly 300 schools in the city from Friday.
Officials said this is to allow parents to prepare for the school closure.
Some working parents said that while it's hard to make arrangements for childcare it's better than seeing the virus spread in schools.
Others said they were considering taking time off work for their children.
Key words : Akihabara
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_52/
Amid growing concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, some religious facilities in Tokyo are now halting their public services.
A mosque located in the Akihabara district has decided to suspend its Friday prayers until next week.
The mosque's manager said in a phone interview with NHK the decision was prompted by the government's call to cancel gatherings.
Muhammad Anwar of Masjid Nusantara Akihabara Tokyo said, " This mosque has a capacity of up to 100 people. In general, they are not wearing a face mask to pray here. So we're trying to prevent the spread of the virus."
Meanwhile, the Catholic Archdiocese of Tokyo also announced the suspension of public masses until March 14. The move comes as Lent, a holy season of observance for Catholics, begins.
Key words : growing number some restriction
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_17/
A growing number of countries and regions have banned the entry of travelers from Japan or imposed some restrictions as the new coronavirus continues to spread.
Japan's foreign ministry says that as of Wednesday, Micronesia, Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, and Comoros had restricted the entry of travelers from all countries and territories affected by the virus.
Iraq bans the entry of travelers from some affected countries, including Japan.
Israel bans the entry of foreign nationals who have stayed in affected countries and territories including Japan and South Korea in the previous 14 days. Kuwait says it is taking a similar measure.
Some South Pacific nations, including Micronesia and Kiribati, require travelers to have stayed for at least 14 days in a country or territory not affected by the virus immediately before their arrival.
Kazakhstan, Liberia, India's Kerala state, Oman and the British territory of Gibraltar do not have entry bans, but require travelers to remain indoors or to be monitored by medical institutions for a certain period.
Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan now require medical checks for arriving travelers.
Key words : under control
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_42/
The head of the Chinese health authorities' expert team has said he is confident that the new coronavirus outbreak in the country will be basically under control by the end of April.
Zhong Nanshan offered his assessment during a news conference on Thursday in Guangzhou.
He pointed out that the number of new cases in China is declining, thanks to strong public health control measures taken by the central government, such as restrictions on movement of people.
As for the government's initial response, Zhong said that if the authorities had taken more rigorous measures in the early stages of the outbreak, the number of cases in China would have been much smaller.
He noted that several doctors sounded early warnings about a mysterious respiratory disease on social media, but their warnings were not taken seriously.
Looking ahead, Zhong argued that China will face a public health crisis like this one again in the future, unless a government department in charge of disease control and prevention is upgraded and given the powers to report directly to the leadership and to communicate to the public, as is already the case in some other countries.
Zhong also commented about the fast increase in the number of cases in other countries, such as Japan.
He said the coronavirus can spread easily inside enclosed spaces. He said he believes Japan's efforts to contain the outbreak on a cruise ship have failed.
He said it is important that countries where infections are spreading should learn from China's experience, identify those infected as soon as possible, and quarantine them, so that they can contain the spread early.
Key words : wastewater Kajiyama
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_31/
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has expressed some understanding for Japan's plan to release diluted radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the ocean or air.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi held talks with Japan's industry minister Hiroshi Kajiyama in Tokyo on Thursday.
The two reportedly discussed the disposal of wastewater that is being stored at the nuclear plant. Water used to cool the damaged reactors has been treated to remove most of the radioactive materials. But tritium and some other substances remain, and a huge amount of water has accumulated at the plant.
A Japanese government panel said in a report earlier this month that releasing diluted wastewater below environmentally permissible levels into the sea or the air are realistic options. It also said releasing the water into the ocean is a surer method because monitoring the spread of radioactive materials would be easier.
Grossi reportedly said at Thursday's meeting that the proposed methods are technically feasible and in line with international practice.
But people in the local fisheries and tourism industries oppose releasing the water into the ocean. They fear a negative impact on the region's image.
The government says it will make a final decision after hearing the opinions of local residents. But it has not said when it will make the decision.
Key words : Japanese worker
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_34/
Japanese workers and companies can expect to pay more of their income on taxes and social-security during fiscal 2020. A hike in the consumption tax in October is mainly responsible for adding weight to the financial burden.
Finance Ministry officials say that on average, 44.6 percent of workers' and companies' income will go to the government. That's up 0.7 point from the current fiscal year.
The officials say last year's increase in the consumption levy from 8 to 10 percent lifted the burden to a record high. They also point to reforms that will hit high-earners with steeper income-tax rates.
The burden ratio is a gauge for comparing Japan with other countries.
Data from 2017 shows that people and businesses in France paid 68.2 percent to the government. Germany's ratio was 54.1 percent. Japan was at 43.3 percent, and the US at 34.5 percent.
Key words : transportation officials
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200227_24/
Japanese transportation officials say that a defective installation of a cable led to an accident involving a driverless train that went in the wrong direction.
The Japan Transport Safety Board on Thursday released intermediate findings from its investigation into last year's incident on the Yokohama Seaside Line in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Seventeen passengers were injured and the operator later found a broken circuit linked to the directional control system.
The board says a communication cable was installed by workers at the train assembly plant in a way that allowed it to come into contact with nearby metal material. It says that caused abrasion on the cable's insulation.
The board also says inspection of the cable was not conducted at the time of the installation nor during regular checks after the train went into operation by the relevant departments.
The board now plans to look into a possible design flaws.
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