Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers mourned the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March, 2011.
A Lower House committee in Japan's Diet has passed a bill that would allow the prime minister to declare a state of emergency to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
Benchmark indexes on the Tokyo Stock Exchange hit this year's lowest levels on Wednesday.
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/upld/medias/en/radio/news/20200311200000_english_1.mp3
Key words : cabinet minister mourned
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_31/
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Cabinet Ministers mourned the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March, 2011.
Abe and 20 others, including Disaster Management Minister Ryota Takeda and Reconstruction Minister Kazunori Tanaka, attended the event at the prime minister's office on Wednesday.
They offered a silent prayer at 2:46 p.m., the exact time the powerful earthquake occurred on March 11, 2011.
Abe then delivered a speech in which he offered his sincere condolences to those who lost their loved ones. He also expressed sympathy to everyone who was affected by the disaster.
While reconstruction efforts in disaster-hit areas are steadily under way, many survivors are still forced to live an uncomfortable life in temporary housing. Abe said the government will continue to help them. He added that it will keep working to enable former residents of areas affected by the nuclear accident in particular to return to their hometown.
Abe said Japan has repeatedly been hit by disasters that can be regarded as national crises, but it has overcome each of them with courage and hope. He said he hopes to follow in the footsteps of ancestors and move forward together.
The government has held a memorial ceremony annually on March 11 since the disaster. But it canceled the event this year due to the new coronavirus outbreak.
Key words : siren exact time
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_33/
At 2:46 p.m., a siren sounded to mark the exact time the quake struck ... as people across Japan paused to observe a moment of silence for the thousands lives lost nine years after a major earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident struck the country's northeast.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet members did the same in Tokyo.
The disaster left 18,428 people dead or missing ... including the Okubo family's only daughter, Maki.
The 27-year-old was swept away by the tsunami.
Last summer, part of her remains were finally found off the coast of Miyagi prefecture.
Maki's father Mitsuo Okubo says, " This year is different. We can feel my daughter close to us."
Her mother Keiko says, "She finally came back to us...but our sorrow will never be erased."
Another 3,739 people have died in the years that followed the magnitude-9 earthquake. It generated a tsunami more than ten meters tall and triggered what's considered the world's worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.
3.11 is synonymous with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which suffered a triple meltdown.
As a result, tens of thousands were forced from their homes because of the radiation. Almost a decade later, several municipalities remain blocked off...leaving nearly 48,000 evacuees still waiting to go home.
Life has returned to some communities.
An evacuation order was partially lifted this week for a small area of a town near the crippled plant.
A male resident says, " Only three out of 60 families in my neighborhood have returned and the people are all over 70 years old. I wish everyone would come back."
But how long that takes is uncertain. The recovery effort is still far from over.
One of the biggest challenges is what to do with the more than 1 million tons of contaminated water stored at Fukushima Daiichi. The water is used to cool the molten fuel inside the damaged reactors. About 170 tons is produced every day and the government hasn't decided how to dispose of it.
Key words : Japanese expert
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_30/
A Japanese expert is calling for inspections on preparations for another possible mega-quake in northeastern Japan, saying that the risk of such a quake has not diminished.
The warning came from Professor Ryota Hino of Tohoku University.
An earthquake and tsunami devastated the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011. Since the following year, Hino's study group has been monitoring the movements of the ocean floor of the area using 20 GPS devices installed on the seabed. The group completed a detailed analysis of the data in September 2016.
The data revealed that the ocean floor off the coast of northern Iwate Prefecture to Aomori Prefecture as well as Fukushima Prefecture has been shifting up to eight centimeters eastward every year.
It also showed that the ocean floor off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture, near the epicenter of the 2011 quake, has been moving westward by up to 16 centimeters annually.
Hino believes the boundaries of oceanic plates from the land side and ocean side are continuing to slide slowly underneath the coastal area of Iwate Prefecture and near the Japan Trench off Fukushima Prefecture.
Hino says these areas are not likely to have large quakes, but they put strong stress on adjacent zones. He says this could mean a quake is more likely in locations off the eastern coast of Aomori and the northern coast of Iwate, as well as offshore Miyagi Prefecture, relatively close to the land.
Hino adds that the east side of the Japan Trench is at risk of what's called an outer-rise earthquake, which is an earthquake often accompanied by large tsunami, such as the 1933 Showa Sanriku earthquake.
Hino says movement in the ocean floor off the Tohoku region shows that the impact of the 2011 huge earthquake continues and that the risk of another mega-quake remains.
Key words : lower house passed a bill
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_28/
A Lower House committee in Japan's Diet has passed a bill that would allow the prime minister to declare a state of emergency to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
The bill was approved on Wednesday with a majority vote from the governing Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner Komeito, as well as the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party, Democratic Party for the People, Nippon Ishin and others.
The bill is expected to be voted through the Lower House plenary session on Thursday and will then be sent to the Upper House.
Key words : benchmark index
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_36/
Benchmark indexes on the Tokyo Stock Exchange hit this year's lowest levels on Wednesday amid concerns about a global economic slowdown due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
After the market opened, trading was mixed as both selling and buying continued for a while before sell orders gradually increased.
The Nikkei Average finished 451 points lower than Tuesday's close, at 19,416. That is the lowest level since December 2018.
The broader TOPIX index closed at 1,385. That is down 21 points from Tuesday's close and also the lowest this year.
Countries such as Japan and the United States have come up with measures against the new coronavirus and economic packages amid the increasing number of virus infections. However, a sense of wariness over the impact of outbreaks on the economy weighed on investors.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for the suspension of large events for another 10 days or so.
A market analyst said such a move has strengthened views among many investors that there will be further stagnation in economic activity. The analyst added that share prices will continue to be unstable for some time to come.
Key words : the operator Tokaido
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_01/
The operator of Japan's Tokaido Shinkansen line says the number of people taking its bullet trains this month has fallen by half from a year ago due to the coronavirus.
The Central Japan Railway Company says the calculation is based on the number of passengers between March 1 and 9. It also says the figure for February was down 8 percent from the same month last year.
The operator says there are fewer travelers because the coronavirus outbreak has led to the closure of recreational facilities, the cancellation of events, and more people working from home.
The president of Central Japan Railway, Shin Kaneko, said he didn't expect such a sharp drop in March, and the situation is very severe.
Key words : Tokyo Disney next 10
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_35/
Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea are to remain closed until early April.
The parks' operator, Oriental Land, said it will decide when to reopen them by monitoring the situation.
The parks were initially to be closed until March 15. Oriental Land said it decided to extend the temporary closure period after the government said on Tuesday that it will continue to ask that large-scale public events be suspended for next 10 days or so.
Key words : China says
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_32/
China says it is ready to send medical supplies to Italy, which has been struggling to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. It says it will also send medical teams if requested.
China's Foreign Ministry says Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the offer to Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio over the phone on Tuesday in response to Di Maio's request for help as Italy faces a shortage of medical supplies and equipment.
Wang said China will not forget the support it received from Italy during its hardest moments in the fight against the virus.
He noted there's still strong demand in China for face masks and other medical supplies, but the worst seems to be over.
Wang also said China is ready to send medical teams if Italy requests them.
China has already sent medical supplies to Iran, South Korea and Japan, apparently to show the international community that its domestic outbreak is coming under control and it is supporting containment efforts abroad.
Key words : Taliban and continue
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_27/
The Taliban and the US continue to work out the logistics of implementing the peace deal that was signed late last month.
But Washington says the current level of violence by the Taliban is unacceptable, and that it risks drawing both sides into a vicious cycle that undermines peace.
The State Department released a statement on Tuesday.
It said that the Taliban is killing too many Afghans and that the situation must change.
The US-Taliban deal is aimed at ending more than 18 years of war.
It would see the US withdraw forces from the country and the Taliban refrain from attacking the US or its allies.
But one of the major obstacles is that the Afghan government was left out of negotiations.
The Taliban and the government have been at odds over terms of a prisoner swap.
But Reuters is now reporting that Kabul has agreed to release 1500 Taliban prisoners in the coming days.
In return, the Taliban will reportedly release 1000 government troops.
The swap is considered crucial to achieving a breakthrough.
Another challenge is the uncertainty surrounding recent Presidential elections.
Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah both claim victory with each holding dueling inaugurations earlier this week.
The US says this crisis has delayed the naming of a national negotiating team.
Key words : international survey
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20200311_25/
An international survey has ranked Japan 113th of 190 countries for the percentage of women in ministerial positions. It is the lowest among the Group of Seven industrialized countries.
The report was made by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and UN Women, an entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. It includes rankings for women in executive, parliamentary and government positions as of January 1 this year. The data was released to coincide with International Women's Day.
The report shows that women made up only 15.8 percent of Japan's ministerial positions.
There are 14 countries with 50 percent or more women in cabinet. Spain led with 66.7 percent, followed by Finland at 61.1 percent and Nicaragua with 58.8 percent.
Among G7 industrialized countries, France was in 10th place with 52.9 percent, Canada 11th with 50 percent, and Germany 26th with 40 percent.
The ratio of female ministers overall in the world stood at the highest ever at 21.3 percent.
UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka says more women in high-level political decision-making positions leads to policies that benefit the whole of society.
She has called on leaders and parliamentarians to ensure women's voices are heard and their priorities reflected.
0 件のコメント:
コメントを投稿