at 18:30 (JST), November 28

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/20221128183000_english_1.mp3


Key words : china zero-covid rare
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221128_04/

People in Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of China have taken to the streets to protest the government's anti-coronavirus measures.

Protests erupted in the Chinese capital on Sunday night to oppose the "zero-COVID" policy, which involves rigorous restrictions on people's movement.

Demonstrators chanted "We want freedom." They also held up blank sheets of white paper to express their opposition to curbs on free speech.

Protests also flared in Shanghai, the country's economic hub, on Saturday and Sunday. Police detained some demonstrators.

Similar rallies broke out in Guangzhou in the southern province of Guangdong and Wuhan in the inland province of Hubei, as well as on university campuses in Beijing and Nanjing.

Chinese authorities maintain stringent controls on freedom of speech under one-party rule by the Communist Party. It is extremely rare for protests against the party or the government to take place simultaneously in multiple cities of the country.

Government officials say the "zero-COVID" policy has been effective in stemming the spread of the coronavirus. But they are now believed to be nervous about signs that indicate protesters are shifting their criticism of the policy to the way the party governs China.

Key words : tsai resign remain
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221127_03/

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has announced that she intends to resign as the head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which suffered major losses in Saturday's local elections. But she says she will remain as Taiwan's president.

Tsai held a news conference at the party's headquarters on Saturday night.

She said her party failed to achieve its intended goal. The president added that she accepts the decision of the Taiwanese people. She went on to say that she intends to take responsibility for the party's losses and immediately resign as its leader.

Around 11,000 mayors, governors and municipal councilors were chosen on Saturday. The elections are held every four years.

Observers were eager to see which political parties would prevail in 22 of the mayoral and gubernatorial races.

Tsai's party held seven mayoral and gubernatorial posts before the elections, but on Saturday it only won five.

Mayoral candidates from her party have conceded defeat in three northern cities, including Taoyuan. The party also failed to retake the mayor's office in Taipei.

These were the first elections held in Taiwan, since the Chinese Communist Party's National Congress ended.
Tsai had said repeatedly during the campaigns that the international community would be paying attention to the elections for that reason.

She had also suggested that the local elections would be a referendum on her administration.

But it seems that the voters did not listen to her appeals.

Taiwan's largest opposition party is the Kuomintang, or KMT. Its goal was to secure more than half of the mayoral posts in six special municipal districts. The party achieved that goal.

It won in Taipei. It also managed to take the mayor's office back from the Democratic Progressive Party in Taoyuan.

KMT's leader Eric Chu told reporters that the election victories are for his party and for the people of Taiwan.

Key words : ceremony ukrainian
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221126_21/

Dozens of people have attended a ceremony in Tokyo to remember the millions of Ukrainians who died in the 1932-33 famine, known as the "Holodomor."

Ukraine marks the Holodomor on the fourth Saturday of every November. The Ukrainian government says the famine was engineered by the government of the former Soviet Union.

About 70 participants took part in the Tokyo event on Saturday, including people who have evacuated to Japan since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February.

A priest offered a prayer as attendees mourned the victims of the Holodomor and those of the recent Russian invasion.

Ukraine's ambassador to Japan, Sergiy Korsunsky, said what happened 90 years ago is happening again with the invasion.

He added that Ukrainians must do their utmost until they win.

A former Ukrainian service member who came to Japan in May said that he attends Holodomor ceremonies every year and that this year, he prayed for Ukraine's victory.

Key words : hong kong court fine
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221126_04/

A Hong Kong court has convicted and fined six people over their involvement in a fund that supports pro-democracy protesters. They include a 90-year-old Catholic cardinal and a popular singer who are prominent activists.

Cardinal Joseph Zen and five others were found guilty of not properly registering the fund. The 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund helped pay the medical and legal fees of arrested protesters beginning in 2019. It was shut down in 2021.

Zen and four others, including pop singer Denise Ho, were trustees of the fund. They were each fined about 500 dollars.

The fund's secretary was fined about 300 dollars.
They were found to have violated an ordinance that requires organizations established in Hong Kong to register.

Police arrested Zen, Ho and two others in May under a Beijing-imposed National Security Law on suspicion of colluding with foreign forces. They were later released on bail.

The arrests triggered international criticism. They were seen as a crackdown by authorities on the pro-democracy movement.

Key words : philippines
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221126_12/

Japan has provided the Philippines with refrigerated trucks and containers to help deliver coronavirus vaccines across the island country.

The local office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency presented two trucks and 600 storage containers to the Philippines' Department of Health in a ceremony in Manila on Friday.

Officials say one container can store around 5,800 doses of vaccines and keep them at minus 2 degrees Celsius or below for about 100 hours.

The containers are expected to make transport by sea to remote islands much easier.

High temperatures throughout the year in the Philippines also pose a challenge to delivering vaccines safely and effectively.

The ministry says over 31 million doses, or 12 percent of all shots procured by the government, have been discarded.

The chief representative of JICA's local office, Sakamoto Takema, said the donation is intended to help deliver vaccines to people in remote areas. He pledged to extend follow-up assistance so that the equipment will be fully utilized.

Key words : birth record-low
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221125_39/

Births in Japan are on a record-low pace. The health ministry says fewer than 600,000 babies were born from January through September this year.

At this rate, fewer than 800,000 will be born in Japan in a calendar year for the first time since record-keeping began in 1899.

The ministry says in its preliminary report there were 599,636 babies born in the first nine months of the year. That includes births to foreign nationals.

That's 30,933 fewer births than during the same period last year, a drop of 4.9 percent. In all, there were 811,622 babies born in 2021.

Earlier this month, the Japan Research Institute projected that about 770,000 babies would be born in 2022.

In 2017, the National Institute of Population and Social Security predicted births would not fall that low until 2030.

Ministry officials say the drop-off this year may be due in part to the pandemic. Fewer people are getting married or having children since it began.

Key words : japanese doctor
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20221126_24/

Hundreds of people have gathered in a city in southwestern Japan to remember a Japanese doctor who was killed in Afghanistan three years ago while working on humanitarian projects.

Nakamura Tetsu dedicated many years helping with Afghan healthcare and farmland regeneration projects including construction of irrigation systems as a member of the Japanese NGO Peshawar-kai. The doctor was fatally shot on December 4, 2019, at the age of 73.

About 450 people offered silent prayers for Nakamura on Saturday in Fukuoka City, where the NGO is based.

Nakamura's eldest daughter Akiko said she feels as though her father is still with her when she sees the trees he planted in their garden.

Akiko said she hopes the day will soon come when Afghans will be able to live in peace.

The NGO is continuing its projects in Afghanistan and reported that a facility needed for an irrigation system was completed in February.

The head of the NGO, Murakami Masaru, noted that Nakamura had repeatedly said "not to let the flame go out" and he called for continued support for the organization.