JAPAN: Deaths at Evacuation Centers & more – 16th Jan 2024

Konnichiwa from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 16th of January twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

In an update to the Noto Peninsula earthquake story, authorities are working to prevent disaster-related deaths at evacuation centers. As of Sunday the 14th, at least thirteen people died after evacuating to a shelter due to things like strokes or illnesses, which were caused by stress or poor sanitation. Nearly 3,800 people died from disaster-related deaths after the twenty eleven earthquake.

Over 19,000 people are currently staying in one of the 400 shelters, many of which don’t have water or power, including nursing homes. This is especially dangerous since the winter is only getting colder and people need proper heating. Officials are trying to relocate as many people as possible, especially the elderly and those with health conditions. The Self-Defense Force is also helping to transport those most in need of care.

Due to damaged roads and railways, at least 500 people are still isolated.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that the government plans to help the earthquake victims rebuild their lives by putting together a reconstruction aid package as soon as possible. They will spend about 690 million dollars on the aid package, and it will be used to repair infrastructure like roads, rebuild houses and businesses, and help the agriculture, forestry, and fisheries industries. He plans to use the current fiscal year’s reserves for the package.

He will present the package to the Cabinet by Tuesday the 16th for approval and hopes to get the Diet’s go-ahead as well by the end of the month.

On the scientific side of things, researchers found that the earthquake lifted the ground up by four meters or thirteen feet in some areas along the Noto Peninsula. The head researcher said that such large upheavals are rare, usually only occurring once every several thousand years.

Japan saw Korea’s first ballistic missile launch of twenty twenty-four on Sunday the 14th. It flew 500 kilometers or 310 miles before falling into the ocean outside of Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff also saw the launch and said it was an intermediate-range ballistic missile fired from near Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital.

Last year, they fired a lot of missiles that failed and kept saying they were just satellites. One missile did actually send a satellite into orbit, but Japan and other countries were upset since they used ballistic missile technology in the launch, which is against UN Security Resolutions.

This time, though, North Korea has stopped pretending that it’s launching satellites. On Monday the 15th, the country’s newspaper said that it successfully launched a high-thrust solid-fuel ballistic missile. This is important since solid-fuel missiles can be fired faster than liquid-fuel ones and are harder to shoot down.

Given such international tensions, you’d think a peaceful congratulatory message wouldn’t ruffle any feathers, but you’d be wrong! The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo was not happy with Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa publicly congratulating Taiwan’s new president-elect on Saturday the 13th. The embassy said that Kamikawa’s comments were seriously butting into China’s internal affairs and lodged a protest against Japan.

China considers Taiwan to be one of its territories and doesn’t like it whenever it elects its own presidents. The embassy implied in its message that Japan shouldn’t encourage Taiwan to claim its independence.

Rather than bow down to China’s complaint, though, the Japanese government kind of tap-danced around the issue. On Monday the 15th, in a press conference, Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Chief Cabinet Secretary, said that Japan plans to strengthen its relationship with Taiwan, but they would keep relations on a non-governmental basis as agreed upon in the nineteen seventy-two Japan-China Joint Communique.

Hayashi said that Taiwan is an important friend and the countries share a lot of core values, economic ties, and human exchanges. He also added that Japan congratulating Taiwan on its elections is nothing new.

This relatively dismissive attitude toward China is reflected in the business world. The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China conducted a survey in November and December twenty twenty-three and found that almost forty percent of firms expect China’s economy to worsen in twenty twenty-four and only twenty-five percent think that it will get better. Nearly half of companies surveyed planned to either stop investing in China or reduce their investments.

When asked why, one of the biggest reasons listed was China’s anti-spy law that seemed to target foreigners unfairly. Companies worry that the law could affect business.

In domestic news, Mount Otake in Kagoshima Prefecture erupted on Sunday the 14th, sending large rocks flying over half a mile from the crater. The Meteorological Agency sent a level three alert to residents, warning them to stay clear of the volcano. The volcanic warning system has five levels, with the highest level requiring immediate evacuation of the surrounding area. The agency said that rocks may fall up to a mile away from the crater, so everyone should stay away.

Over in Tokyo, on Monday the 8th, a fire burned down the old residence of the late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. It covered an 800-meter or 2,600-foot area, and destroyed a two-story house and part of another building. There were four people in the residence when the fire started, including Tanaka’s daughter and former foreign minister Makiko Tanaka, but luckily, no one was hurt.

Makiko Tanaka said that the fire was accidental. She said she burnt some incense at the home’s Buddhist altar and forgot to put it out.

On Wednesday the 10th, car maker Suzuki said that it’s going to invest almost five billion dollars to increase production in its key market, India. The company will open a plant in Gujarat, located in western India, in twenty twenty-eight, that will be able to make a million cars a year. They’re also going to add an electric car production line to an existing factory so that it will be able to make an extra 250,000 cars a year.

They also announced another project to build a new factory in northern India a few months ago. With all the projects put together, Suzuki will be able to double its output to around four million cars per year in India, compared to the nearly two million of fiscal year twenty twenty-two.

Speaking of vehicles, tech companies in Japan are trying to make self-driving snowplows. A twenty twenty-two survey showed that almost half of companies that do snow removal had staff shortages in the past five years, in part because of Japan’s aging population. NTT Communications is trying to make snowplows that can be remotely controlled with cameras and 5G, while NEC and Central Nippon Expressway are making self-driving snowplow trucks that can run simultaneously on highways.

In entertainment news, last month, a magazine reported that two women accused famous comedian Matsumoto Hitoshi of sexually assaulting them in twenty fifteen. Yoshimoto Kogyo, the entertainment company that manages the sixty-year-old comedian, denied the accusations. Then, on Monday the 8th, Hitoshi announced that he would take a break from TV to focus on the trial. He said that he couldn’t properly do comedy while it was going on.

In sports news, Naomi Osaka returned to tennis on Monday the 15th after taking a year-long break to give birth to her first child. She suffered a narrow defeat in the first round against French player Caroline Garcia, who is ranked nineteenth in the world.

Aaaaaand that's it for this week!

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Mata Ne!