A truck driver died and hundreds of people were injured yesterday as a record snowfall hit western and central Japan that also left hundreds of thousands of homes without power, suspended train services and shut down an international airport, officials said.
A 31-year-old driver was killed as he crashed into another truck on a snow-covered road in western Shiga prefecture, police said, adding they were investigating if the accident was caused by negligence or snow.
At least 532 people were injured across the nation, mostly minor injuries from tripping on snow-covered ground, public broadcaster NHK said.
In Hirakata, near Osaka, five passengers suffered bruises and cuts when a bus skidded on a road, smashing into a utility pole, police spokesman Tomonori Ikezoe said.
As of yesterday, 231cm of snow had fallen in the town of Tsunan in Niigata and 216cm has fallen on Shirakawa Town in central Gifu prefecture, said Kenji Kobayashi, a researcher for the Meteorological Agency.
Train services in Niigata, about 250km northwest of Tokyo, were suspended due to power outages, according to Junpei Yamauchi, a JR East Japan spokesman.
All local and express services as well as some bullet train services in the area were halted, while some night trains linking cities on the west coast were to be canceled, Yamauchi said.
Central Japan International Airport in Aichi prefecture closed its only runway until yesterday afternoon because of the snow, airport spokesman Mitsuoki Hikota said.
More than 1.3 million households had power outages in the north-central prefecture of Niigata and in western Japan. The latter area was without power for 40 minutes yesterday morning after two generators at a nuclear power station shut down.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for